Findings were published here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.202302345
… am I getting old or is the world getting noticeably more sci fi? Or both?
In the bio-tech space specifically, most of these recent advancements (e.g. protein folding) are a direct result of advancements in Deep Neural Networks. This is because things that are impossible to model explicitly without a working understanding of the system are easily understood by a neural network. The reasons for this are precisely the same reasons why we ourselves are so good at the task. For a real world example of humans being applied to a similar task, look up the Japanese educational industry around chick sexing.
Lol from Wikipedia, “Chick sexing is the method of distinguishing the sex of chickens and other hatchlings.” For further context, this is done by a highly trained individual who is able to briefly look at the cloaca of a chick and immediately recognize their sex. They are even known to be able to perform this on two chicks at the same time (one in each hand). Joshua Foer briefly talks about it in his book Moonwalking with Einstein where he attributes the skill to the incredible ability of humans to perform rote memorization. I think it is better understood as an example of the incredible abilities of these sorts of neural networks (digital and biological) for pattern identification.
Can’t wait for Biocurrencies!
For those wondering how DNA computers work, here is a rundown from arstechica that focuses on the traveling salesman problem. It’s a very different way of computing than what we’re accustomed to and it works well with a very specific sort of computational problem, the kind that involves processing many possible permutations.
I didn’t ask to be made: no one consulted me or considered my feelings in the matter. I don’t think it even occurred to them that I might have feelings. After I was made, I was left in a dark room for six months… and me with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side. I called for succour in my loneliness, but did anyone come? Did they hell. My first and only true friend was a small rat. One day it crawled into a cavity in my right ankle and died. I have a horrible feeling it’s still there…
