Designer viruses may be used to produce logic

“In my dreams, I can imagine some environmentally safe virus which, by design, manufactures and spits out a 64-bit adder,” said Donald Eiger, the scientist that spelled the letters IBM in xenon atoms in 1989. “We then just flow the virus’s effluent over our chips and have the adders attach in just the right places.”

Nano integration was pondered by spintronics scientist Professor David Awschalom of the University of California at Santa Barbara.

“I’m thinking about possible multi-functional systems that combine logic, storage and communication as powerful quantum objects based on single particles in nature,” he said. “And whether this is rooted in a biological system, or a chemical system, or a solid state system may not matter and may lead to revolutionary applications in technology, medicine, energy, or other areas.”

The California-based Kavli Foundation is “dedicated to the goals of advancing science for the benefit of humanity and promoting increased public understanding and support for scientists and their work”.

The complete dialogue, including contributions on the potential for nanoscience in medicine, is available from the Kalvi Foundation’s website.