MIT Scientists Build Computer Circuits Out of Living Bacteria
When we think of computers, we generally picture silicon chips packed with billions of microscopic transistors. But there is no reason that computation has to be limited to electronics. Researchers at MIT have demonstrated that bacteria can serve a similar purpose, creating living "circuit boards" that process chemical signals instead of electrical ones.
The research could eventually lead to biological computers that live directly on plants, where they could monitor environmental conditions and respond to problems like drought or pests. And rather than engineering a new organism for every job, the team developed just five bacterial strains that can be arranged in different patterns to perform different calculations.
Synthetic biology circuits are nothing new. Researchers commonly engineer cells to produce proteins and transcription factors that interact with one another to perform simple logic operations. But as these circuits become more complicated, problems arise. There are only so many compatible transcription...
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