Life isn’t logical! It’s hard to put NOR gates in bacteria!
summary
Describes building a NOR gate in bacteria by wiring activator chemicals to promoters that make repressor proteins which block the output promoter, a circuit that actually works but runs in biological time rather than electronic time and was first built in 2002. Highlights tools: promoters, RNA polymerase, activators and repressors, and shows limits — 5 minutes response typical sometimes hours, mutations delete circuits, and chemical crosstalk prevents easy composability despite functional proof of concept.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Introduction
- 0:41Bacteria as computers
- 2:28Boolean logic and transistors
- 4:14NOR gates in computing
- 5:15Genetic circuits in bacteria
- 6:41Building an OR gate
- 7:43Bacterial vs transistor gates
- 9:08Future of bacterial computers
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