Non-traditional electronics

Calculation doesn't have to be done with silicon transistors.

You can use jelly...


NOISY JELLY from Raphaël Pluvinage on Vimeo.

or marbles...



or Legos...



or bronze gears...



or DNA (okay, this is just digital storage)...



so, how about this?...



...or there's water. Kudos to this guy for programming his fluidic logic gate simulation with a crappy video game!

A DVD that holds 50 TERABYTES????

Hm. Plants react to light.

How about creating a digital storage disc that exploits a certain plant protein that changes when it's exposed to light? The original protein is a 0, the altered protein a 1.

"The star at the centre of the high-capacity DVD is a light-activated protein found in the membrane of a salt marsh microbe Halobacterium salinarum."

Who says curiosity-driven research is a waste? Bet the guys who discovered this little microbe weren't looking for a way to make their hard drive obsolete.