04.09.09
Every cell a universal computer
DNA Origami Seeds Control Complex Nucleation Processes
ScienceDaily (Apr. 9, 2009) — The construction of complex man-made objects–a car, for example, or even a pizza–almost invariably entails what are known as “top-down” processes, in which the structure and order of the thing being built is imposed from the outside (say, by an automobile assembly line, or the hands of the pizza maker).
“Every cell, it appears, is a kind of universal computer that can be instructed in seemingly limitless ways by a DNA genome that specifies what chemical processes to execute, thus building an active organism. The aim of my lab has been to understand algorithms and information within molecular systems.”
Stephen P. Smith said,
April 9, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Hardly a blind watchmaker!
nemo said,
April 9, 2009 at 1:34 pm
This is a remarkable new perspective on the cell!