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Native Chemical Computation. A Generic Application of Oscillating Chemistry Illustrated With the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction. A Review

Computing with molecules is at the center of complex natural phenomena, where the information contained in ordered sequences of molecules is used to implement functionalities of synthesized materials or to interpret the environment, as in Biology. This uses large macromolecules and the hindsight of...

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Autores principales: Dueñas-Díez, Marta, Pérez-Mercader, Juan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8144498/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34046394
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2021.611120
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author Dueñas-Díez, Marta
Pérez-Mercader, Juan
author_facet Dueñas-Díez, Marta
Pérez-Mercader, Juan
author_sort Dueñas-Díez, Marta
collection PubMed
description Computing with molecules is at the center of complex natural phenomena, where the information contained in ordered sequences of molecules is used to implement functionalities of synthesized materials or to interpret the environment, as in Biology. This uses large macromolecules and the hindsight of billions of years of natural evolution. But, can one implement computation with small molecules? If so, at what levels in the hierarchy of computing complexity? We review here recent work in this area establishing that all physically realizable computing automata, from Finite Automata (FA) (such as logic gates) to the Linearly Bound Automaton (LBA, a Turing Machine with a finite tape) can be represented/assembled/built in the laboratory using oscillatory chemical reactions. We examine and discuss in depth the fundamental issues involved in this form of computation exclusively done by molecules. We illustrate their implementation with the example of a programmable finite tape Turing machine which using the Belousov-Zhabotinsky oscillatory chemistry is capable of recognizing words in a Context Sensitive Language and rejecting words outside the language. We offer a new interpretation of the recognition of a sequence of chemicals representing words in the machine's language as an illustration of the “Maximum Entropy Production Principle” and concluding that word recognition by the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Turing machine is equivalent to extremal entropy production by the automaton. We end by offering some suggestions to apply the above to problems in computing, polymerization chemistry, and other fields of science.
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spelling pubmed-81444982021-05-26 Native Chemical Computation. A Generic Application of Oscillating Chemistry Illustrated With the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction. A Review Dueñas-Díez, Marta Pérez-Mercader, Juan Front Chem Chemistry Computing with molecules is at the center of complex natural phenomena, where the information contained in ordered sequences of molecules is used to implement functionalities of synthesized materials or to interpret the environment, as in Biology. This uses large macromolecules and the hindsight of billions of years of natural evolution. But, can one implement computation with small molecules? If so, at what levels in the hierarchy of computing complexity? We review here recent work in this area establishing that all physically realizable computing automata, from Finite Automata (FA) (such as logic gates) to the Linearly Bound Automaton (LBA, a Turing Machine with a finite tape) can be represented/assembled/built in the laboratory using oscillatory chemical reactions. We examine and discuss in depth the fundamental issues involved in this form of computation exclusively done by molecules. We illustrate their implementation with the example of a programmable finite tape Turing machine which using the Belousov-Zhabotinsky oscillatory chemistry is capable of recognizing words in a Context Sensitive Language and rejecting words outside the language. We offer a new interpretation of the recognition of a sequence of chemicals representing words in the machine's language as an illustration of the “Maximum Entropy Production Principle” and concluding that word recognition by the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Turing machine is equivalent to extremal entropy production by the automaton. We end by offering some suggestions to apply the above to problems in computing, polymerization chemistry, and other fields of science. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-05-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8144498/ /pubmed/34046394 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2021.611120 Text en Copyright © 2021 Dueñas-Díez and Pérez-Mercader. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Chemistry
Dueñas-Díez, Marta
Pérez-Mercader, Juan
Native Chemical Computation. A Generic Application of Oscillating Chemistry Illustrated With the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction. A Review
title Native Chemical Computation. A Generic Application of Oscillating Chemistry Illustrated With the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction. A Review
title_full Native Chemical Computation. A Generic Application of Oscillating Chemistry Illustrated With the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction. A Review
title_fullStr Native Chemical Computation. A Generic Application of Oscillating Chemistry Illustrated With the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction. A Review
title_full_unstemmed Native Chemical Computation. A Generic Application of Oscillating Chemistry Illustrated With the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction. A Review
title_short Native Chemical Computation. A Generic Application of Oscillating Chemistry Illustrated With the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction. A Review
title_sort native chemical computation. a generic application of oscillating chemistry illustrated with the belousov-zhabotinsky reaction. a review
topic Chemistry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8144498/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34046394
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2021.611120
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