Software Design and Implementation
A10: Computing and DNA
Assignment A10 should be completed individually.Bioinformatics is Computer Science
Paul Wilhelm Karl Rothemund won a MacArthur grant for "folding DNA." He is a senior research fellow at the Computation and Neural Systems department at Caltech who has become known in the fields of DNA nanotechnology and synthetic biology for his pioneering work with DNA origami.
What is folding of DNA? The power to manipulate DNA could change the way we make things at a very, very basic level. Rothemund's work combines the study of self-assembly with the research being done in DNA nanotechnology, and points the way toward self-assembling devices at microscale, making computer memory smaller, faster and very likely cheaper.
We would like you to watch the following video by Paul Wilhelm Karl Rothemund and then answer some questions:
The instructions
This assignment should be completed individually.Watch the above embedded video. Then open a Word document and name it yourusername-A10.docx. Use this document to reflect based upon the following prompts:
- Describe a BIG similarity between genetics and computer programs which make computer programs useful as a metaphor for studying genetics.
- What does Paul Wilhelm Karl Rothemund mean when he say that life is about computation? Explain.
- Explain whether you agree or not with Paul Wilhelm Karl Rothemund that life is about computation.
- Describe what the speaker, Paul Rothemund, says that he sees as the most important take away from this talk?
- Describe how the reading and the video changed your understanding of applications of computer science or explain why your understanding is unchanged.