"Wet computer": the brain in a test tube

A project to create a "chemical computer" has been launched in the EU
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A project has been launched in the European Union to create a "chemical computer" that combines some recently discovered properties of chemical systems to obtain computing capabilities, BBC News reported on January 11.

A "wet computer" simulates some actions of brain neurons. The 1.8 million euro project will last three years and will be funded from the European New Technologies Program. The program defines computational technologies based on biology as one of the most important areas and has recently allocated funding to several similar projects.

A distinctive feature of the current project is the use of stable "cells", which make up the shell that forms spontaneously, as well as the walls of human cells, and the use of chemistry to process signals similar to those of brain neurons.

The goal of the project is not to create a computer that surpasses existing ones, but so that it can perform computing operations in other environments, project participant Klaus-Peter Zauner from the University of Southampton said in an interview with the BBC. "The type of "wet" information technology that we are working on will not find application in commercial software in the near future," he said. – However, it will open up areas of application for which modern information technologies do not offer solutions. These are the management of molecular robots, chemical assembly and the creation of smart drugs that process the chemical signals of the human body and act in accordance with the local biochemical state of the cell."

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru12.01.2010