Bacteria taught to ’read’ Morse code signals

Alfonso Jaramillo. Foto: CSIC A project of the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio, UV-CSIC) researches genetically modified bacteria so that they learn to decode a message. It is the first step to use nature as a supercomputer, creating neural networks of living organisms connected to each other, like on the planet Pandora from Avatar . The project applies genetic engineering to bacteria to make them capable of reacting to a stimulus associated with a signal from a linguistic code. The goal is for this population of bacteria to be able to 'read' Morse code, a next step for using living organisms in computing. The idea behind the project is to test whether living beings such as bacteria can create neural networks that allow them to have artificial intelligence. Biological computing studies how to use elements of nature to process and store information.