title: Counting DNA: estimating the complexity of a test tube of DNA.
abstract: We consider the problem of estimation of the 'complexity' of a test tube of DNA. The complexity of a test tube is the number of different kinds of strands of DNA in the test tube. It is quite easy to estimate the number of total strands in a test tube, especially if the strands are all the same length. Estimation of the complexity is much less clear. We propose a simple kind of DNA computation that can estimate the complexity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, NJ 08542, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Faulhammer
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Lipton
authors.forename: L F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Landweber
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular
chemical_list: D004247:DNA