Important Definitions:Science and Technology
BIONICS
It refers to design and development of technology inspired by biological methods.Bionics or biologically inspired engineering is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology. The word bionic was coined by Jack E. Steele in August 1958, being formed as a portmanteau from biology and electronics.he transfer of technology between lifeforms and manufactured objects is, according to proponents of bionic technology, desirable because evolutionary pressure typically forces living organisms, including fauna and flora, to become highly optimized and efficient.
Bionic implants differ from mere prostheses by mimicking the original function very closely, or even surpassing it.
APPLICATIONS
• Medicine: Bionic organs like bionic ear, bionic nose, bionic eye, silicon retina, artificial heart, bionic hand etc.
• Robotics: Robots are often designed inspired from biological processes.
ARTIFICIAL BLOOD/BLOOD SUBSTITUTES
Artificial blood is a product made to act as a substitute for red blood cells. While true blood serves many different functions, artificial blood is designed for the sole purpose of transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the body.
• Substitute for red blood cells
• Designed for the sole purpose of transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the body.
• Produced though synthetic production, chemical isolation, or recombinant biochemical technology.
LIMITATION
• It performs the function of RBC only and not of white cells, platelets, and plasma.
• Lab-cultured Meat/ Transgenic Meat
BIOINFORMATICS
Bioinformatics represents an interdisciplinary and rapidly evolving area of science that applies mathematics, statistics, computer science, and biology to the understanding of living systems. Bioinformatics is mainly driven by the arrival of fast and reliable technology for sequencing nucleic acids and proteins that resulted in an ever-increasing volume of experimental data to be analyzed. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex.
A major application of Bioinformatics is the analysis of the DNA and protein sequences of organisms that have been sequenced. Sequence comparison is one of the basic operations in Bioinformatics, serving as a basis for many other more complex manipulations.
APPLICATION
• Image and signal processing
• DNA sequencing
BIO-COMPUTING(Definitions:Science and Technology)
• Biocomputing uses molecular biology parts as the hardware to implement computational devices.Bio computers use systems of biologically derived molecules—such as DNA and proteins—to perform computational calculations involving storing, retrieving, and processing data. The development of biocomputers has been made possible by the expanding new science of nanobiotechnology.
• By following pre-defined rules, often hard-coded into biological systems, these devices are able to process inputs and return outputs—thus computing information.
DNA DATA STORAGE
DNA-based data storage. DNA—which consists of long chains of the nucleotides A, T, C and G—is life’s information-storage material. Data can be stored in the sequence of these letters, turning DNA into a new form of information technology. It is already routinely sequenced (read), synthesized (written to) and accurately copied with ease.
DNA is also incredibly stable, as has been demonstrated by the complete genome sequencing of a fossil horse that lived more than 500,000 years ago. And storing it does not require much energy.
But it is the storage capacity that shines. DNA can accurately stow massive amounts of data at a density far exceeding that of electronic devices. The simple bacterium Escherichia coli, for instance, has a storage density of about 1019 bits per cubic centimeter.
In 2017, for instance, Church’s group at Harvard adopted CRISPR DNA-editing technology to record images of a human hand into the genome of E. coli, which were read out with higher than 90 percent accuracy. And researchers at the University of Washington and Microsoft Research have developed a fully automated system for writing, storing and reading data encoded in DNA
DNA OF THINGS (DOT)
Definitions:Science and Technology
DNA is currently the only data storage medium that can also exist as a liquid, which allows us to insert it into objects of any shape.Researchers from ETH Zurich has discovered a new method for turning nearly any object into a data storage unit – successfully storing megabytes of data in a 3D printed plastic rabbit and the lens of a researcher’s glasses, using a technique that they are dubbing the DNA of Things (DoT).
The technique relies on embedding a DNA “barcode” in silica nanobeads, which are fused into a material of choice.
“DoT could be applied to store electronic health records in medical implants, to hide data in everyday objects and to manufacture objects containing their own blueprint. It may also facilitate the development of self-replicating machines
• DoT encodes digital data into DNA molecules, which are then embedded into objects.
• While Internet of things is a system of inter-connected computing devices, DoT creates objects which are independent storage objects.