Enzyme Computer Could Live Inside You 155
dylanduck writes "New Scientist reports the creation of an enzyme-based computer that performs AND and XOR calculations, and combinations of the two, based on the presence or absence of specific chemicals. If they can be engineered inside living cells, they could measure a patient's metabolism and deliver just the right amount of drug at just the right spot, the researchers reckon. I'm worried about the viruses." Ba-dump *chink*.
Logical sequencing? (Score:0, Insightful)
Random chance encounters with the right substances??
Thanks - I'll wait until version 2.
Re:Ha! (Score:1, Insightful)
As opposed to a geeky 14 year old who is too scared to talk to girls.
I dunno (Score:2, Insightful)
My guess is that they instinctively think "Ooh, it's made of enzymes, instead of all that nasty enzymes and electricity, so it must be better to put in people." But then we've been putting pacemakers etc. in people for years without any problems. And if they're suggesting that these wouldn't be self-enclosed units and would actually interact with actual human enzymes that may come and go as they please... then they've got a lot of contingency planning and 'wiring' work to do...
I don't see this having any real impact for a long while yet.
Old News... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I dunno (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, otherwise, what good are they? But you're quite right that this is very far off. I can imagine the technology being used to putter around with animals for years before it's a good idea to start screwing around with humans. The fact is that we just don't understand all that much about the basic functioning of some of these systems - or basically any of them - and so anything we do now would be just groping in the dark. That can be fun, but it can also be dangerous :)
Missing the point (Score:2, Insightful)
-Imagine your cells in a certain organ system alerting you that the concentration of a needed medicine has fallen too low.
-Someone with Diabetes could get a read out of sugar concentrations without taking a blood sample.
From the article it definitely seems anything useful is a long way off... But I'm guessing the people involved aren't looking for a way to get more fps out of quake.