Logo

And He's Emphatic About It

Jul 25, 2008

An article in the UK's Guardian wonders if DNA will ever be the basis for computers, replacing silicon chips. The idea came from USC's Leonard Adleman, who showed that DNA could be used to solve the traveling salesman problem and, last month, Japanese scientists made a sort of DNA from artificial bases. But in the article, Andrew Ellington from the University of Texas at Austin says, "I think my general opinion about DNA computing is not 'no' but 'Hell, no'." The reactions, he adds, are slow and error-prone.

Breaking News
The Scan

Pig Organ Transplants Considered

The Wall Street Journal reports that the US Food and Drug Administration may soon allow clinical trials that involve transplanting pig organs into humans.

'Poo-Bank' Proposal

Harvard Medical School researchers suggest people should bank stool samples when they are young to transplant when they later develop age-related diseases.

Spurred to Develop Again

New Scientist reports that researchers may have uncovered why about 60 percent of in vitro fertilization embryos stop developing.

Science Papers Examine Breast Milk Cell Populations, Cerebral Cortex Cellular Diversity, Micronesia Population History

In Science this week: unique cell populations found within breast milk, 100 transcriptionally distinct cell populations uncovered in the cerebral cortex, and more.