Building living, breathing supercomputers

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The substance that provides energy to all the cells in our bodies, Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), may also be able to power the next generation of supercomputers.

That is what an international team of researchers led by Prof. Nicolau, the Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at McGill, believe. They’ve published an article on the subject earlier this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), in which they describe a model of a biological computer that they have created that is able to process information very quickly and accurately using parallel networks in the same way that massive electronic super computers do.

Except that the model bio supercomputer they have created is a whole lot smaller than current supercomputers, uses much less energy, and uses proteins present in all living cells to function.

More: https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/building-living-breathing-supercomputers-259294

 

FiveWordsForTheFuture - May 15, 2016 | Biotechnologies, Computing, Energy, Green Economy, Information Technology, Sustainability
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