WHAT'S the difference between a thimbleful of bacteria and a supercomputer? Believe it or not, the bacteria contain more circuits and more processing power. That is perhaps not so surprising when you consider that all life computes: from individual cells responding to chemical signals to complex organisms navigating their environment, information processing is central to living systems. What's more intriguing, however, is that after decades of trying we are finally starting to corral cells, molecules and even whole organisms to carry out computational tasks for our own ends.
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