Annual Chemical Congress of the Royal Society of Chemistry: Soft machine adds up

CHEMISTS are inching towards creating a computer built from tiny biological molecules instead of electronics, delegates were told.

A so-called 'soft' computer would exploit some of the processes that make the human brain so successful. The molecular computer should be able to operate thousands of times faster than conventional models, and be able to build itself and alter its wiring to suit each new job.

Teams from around the world are now producing the switches, wires, amplifiers and memory banks that such a computer would need. Each is a thousand times smaller than the silicon counterparts.