It’s a sign that we’re living in the future when using our own genetic machinery as a form of calculator or storage is nothing new — but make no mistake, it’s still very early days in this field and there are plenty of surprises ahead. Today’s surprise, for instance, is the use of DNA to do exact arithmetical calculations entirely in analog. Duke computer scientists, led by Professor John Reif and grad student Tianqi Song, have shown that DNA can perform mathematical functions without aping computers composed of switches and logic gates.
This all-analog DNA circuit calculates without going digital
