title: BIOCOMPUTATION: some history and prospects.
abstract: At first glance, biology and computer science are diametrically opposed sciences. Biology deals with carbon based life forms shaped by evolution and natural selection. Computer Science deals with electronic machines designed by engineers and guided by mathematical algorithms. In this brief paper, we review biologically inspired computing. We discuss several models of computation which have arisen from various biological studies. We show what these have in common, and conjecture how biology can still suggest answers and models for the next generation of computing problems. We discuss computation and argue that these biologically inspired models do not extend the theoretical limits on computation. We suggest that, in practice, biological models may give more succinct representations of various problems, and we mention a few cases in which biological models have proved useful. We also discuss the reciprocal impact of computer science on biology and cite a few significant contributions to biological science.
authors: Computer Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA. pc@cs.orst.edu
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Cull
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods; D039301:Computers, Molecular / Q000266:history*; D003205:Computing Methodologies; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D008954:Models, Biological; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer