I Must Have: Bacteria Computer (LINK)
May 30th 2008 05:24
The Burnt Pancake Problem works like this: Imagine you are a diner owner. To promote your delicious fare, you want to create a golden pyramid of pancakes. Using a spatula, you have to rearrange an existing stack of different-sized pancakes, each of which is burned on one side. The aim is to sort the stack so the largest pancake is on the bottom and all pancakes are golden side up.
For six pancakes, there are 46,080 possible solutions. For 12 pancakes, there are 1.9 trillion permutations.
A traditional, silica-based computer would run through every single possible solution to the problem, one at a time. Since a million bacteria-based computers can fit into a single drop of water, all of them working together could speed up the calculations dramatically.
For six pancakes, there are 46,080 possible solutions. For 12 pancakes, there are 1.9 trillion permutations.
A traditional, silica-based computer would run through every single possible solution to the problem, one at a time. Since a million bacteria-based computers can fit into a single drop of water, all of them working together could speed up the calculations dramatically.
Well, I need one of these things so bad. My computer is already so congested and slow, with gigs of porn i've collected (Some people call it a problem, I call it an art). I am even willing to donate my fridge worth of E. Coli I have been saving for a rainy day, to speed up research.
I give this 8 out of 10 Heaps Goods. I'm going straight to my local asian resturant to buy up big on their peeking-bacterial-surprises dish, with extra soy sauce. (I am totally going to play with the gold cat statue, the one with the waving arm whilst I wait!). then I will send the dish straight to the lab. Double kudos to me!
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