Joint Penn-UDel Colloquium on the Nature of Computing
Computing with Biomolecules:
Lila Kari
The Meaning of Truth in an Interdisciplinary World
Biomolecular computation is a field situated at the intersection of disciplines as diverse as computer science, mathematics, molecular biology, biotechnology, biochemistry and physics. As a result, one of the obstacles that hinder the progress in this area is the lack of common standards for notions like input, output, data, computation, correctness and solution.
To illustrate these ``cultural'' differences, I will present the DNA computing research project currently under way at The University of Western Ontario. The purpose of our experimental project is to solve an instance of a hard computational problem, The Shortest Common Superstring Problem, by sole means of DNA manipulation.
In this context, I will discuss the different meanings that terms like ``truth'', ``solution'', ``answer'', ``proof'', ``exactness'' have in mathematics, computer science and molecular biology, and the stringent necessity for reaching a consensus. I will then argue that these differences, far from being detrimental, have the potential to forward the progress in biomolecular computing, while at the same time enriching the originating fields.
Thursday, April 16, at 3 pm
in Room 207 of the
Johnson Pavilion
(see map)
near Spruce and 36th Streets on the
University of Pennsylvania campus.
Travel Directions are found at
http://www.upenn.edu/fm/map/dir.html