The mapping of the human genome has triggered an explosion in data about the nature of life. As pharmaceutical and biotech research companies like NuTec struggle to understand the workings of tens of thousands of genes and the hundreds of thousands of proteins they produce, biology is overtaking nuclear weapons as the field demanding the most sophisticated computers. To capitalize on such advances, technology companies like IBM, Compaq and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) are pouring money into their life-sciences divisions and courting the biotech industry. Compaq and IBM recently launched dueling bio-supercomputer projects that will result in two of the world's most powerful computers. Like genomic research, bio-supercomputing is a leap into the unknown: It remains unclear exactly how these staggeringly expensive machines will be used and who will be willing to pay for them. But finding a market for bio-supercomputers is almost beside the point for the companies. Rather, the drive to push the boundaries of biological computing is behind the quest.