The Mac Mini technolgy has exciting implications for biological computing, writes scientist Jack Grant of Random Fate.
Read the whole thing. But here’s a tiny taste of what Grant (who is a Guest Blogger on this site) writes about on what the new technology means:
The pieces are falling into place for an infrastructure to build custom genes, similar to how we can already easily make custom integrated circuits, and infrastructure that is relatively inexpensive, especially when compared to that required for integrated circuits. The DNA “circuits” have an even larger number of potential applications than what we have made of integrated circuits and electronics.
Now, think about this…
It is theoretically possible (remembering that in theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice they’re not) to put custom tailored DNA into a self-replicating structure such as a bacterium or a virus.
A high school can now afford most of the equipment for DNA sequencing…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.