HVAC Control in the New Millennium.pdf - HVAC.Amickracing

Energy and Power Management, Distributed Control TrendsThe element silicon is closely identified with computers but suchthinking may have to be fundamentally revised, as high-speed computationmoves beyond chips and machines to include the tools of biochemistryand genetics including DNA.DNA is present in every living organism, and the appeal of themolecule as a computing mechanism lies in its ability to store a vastamount of information in a small space. Instead of using zeroes andones to encode information using electrical current, the memory in aDNA computer uses the DNA strands that are synthesized in a lab. Eachstrand contains a different sequence of the chemical bases, given theletters A, C, T, and G, that make up all DNA molecules. Scientists usedifferent enzymes to eliminate certain strands of DNA, leaving only thestrands of bases that represent correct graphic answers.Scientists at the University of Wisconsin have performed simplecalculations with strands of DNA that are attached to a gold-platedsurface. Other experiments with DNA computing allow the DNA tofloat freely in a test tube.The method used at the University of Wisconsin uses singlestrands of DNA which are anchored to an inch square, gold-coated slide.Each slide has a unique configuration of biochemicals that represents apossible answer to a problem.The slide is washed with a series of biochemical solutions thatmark and eliminate incorrect answers all at once by breaking apart themolecules. The remaining DNA strands are decoded, which representthe correct answers to the problem.Another group at Princeton University are using RNA, a chemicalsibling of DNA, to perform similar calculations. One calculation providesthe answer to a chess problem known as the knight problem. Thisinvolves the positions of the knights on the chess board so that none canattack another.Each strand of RNA represents a possible configuration of knights.Then, chemicals are used to eliminate RNA strands that depict wronganswers.A few grams of DNA could store all the data known to exist in theworld so biochemicals could eventually be the most efficient medium ofstoring and manipulating information. Another advantage over conventionalcomputing is that rather than analyzing each possible answer insequence, the DNA computer can act on the entire set of molecules simultaneously.©2001 by The Fairmont Press, Inc. All rights reserved.