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Nature 446, 263-264 (15 March 2007) | doi:10.1038/446263a; Published online 14 March 2007

Open Innovation Challenges

Biological programming

Christoph Adami1

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The digital nature of molecules such as DNA means they can be used in computers.

BOOK REVIEWEDGenesis Machines: The New Science of Biocomputing

by Martyn Amos

Atlantic Books: 2006. 320 pp. £18.99

When visiting the Santa Fe Institute in autumn 1994, I was chatting with Chris Langton when Stuart Kauffman came running down the hall waving a manuscript and shouting unprintables. When we cornered him, he was slapping his forehead mumbling: "I could have done this, if I had only thought of it!