July 27, 2009 at 10:55 Bacteria can solve math problems
Biologists have created a "live" computer from E. coli bacteria , which is able to solve complex mathematical problems.
According to a study published in the Journal of Biological Engineering, bacteria can be used to solve the problem of finding the Hamiltonian pathin the graph. Imagine that you want to take a trip to the 10 largest cities in the UK, from London (number 1) to Bristol (number 10). The solution to the problem of finding the Hamiltonian path will be a route in which each city will participate and at the same time each city will be visited only once. The simple statement of the problem is actually very complex, there are more than 3.5 million routes that need to be sorted out. In contrast, the biocomputer can check all of these options at once. The bacterial world has another advantage; its population is growing rapidly with time.
The programming of such computers is carried out by modifying the DNA of bacteria. Cities are represented by a combination of genes that cause bacteria to glow red or green; possible routes were modeled by randomly mixing genes in DNA. The bacteria that found the right route glowed red and green, turning yellow.
According to a previous study published by the same team of scientists, a biocomputer capable of pancake sorting was created .
via guardian.co.uk
According to a study published in the Journal of Biological Engineering, bacteria can be used to solve the problem of finding the Hamiltonian pathin the graph. Imagine that you want to take a trip to the 10 largest cities in the UK, from London (number 1) to Bristol (number 10). The solution to the problem of finding the Hamiltonian path will be a route in which each city will participate and at the same time each city will be visited only once. The simple statement of the problem is actually very complex, there are more than 3.5 million routes that need to be sorted out. In contrast, the biocomputer can check all of these options at once. The bacterial world has another advantage; its population is growing rapidly with time.
The programming of such computers is carried out by modifying the DNA of bacteria. Cities are represented by a combination of genes that cause bacteria to glow red or green; possible routes were modeled by randomly mixing genes in DNA. The bacteria that found the right route glowed red and green, turning yellow.
According to a previous study published by the same team of scientists, a biocomputer capable of pancake sorting was created .
via guardian.co.uk