Meet some of the team Left to right are Maynooth University’s Janet Adio, Damien Woods and Abeer Eshra. They built a DNA computer with Tristan Stérin and Constantine Evans. (Courtesy: Maynooth University)"> Meet some of the team Left to right are Maynooth University’s Janet Adio, Damien Woods and Abeer Eshra. They built a DNA computer with Tristan Stérin and Constantine Evans. (Courtesy: Maynooth University)

A DNA computer that calculates as it settles into thermal equilibrium has been unveiled in Ireland. Drawing together several earlier lines of research, Damien Woods and colleagues at Maynooth University created a DNA-based system that ran calculations far more quickly than they expected, and which could be easily implemented and reused with a relatively simple setup.

Much like a living organism, a computer runs far from thermal equilibrium.…