World’s first battery-free DNA computer achieves record-breaking speed - Scitke

Computing consumes a huge amount of energy in today’s world. By 2050, up to 20% of electricity used by the US commercial sector could go toward data processing and computation. Meanwhile, data centers are expected to double their electricity demand in the coming years, highlighting the urgent need for more energy-efficient computing systems.

Our bodies may seem like an unlikely source of inspiration, but nature has spent billions of years developing highly efficient ways to accomplish complex tasks with minimal energy. Inspired by this, researchers at Maynooth University in Ireland have used the chemistry of life to create a new type of computer that can operate without a continuous electricity supply.

DNA Computing Inspired by the Brain Could Cut Energy Use

“Silicon-based computers consume enormous amounts of energy,” says computer scientist and senior author Damien Woods. He notes that computing and data storage account for 23% of Ireland’s electricity use, adding that the brain shows there are alternative ways to process information.

Almost all modern computers depend on switches known as transistors, which represent data through on and off states. Even basic calculations require small amounts of electrical energy to switch between these states.

Although each electrical charge is tiny, the energy consumption quickly accumulates as billions of transistors switch states every second.

The four chemical building blocks of DNA can also store information and provide a foundation for performing algorithmic calculations. Rather than using electronic switches, DNA computing relies on interactions and competition between different molecular sequences.

DNA computing is not a new concept. In the 1990s, University of Southern California computer scientist Leonard Adleman demonstrated the approach by solving the famous traveling salesman problem using nucleotide strands and biochemical reactions. Since then, researchers have developed new ways to program molecular systems for a variety of computational tasks.

Scientists Seek Stable, Energy-Efficient DNA Computers

A major challenge is developing a DNA computer that is energy-efficient, stable, reliable, and capable of producing results without requiring constant adjustments or additional energy.

Woods’ team explored a different strategy inspired more by the emerging field of DNA origami than by the traditional competition between DNA strands.

Their method combines a nucleic acid scaffold with short DNA segments in a warm salt solution. As the mixture cools, the molecules settle into their lowest-energy arrangement, which represents the solution to the problem.

“The molecules interact, form a structure, and that structure is the answer,” Woods explains. The key innovation is that the system can naturally reach the solution without a continuous supply of energy.

To evaluate the approach, the researchers tested several programs, including calculations involving up to 100 bits.

One of the quickest tasks—adding three and 10—took about 30 seconds. That may not sound particularly fast, especially compared with the speed at which conventional computers perform calculations.

However, speed is not the main goal. DNA computing can perform many calculations simultaneously, packing a large number of operations into a single drop of liquid.

New DNA Computer Sets Speed Record in Its Field

“The reaction occurs quickly in the test tube, although it is not as fast as silicon-based computing—and that isn’t the goal. Compared with other DNA computers, however, ours is the fastest,” says study co-first author Abeer Eshra.

Beyond computation, DNA can also store enormous amounts of data reliably and for long periods. In theory, just one gram of DNA could hold hundreds of millions of gigabytes, potentially allowing vast amounts of the world’s growing data to fit into a surprisingly small space.

When combined with energy-efficient data storage and retrieval techniques, as well as thermodynamically favorable methods for performing specialized calculations, DNA-based technology could point toward a more energy-efficient future for computing.