The computer inside our cells
In the early 1990s scientists realised they might be able to turn DNA into a biological computer. At a very basic level, computers only do two things - store information, and then process that information. And you can't get much more information than the blueprint of life.
Instead of storing information in a binary code of ones and zeros, like ordinary computers, DNA stores it in the four letters of our genetic code: A, T, C and G.
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One gram of DNA (the white material shown above) contains as much data as a trillion CDs.
Image: Len Adleman |
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