World's first biological computer developed

Scientists in the US claim to have developed the world's first "biological computer" that is made from biomolecules and can decipher images encrypted on DNA chips.

A team from the Scripps Research Institute in California and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology claims it has created the computing system using bio-molecules, 'Angewandte Chemie' journal reported.

In the research, when suitable software was applied to the biological computer, the scientists found that it could decrypt, separately, fluorescent images of Scripps Research Institute and Technion logos.

And, although DNA has been used for encryption in the past, this is the first experimental demonstration of a molecular cryptosystem of images based on DNA computing, say the scientists led by Prof Ehud Keinan.

"In contrast to electronic computers, there are computing machines in which all four components are nothing but molecules," Prof Keinan said.

"For example, all biological systems and even entire living organisms are such computers. Every one of us is a biomolecular computer, a machine in which all four components are molecules that 'talk' to one another logically," he said.