Researchers are experimenting with "smart microbes", pre-programmed cells that are capable of detecting biological weapons or removing pollution from a lake.
Steve Potter, a researcher at the University of Georgia has developed a unique hybrid robot (or 'hybrot') that uses cultured neurons to control a robotic mechanism. The knowledge gained could lead to computer chips modeled on biological systems ? and perhaps even to computers that incorporate biological components. Such computers might one day learn, repair themselves, and perform certain tasks ? such as dictation ? at which binary-based systems are miserable.
Bacteria have found a new vocation - as nanoscale construction workers. Such bugs might form microbial machines that could repair wounds or build microscopic electrical circuits.
A research team at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry has merged computer chips with living tissue. This almost unnoticed event, published in a dry scientific paper and reported in the small print of The Washington Post last month, is as momentous an event as the first organ transplant or the first cloned animal. It opens up the possibility of using computer technology to supplement human intelligence, rather than replace it
Can bacteria be logical? Yes they can, say researchers who have made genetically engineered bugs that do the same job as the components of a microchip. These smart bugs will crunch on chemical inputs rather than digital bits. They could one day be sent into waste-water plants to hunt out toxic chemicals. Or they could tell doctors what proteins are present in body fluids.
Researchers are attempting to create a new kind of computer from simple-cell bacteria that can compute and are endowed with 'intelligent' genes that can perform simple operations and perhaps even execute programs.