Biological Computers

Seminar Report on

Biological Computers

Dept. of Computer Science

Acharya Nagarjuna University

Submitted by Guided by

N. Sesha Sai U.Surya kameswari garu

MCA-3rd Semester M.Sc

Regd. No : Y10MC20038

Abstract

Electrical computers today widely used and they are almost in

every home. These materials don’t synchronize with nature and

they caused for global warming. So we need to prepare a new

era of computers with biological items like DNA or RNA.

The storage capability of biological computers is very Giant , for

example, one pound of Bio-logical molecule can stored the data

equal to the storage capacity of all electrical storage devices

manufactured by man yet.

Max speed of Human made electrical super computer is (1.75

PFLOPS practically ) very much less than the speed of bio

logical computers (for eg: human brain’s speed is 10 PFLOPS ).

These biological computers can mixed up with earth and don’t

cause for global warming. Though preparation of operating

systems is huge for super computers , it will happen in future

days.

THE BIOLOGICAL COMPUTERS

As we reach the technically feasible limits of the current electronic

technology of the desktop computer, a new breed of biologically based

bacterial

Nano-computers of the future may have the capacity to impact and alter

desktop computing forever, through miniaturization that could bring huge

increases of computing capacity, power, storage and speed. The impact

of Nano-technology production could not only alter how we manufacture

computer components, but might spread to other forms of manufacturing

as well.

In this article we will examine the current developments of bio-

computing, followed by the key scientific principles and applications of

molecular technology that makes this potential revolution in computing

power possible. Finally we will look at how this cutting edge technology

might be adopted in the future, and who would be most likely to make

use of bio-computers.

The Present Day Computer.

Today’s state-of-the-art personal computers are based on the

refined technology surrounding the development of the silicon computer

chip.  This power was attained by leaps in miniaturization, squeezing

more and more circuits onto a single chip. Now a single printed circuit on

the surface of a chip is down to 0.1 micron, about 1,000 times thinner

than a human hair.

Today the computing capability of the computer chip has been embraced

by consumers and industry alike in the clock speed of the PC Chip,

measured in the frequency of hertz. A single hertz (Hz) is one completed

cycle per second.  Each cycle represents a single instruction, which may

be as simple as the addition of two numbers, or one of millions of

instructions created by a computer’s software.  60Hz would represent 60

cycles or instructions per second.  Following this model, a megahertz is

a million cycles or computations per second, and a gigahertz represents

one billion cycles or computations per second.  Today the state-of-the-

art Pentium 4 based PC chip touts speeds up to 2000mhz.

The Bio-Chip Computer of Tomorrow.

The development of bio computers has been made possible by the

expanding new science of Nano biotechnology. The term Nano

biotechnology can be defined in multiple ways; in a more general sense,

Nano biotechnology can be defined as any type of technology that uses

both nano-scale materials, i.e. materials having characteristic

dimensions of 1-100 nanometres

Enter the field of molecular computing, and the ability to pack

billions more circuits onto a microchip than ever thought possible. 

Science news writer Tim McDonald asserts that "molecules are only a

few Nano meters in size, and it is possible to make chips containing

billions, or even trillions, of switches and components."  From this

statement it would seem logical to assume that this new molecular

technology has the possibility to increase the capacity of a single chip by

factors measured in the millions.  And if this possibility of such huge

increases of a computer microchip exists, then what many would call a

super computer becomes achievable. The term supercomputer is widely

used but even more widely misunderstood.  In order to define what a

supercomputer is, first we must leave behind the old style of measuring

computing speed and power.  We will speak no more of the CPU’s chip

speed.  It is irrelevant to the new computing models we are going to

explore.

Let’s start fresh with a look at the most refined and efficient model

of a biological supercomputer that exists today: the human brain.  The

human brain and our accompanying sensory biology, such as eyesight,

represent a level of power and sophistication that makes even our best

PCs look downright pokey.  With all this fuss over desktop multimedia,

here is a fact worth remembering--you are your most powerful computing

asset.

Fortunately there is a body of knowledge based on the 30-year

quest for robotic vision, and these statistics are revealing.  Embracing a

measurement in the MIPS (million instructions per second), it is thought

that PC computing equivalent of human sight requires 100 million MIPS. 

Experimental computers achieved a few million MIPS in 1998.  These

were made up of thousands of PC Chips and cost in the tens of millions

of dollars.    If we are ever to enter the realm of the super-computer, we

will need to look beyond our current model of an electronically based

silicon chip computer.  Enter bio-chip based computing, which many

scientists in a variety of disciplines believe holds the key to a new era of

computers, capable of tremendous processing power and speed.

The race to engineer a new breed of machines and computers at

the molecular level is well under way.  The list of organizations that are

actively engaged in nanotechnology research and development, as well

as practical applications is impressive, including industry giants Genex,

U.S. Naval Research Labs, IBM, NEC, Hitachi, and Toshiba to name a

few.

It is worth noting that even with this impressive collection of corporate

R&D muscle, most scientific predictions of what types of Nano-technical

machines are possible are ambiguous.  It is clear that computing devices

are only one of many different products that are feasible.  Some

examples of applications for microscopic machines range from

microscopic bacterial syringes – born from current bio-technology – that

kill cancer cells, to pocket DNA testers, to airplane wings made of "smart

skin" material that allows the micro-surface to act as finely tuned flaps

allowing for safer and more efficient flight.  Other areas include data

storage, inertial navigation, weapons, and a dizzying array of nano

pumps, and valves.

In principal these devices will share many familiar engineering

concepts used today.  "Just as ordinary tools can build ordinary

machines from parts, so too can molecular tools bond molecules

together to make tiny gears, motors, levers, and casings, and assemble

them together to make complex machines.”

Comparison :

All the transistors are replaced with DNA molecules and electrical signals

are replaced by Bio-reactions.

Comparison of several stages in Electrical computers :

product No.of transistors Calculations per sec

8080 (1974 year) 2300 200

Core2 Duo (2006) 291 million 20 Billion

Core i7 extreme

(2008)

781 million 40 Billion

TOP500 Super computers – Range :

Name speed Vendor

Jaguar 1.75 PFLOPS

(2.3 theoretical )

Cray (U.S)

Nebula 1.27 PFLOPS

(2.9* theoretical)

Dawning (China)

Road runner 1.04 PFLOPS

(1.3 theoretical)

I.B.M (U.S)

Kraken 0.831 PFLOPS

(1.28 theoretical)

Cray (U.S)

Jugene

(Blue gene)

0.825 PFLOPS

(1.02 theoretical)

I.B.M (Germany )

But human brain contains 100 Billions of neurons which are acts as

transistors and produce electrical + chemical reactions which are called

feelings and thoughts

What About The Bio-chip computer?

Based on the underlying principal of digital computing based on

the binary code of 0's and 1's, we start to see how a single molecule

capable of being in a state of 0 or 1, or On or Off, makes the possibility

of molecular computing achievable, at least in theory.  And since it has

been proven that molecular switches can exist in several states at once,

both on and off, the potential computing power grows exponentially. 

Combine this increased computing power with emerging miniaturized

data storage technology that raises the bar of fast access to media up to

terabyte capacity, and we have the makings of what we would now

consider a supercomputer in a device the size of a current day PDA or

smaller.

Biology and Electronics Merge.

The ability to engineer and build a bio-computer lies first and

foremost in the ability to merge the biological parts with the electronics

into hybrid systems. Electronic computers of today simply act as routers

for electrons over the .01 micron sized circuits of today's silicon chip.  A

biological PC chip, however, may allow for the same sized circuit to

handle the equivalent of one thousand circuits through the development

of Micro electromechanical systems, or MEMS.  MEMS is the practice of

combining miniaturized mechanical and electronic components.

It is widely accepted that any successful bio-chip based computer

can only be built by combining the bio-chip with the latest electronic

technologies, including those for display, sound, input, and connectivity. 

Through a wide variety of techniques currently being researched and

developed, successful MEMS technology will be key to building hybrid

systems containing technology based in both organically grown

molecules and traditionally manufactured electronics.

Self-Assembling Materials.

Manufacturing on the molecular level on a scale that would be useful is

made possible by the ability for some molecules to "self-assemble." This

ability to reproduce organically is noteworthy in many ways.  Inspired by

nature, this model is nothing new. But the ability to design

nanotechnology based on organic molecules that build themselves once

started is very new.  Already successfully proving this concept are new

liposomes that contain drugs for treatments of an array of diseases. 

There are many other areas where self-assembly has been proven to

work.  Some big wins include the successful design and growth of

crystals starting off with a self assembling monolayer (SAM), as well as a

very relevant piece to the bio-computing puzzle, Bucky tubes, which are

tiny self assembling graphite tubes that act as the smallest electrical wire

ever known.

The Universal Key.

What propels the entire field of biological nano-technology is the

ability to manipulate organic matter.  For the most part, any one person

or group cannot own the fundamental principals that would allow for

such extraordinary developments.  "The toolbox of biochemistry, the

parts list -- the "kernel," to stretch the software analogy -- is shared by all

organisms on the planet.”

This non-ownership factor has enormous importance.  Once any

biological technology is developed, anyone can take it and tweak, much

like open source code for software.  This model has been shown to

foster innovation in the software industry, which leads us to believe it can

be only good for the developing nano-machines based in biological

technology. 

There is the possibility of a "democratization" regarding the ability

to design and manufacture as the technology matures.  Award-winning

science writer Robert Carlson believes that "these critical technologies

will first move from academic labs to large biotechnology companies to

small business, and eventually to the home garage and kitchen." 

Fantastic as that may seem, it is now a fact that, for instance, that many

lab tests that in the past required a doctoral degree and tremendous

scientific resources now come in colour coded kits any undergraduate

can use successfully.

All This And Cheaper Too?

Considering a computer chip manufacturing plant costs upward of

one billion dollars, the potential of biological computer chip

manufacturing to be more efficient from an economic view is an

important factor.  The combination of cheaper and faster always gets

attention, and bio-computing will be no different in that respect.  But

there is another aspect of this technology that could effect us in ways so

profound it becomes hard to imagine.

We all know that the current model of industrialization is a wasteful

one. Aside from the obvious solutions of recycling, alternative power,

and other "green" sciences, biological manufacturing has a huge

advantage, mainly that "renewable, biological manufacturing will take

place anywhere someone wants to set up a vat or plant a seed."  Once

the scientific design of any given bio-pc component is refined, it is simply

grown.  The drain on our planet resources and the wasteful pollution

resulting from current manufacturing methods are eliminated in the

process.

What could we do with a Bio-Chip computer?

In order to see just what the future implications of this new and

exciting technology might realistically bring, let’s speculate, for example,

what capabilities a supercomputer the size of a watch might have.  I offer

this scenario; a handheld or wearable computer device capable of

generating a photo-realistic 3D virtual computing environment, visually

experienced by wearing glasses that project images onto the surface of

the each lens.  Input is provided by speaking into a tiny microphone

coupled with advanced speech recognition, and sound output by a

miniature ear-piece.

Connectivity would be achieved by high speed wireless network

access to the Internet, and your colleagues, allowing for real-time

interaction and sharing of data.  Then consider the exciting prospect of

recording every moment and interaction each and every day of our lives,

thus allowing each of us to create a virtual life history stored in digital

media.  Add a virtual staff of intelligent software agents able to perform

research, engineering -- anything a room full of highly educated and

expensive employees would normally do -- and we start to see the

potential of this new technology.

The Bio-Chip Revolution…Will It Come?

As great as a bio-chip super computer sounds, and to many,

including myself, the prospects of such huge advances in computing

power and environments are truly revolutionary, in my opinion precious

few of us will ever get to use one in our lifetime.  Yes, it is possible, even

probable, given the advances discussed in this article, that in the next

twenty years some form of hybrid bio-chip super computer will be

developed.  Unfortunately there are many reasons why most of us will

never even see, much less use, such an incredible device.

The silicon chip based computer provides more than enough

computing power than most of the population will ever need.  Unless

some “killer” application comes along that requires a quantum leap in

computational power, and is widely adopted, our Pentium 4 or 5 or 10

chip will suffice quite well, thank you very much.  Until there is a

fundamental shift in the very nature of computing, most of the population

running Windows 200X on their desktop will be oblivious to the

possibilities a bio-chip computer could offer.

The precious few of us who actually need the upwards of 100

million MIPS computing punch are fooling around in such focused areas

as robotics and artificial intelligence -- highly specialized fields that only

a select few actually work in.  The military might be an early adopter, but

we’d never know about it unless we wore a star or two on our collar.

More With Less.

In the race to make our computer technology more efficient, many

clever software developers learned to do more with less.  The Hubble

telescope received a highly touted PC upgrade in the waning days of

1999.  It consisted of a 1970’s era Intel 486 chip.  I believe that the

majority of consumers computing needs are easily handled by the

computers of today.  Until something, or someone for that matter, comes

along that makes us want, or better yet, feel we must have a bio-chip

supercomputer, most of us will never see one. 

The First Biological Computer?

►English Romantic novelist, biographer and editor, best known as the

writer of FRANKENSTEIN, OR, THE MODERN PROMETHEUS (1818).

Mary Shelley was 21 when the book was published; she started to write

it when she was 18. The story deals with an ambitious young scientist.

He creates life but then rejects his creation, a monster. Off Topic?

► While

“FRANKENSTEIN, OR, THE MODERN PROMETHEUS (1818),” is

science fiction. It seems to be founded on some science. The human

body does require some amount of electricity and along with the “body,”

a brain, or central processor, to mange the many processes it’s been

programmed to run. So, it is conceivable that in theory albeit very

simplistic terms, the human body can be automated with sufficient power

and a brain to carry out instructions.

The Computer Today

► Technically, a computer is a programmable machine. This means it

can execute a programmed list of instructions and respond to new

instructions that it is given. Today, however, the term is most often used

to refer to the desktop and laptop computers that most people use.

When referring to a desktop model, the term "computer" technically only

refers to the computer itself -- not the monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

Still, it is acceptable to refer to everything together as the computer. If

you want to be really technical, the box that holds the computer is called

the "system unit."

Biological Computers Today

A computer made of neurons taken from leeches has been created by

US scientists. At the moment, the device can perform simple sums - the

team calls the novel calculator the "leech-ulator".

► But their aim is to devise a new generation of fast and flexible

computers that can work out for themselves how to solve a problem,

rather than having to be told exactly what to do.

► Professor Bill Ditto, at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is leading

the project and says he is amazed that today's computers are still so

dumb.

► "Ordinary computers need absolutely correct information every time

to come to the right answer," he says. "We hope a biological computer

will come to the correct answer based on partial information, by filling in

the gaps itself."

►Medical Applications

► Scientists developed tiny implantable bio computers Molecular

devices’ remarkably precise scans of cellular activity could revolutionize

medicine Researchers at Harvard and Princeton universities have taken

a crucial step toward building biological computers, tiny implantable

devices that can monitor the activities and characteristics of human cells.

The information provided by these “molecular doctors,” constructed

entirely of DNA, RNA, and proteins, could eventually revolutionize

medicine by directing therapies only to diseased cells or tissues.

►Biological computer diagnoses cancer and produces drug – in a test

tube

► Weizmann Institute scientist’s vision: Microscopic computers will

function inside living tissues, performing diagnosis and administering

treatment. The world's smallest computer (around a trillion in a drop of

water) might one day go on record again as the tiniest medical kit. Made

entirely of biological molecules, this computer was successfully

programmed to identify (in a test tube) changes in the balance of

molecules in the body that indicate the presence of certain cancers, to

diagnose the type of cancer, and to react by producing a drug molecule

to fight the cancer cells. As in previous biological computers produced in

Shapiro's lab, input, output and "software" are all composed of DNA, the

material of genes, while DNA-manipulating enzymes are used as

"hardware." The newest version's input apparatus is designed to assess

concentrations of specific RNA molecules, which may be overproduced

or under produced, depending on the type of cancer. Using pre-

programmed medical knowledge, the computer then makes its diagnosis

based on the detected RNA levels. In response to a cancer diagnosis,

the output unit of the computer can initiate the controlled release of a

single-stranded DNA molecule that is known to interfere with the cancer

cell's activities, causing it to self-destruct. In one series of test-tube

experiments, the team programmed the computer to identify RNA

molecules that indicate the presence of prostate cancer and, following a

correct diagnosis, to release the short DNA strands designed to kill

cancer cells. Similarly, they were able to identify, in the test tube, the

signs of one form of lung cancer. One day in the future, they hope to

create a "doctor in a cell", which will be able to operate inside a living

body, spot disease and apply the necessary treatment before external

symptoms even appear.

Risk-Benefit Analysis: Animated Corpse

► The idea of animating a corpse as in Mary’s Shelly’s tale. Assuming it

can even be done. Benefits: Understanding the mechanics of the human

physiology in a new way.

► Risks: The general consensus might consider the idea or practice

inhuman. Who would volunteer his/her body? How long would these

subjects be kept “alive.” The practice would enrage certain pro-life or

prodded groups.

► DQ would be LOW

Risk-Benefit Analysis: Biological Computer for Medical or Scientific

Advancement

► Tiny

“doctors” monitoring diseases within patients and administering the

correct medicines in correct doses.

► Tiny computers: cheap to “manufacture.” Able to run BILLIONS upon

BILLIONS of calculations.

► Risks:

Technology is it’s infancy. Will take some time to mature. Potential to

save lives and offer a better quality of life is high. There is many risks in

operating with huge computers, if any small misused operations leads

huge mistakes which are irrecoverable .

Human beings can prepare personality by visioning and listening .but

computers must be programmed in particular language.

Particularly, Bio-computers cannot synchronous with nature in both

reproduction and growing , they are differ with humans in various acts.

Because they follow operations and programs but human don’t need to

follow any programmer’s instructions. He is independent but computer is

programme dependent .