last sunday.

8bitfuture:

Artificial neural network created from DNA.

Researchers at Caltech have created the world’s first artificial neural network using DNA.

Using 112 DNA strands to create four artificial neurons, the researchers were able to give the ‘brain’ a memory. They then trained it to remember traits of four different scientists whose identities are each represented by a specific, unique set of answers to four yes-or-no questions, such as whether the scientist was British.

The scientists could then give the network a set of clues and let it pick which scientist they were thinking of. They communicated with the brain by dropping in DNA strands encoded with ‘clues’, and the neural network could communicate back using fluorescent signals.

While this network only has four neurons which work at very slow rates compared to the 100 billion neurons in the human brain, it is an important first step to creating artificial intelligence. The research could also have uses to create new ‘smart drugs’ - ones that can intelligently respond to the presence of other molecules - which could allow engineers to produce increasingly complex chemicals or build new kinds of structures, molecule by molecule.

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(Source: media.caltech.edu, via fuckyeahneuroscience)