A COMPUTER built from RNA has solved a chess problem. Its success is a step forward for nucleic acid computers, which are increasingly being touted as a future alternative to silicon chips.
DNA-based computers have caused a stir because unlike normal computers, they can, in theory, test massive amounts of solutions simultaneously (New Scientist, 13 July 1996, p 26).
Laura Landweber and her colleagues at Princeton University decided to build a computer based on RNA, which is made up of strings of bases similar to DNA’s. The task they chose for it was a chess problem: list all the…
