Scientists Create DNA Computer With Potentially Infinite Memory And Processing Capacity

One of the biggest challenges confronting humanity right now is the impending wall that technology will eventually hit when it comes to the memory and processing capacity of computers. One of the avenues that scientists are looking into in order to solve this problem is human DNA, which has significant data storage potential. Researchers from the University of Manchester just developed a means of turning DNA into actual computers that can expand based on the type of computation it does.

Professor Ross D. King is the one who led the research and in a recent interview with Popular Mechanics, he explained just what makes their discovery so special. Aside from being made of an actual organic material, it would appear that the DNA computer in question can also have better processing power than its mechanical counterparts.

"Imagine a computer is searching a maze and comes to a choice point, one path leading left, the other right," Professor King said. "Electronic computers need to choose which path to follow first. But our new computer doesn't need to choose, for it can replicate itself and follow both paths at the same time, thus finding the answer faster."

Finite memory capacity is a good way to make a computer storage unit obsolete in this day and age. With movies, video games, software, and even messages requiring more and more memory capacity to access and enjoy fully, it’s no longer enough to be content with products that obviously have a short shelf-life.

With the new DNA computer, the organic device can be programmed in order to replicate as many times as needed to fill the memory capacity required by the users, Futurism notes. This is groundbreaking science since it could make computer memory upgrades obsolete, which will cause a huge shift in the tech industry.