Synthetic Bacterial Computers

April 29, 2005 11:19 AM

Multilingual bacteria are being used in synthetic biology techniques to display computer functionality.
posted by peacay (9 comments total)

Very cool! Thanks! So when do I get my quantum-bio computer?
posted by blendor at 11:44 AM on April 29, 2005

"Multilingual" bacteria? I didn't know bacteria had any language ability.

I wonder how their grammar is.
posted by davy at 12:33 PM on April 29, 2005

They talk! So those bacteria really were having a party on my throat last month.
posted by MetalDog at 12:53 PM on April 29, 2005

On the same site, don't forget to look-up the World's Ugliest Animals.
posted by caddis at 12:57 PM on April 29, 2005

I'd like to see what the folks at Language Log have to say about this chemical exchange qualifying as "language."
posted by kozad at 2:02 PM on April 29, 2005

Okay, that's interesting stuff. Cool.
posted by blacklite at 4:38 PM on April 29, 2005

I know I seem to be on a self-linking rampage this week -- my apologies! -- but I wrote a profile of Bonnie Bassler and her work in 2003 that may provide some helpful background in understanding the concept of bacterial communication.
posted by digaman at 4:51 PM on April 29, 2005

digaman, you are the man! Great article - I wish I'd searched around on BB's name. The cell-cell communication is a really unusual area of study, but with definite real world application potential. We will hear much more about synthetic biology in the future no doubt.
posted by peacay at 2:21 AM on April 30, 2005

Here is a page about MIT's synthetic biology department that was written in January on Wired.

Life, Reinvented
posted by daHIFI at 8:38 AM on April 30, 2005