[extropy-chat] Smaller Computer Chips Built Using DNA as Template

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

>From the <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/science/21DNA.html?ex=1070082000&en=
edeebfd6e630e1ce&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVER">New York Times</a>, another
example of the convergence of life and information sciences: In an advance
that might provide a practical method for making molecular-size circuits,
the smallest possible, scientists in Israel used strands of DNA, the
computer code of life, to create tiny transistors that can literally build
themselves. "What we've done is to bring biology to self-assemble an
electronic device in a test tube," said Dr. Erez Braun, a professor of
physics at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, and
a senior author of a paper describing the research today in the journal
Science.
The Israeli group is the first to use DNA to build a working electronic
device. "It's a very interesting demonstration of a completely new concept
of assembling devices," said Dr. Cees Dekker, a professor of physics at the
Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands who research group made
the first nanotube transistor in 1998. The new technique takes advantage of
a biological process known as recombination, where a segment of DNA is
swapped out for an almost identical piece. The cell uses recombination to
repair damaged DNA and to swap genes. A special protein helps connect the
replacement DNA to the desired location.