Check This Out (weekly column)
by Richard Leader

Biological Transistors

Most of you are aware that computer chips are made out of silicon because of its conductive properties that allow it to perform a series of instructions very quickly. But there's another kind of computer that can perform all of those instructions at the same time--and it's in your body. It was six years ago that Leonard Adleman solved a math problem with a biological computer powered by DNA, a material that provides an entirely different philosophy in computing and offers unparalleled data storage capacity that makes the largest hard-drive seem tiny in comparison.

Recently, researchers at UB have discovered a way to possibly combine these two kinds of computers and have created, in effect, a living transistor. Conventional silicon chips require exceptionally clean environments in their creation to function properly and error free. However, the manufacturing process has always been plagued by bugs--bacteria--that somehow finds its way into the water supply and disrupts the delicate workings of the chips.

UB's director of the Center for Biosurfaces, Robert Baier was conducting research directed at preventing this when he made a startling discovery. There is a certain variety of bacteria was nearly impossible to kill with chemicals or radiation because it was encasing itself within the silicon, forming a shield that made it nearly impervious to harm. Realizing that there was great potential in this finding, as he now had the beginnings of a biological transistor that behaved in ways similar to the plant contained within it-it's photosensitivity a feature that could be exploited in making "smarter" chips. Not only that, but if embedded in fiber-optic telecommunication lines, the bacterium-crystal could boost signal strength by amplifying the light as it passed through it. Baier hopes to soon complete a radio device based on his discovery.

http://wings.buffalo.edu/faculty/research/iucb/