Electronics that mimic cells

摘要

In 1 s, a cell can perform about 10 million chemical reactions that require about 1 pW of power. This makes a cell much more efficient than any electronic circuit. Applying this principle, MIT's Rahul Sarpeshkar is designing low-power, highly parallel, hybrid analog-digital electronic circuits. These circuits, he says, could be used to create ultrafast supercomputers that predict complex cell responses to drugs, or help researchers to design synthetic genetic circuits in cells.