| An animated explanation of recent research building artificial neural networks out of interacting DNA molecules. Part I introduces the motivation, the mathematical model of a neuron, and the design of a DNA-based neural network that is capable of recalling a memory when presented with partial information. Part II introduces how to make such a DNA-based neural network in the laboratory, how it remembers four scientists and identifies one of them given an incomplete answer to a set of yes-or-no questions, and how this work could be related to the evolutionary history of intelligence. Reference: "Neural Network Computation with DNA Strand Displacement Cascades", Lulu Qian and Erik Winfree and Jehoshua Bruck, Nature, July 21, 2011 Animation and Narration: Lulu Qian Stock images from iStockphoto |
