Micro micro micro chip

November 8, 2006 at 12:41 pm | In Sciences | Send to a friend

I think I’ve found the most advanced computer on the planet.

There are a few problems – no USB ports, no wireless internet, and I’m pretty sure that the security can’t really handle even the most basic of firewalls and spam blockers yet. On the other hand, the thing can handle 330 trillion operations per second (more than 100,000 times the speed of a normal PC), its energy efficiency is more than one million times that of your average computer, and it’s so small that it’s invisible to the naked eye.

Sounds appealing? It is. The only problem is you might spill it accidentally.

Israeli scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, have perfected a computing device made out of enzymes and DNA, something that the Guinness Book of World Records has recognized as the “smallest biological computing device” on earth. You could fit a trillion of them in a drop of water.

Ehud Shapiro, the scientist who led the study, has explained that the breakthrough could have more ramifications than just providing us with smaller computers. Imagine a doctor being able to give a diseased patient medication that contains a computer that can operate inside of the body, and you’ll start to understand the direction this is going.

As for me, I’ve been in the market for a new computer for a few weeks now, and came across this while trying to find something that wouldn’t be obsolete in three months. Not sure I can find this in stores yet, but I’m pretty sure that I’ve located the cutting edge of computer technology. And I found it in a test tube full of solution. Go figure.