Pushing the Edge of Science - Growing Electronics with Viruses, Finding Alien Life, and Quantum Cryptography

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Angela Belcher
Edge work: “Programming” viruses to perform useful tasks
Why? It is clean and efficient.
Where? MIT
Initial response: “I was called insane.”

In a series of experiments at MIT, Belcher, working with a team of about 30 students and postdocs, has successfully programmed viruses to incorporate, then grow, a variety of inorganic materials, including nanoscale semiconductors, solar cells, and magnetic storage materials. Separately, she is using yeasts as scaffold organisms because of their abil­ity to grow many different materials. “We look at yeasts as factories,” she explains. “Instead of Budweiser, there’s Nanoweiser.” Belcher has begun working with the U.S. Army on nanoscale batteries that would weigh a fraction of what current batteries weigh and be woven into a soldier’s uniform. She is also training viruses to “find mistakes in materials and give off a signal.” One possible application: spraying viruses on an airplane fuselage to check for microscopic defects. In addition, the National Cancer Institute is funding Belcher to use viruses to find peptides that can specifically identify cancer cells.

Dimitar Sasselov
Edge work: Finding life on planets outside our solar system
Why? We have to know.
Where? Harvard University
Initial response: “People are always very excited.”

The alien life we are most likely to find will be micro­bial, Sasselov explains. In fact, he expects that the first living planet we discover will resemble what Earth looked like a billion years ago, when life had not yet evolved beyond bacteria, simple algae, and other microorganisms. “But Earth is just one possible pathway for the emergence of viable bio­mole­cules from chem­istry,” he says. “Are there multiple pathways? Do all chemical pathways converge to one or two or three possible ones to produce life?” Sasselov is working with planetary scientists and cosmochemists to answer these questions by analyzing concentrations of molecules in the universe and on the extrasolar planets they suspect may harbor life.

Gilles Brassard
Edge work: Using quantum mechanics to protect our privacy
Why? It will make electronic communications more secure.
Where? Université de Montréal
Initial response: “Very few people took it seriously.”

Quantum cryptography ensures complete privacy because any attempt to observe the transmission will change the message. It is a basic principle of quantum mechanics: The act of observing affects the thing observed. “If I send you information in the form of quantum signals and someone tries to eavesdrop on that signal,” Brassard explains, “the act of eavesdropping will disturb the signal. It will also alert the recipient if the transmission has been compromised.”

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Illustrations by Riccardo Vecchio

Original Source: Discover Magazine