The Mobile World Congress edition that is being held this week in Barcelona is full of smartphones, tablets and other devices with which users are familiar. However, too We are holding some surprises. The team that stars this article is possibly the most exotic device of this fair. It is, neither more nor less, than the first Biological computer commercially available, and has been developed by Cortical Labs, an Australian biotechnology company.
Biological computing is a branch of computer science that studies, on the one hand, how we can use elements of a biological nature to process and store information. And, on the other hand, how we can inspire ourselves in the mechanisms of biological evolution to develop new algorithms that allow us to solve complex problems. If we stick to the hardware this discipline resorts to molecules derived from biological systems, such as proteins or DNA, to carry out calculations, store and recover the information.
And if we enter the field of software, in particular in the artificial intelligence (AI), biological computing proposes to address some computer problems inspired by the strategy used by biology to solve some challenges. In any case, the CL1 computer, which is the biological machine that has put the team of Cortical Labs researchers ready, is framed in the biological computing branch that seeks to develop new hardware trained to process and store information.
CL1 is a dream come true
This sophisticated computer has been possible thanks to a large extent to the advances that have occurred in recent years in the field of Nanobiotechnology. The most precise definition of this discipline, and also the most accepted by scientists, describes it as the technology that allows us to accurately manipulate proteins to assemble more complex functional structures. The first biological computers for research had the ability to carry out calculations manipulating the RNA (ribonucleic acid) of a bacteria.
In broad strokes what scientists have done so far to develop these machines was to take advantage that DNA molecules behave in the same way as a digital circuit to implement with them The same logical operations that conventional silicon processors carry out. This manipulation of DNA is possible, precisely, thanks to the advances experienced by nanobiotechnology in recent years.
DNA manipulation is possible thanks to the advances experienced by nanobiotechnology in recent years
Once the biological circuit was prepared, they introduced it into a coli Escherichia bacterium identical to those residing inside our stomach and intestine, and without which we could not carry out the correct digestion of food. The E. coli bacteria is simple and innocuous enough so that researchers can manipulate it effortlessly, and when manipulated DNA crosses the bacteria cell wall, the molecular machine of the cell itself translates it into a messenger RNA (MRNA).
The interesting thing is that this RNM indicates to the ribosome of the cell what to do to synthesize a protein preferred by researchers. Ribosomes are the organelles or components of the cells that are responsible for the synthesis or manufacture of proteins. And now comes the most surprising: the RNM that tells the ribosome how to manufacture the protein It is only activated in the presence of a specific entryand when it does trigger the production of the protein, which is the exit. This behavior is exactly the same as a transistor.
CL1, the biological computer of Cortical Labs, does not work exactly so, but the strategy in which we have just investigated is useful to understand how it works. And it does so thanks to the cultivation of real neurons in a nutrient -rich solution that allows them to grow healthy on a silicon chip that sends and receives electrical impulses. However, not everything is hardware in this machine.
The person responsible for interacting directly with neurons is a biological intelligence operating system called ‘BIOS’
And it is that responsible for interacting directly with neurons is a biological intelligence operating system called ‘Bios’ (Biological Intelligence Operating System) that has been developed by Cortical Labs. This software sends information directly to neurons about its surroundings, and the latter react emitting electrical impulses. In any case, the most important thing is that CL1 neurons are programmable, and, therefore, it is possible to display code on them. However, this machine is not intended for a domestic use scenario.
Its purpose is to be used by researchers to, for example, better understand how neurons process information without experimenting with animals. It can even help neuroscientific to understand how learning works in real time or the mechanisms that trigger some neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, props, the consumption of CL1 is much more restrained than that of a conventional computer. It sounds good, right?
Image | Cortical Labs
More information | Cortical Labs
In Xataka | We already know at what speed our brain processes: just 10 bits per second