EE 5393: Circuits, Computation and Biology
Marc D. Riedel
Associate Professor, ECE University of Minnesota
x1
x2
AND
x3
OR
f1
AND
f2
f3
Instructor
Prof. Marc Riedel
tel.:
(612) 625-6086
email: mriedel@umn.edu
office: EE/CSi 4-167
office hours: Th. 1:00–3:00pm
Teaching Assistants
Joshua Krist
email: krist081@umn.edu
office: Keller Hall 4-136
office hours: after every
graded homework is
returned
EE5393: Circuits,
Computation, and Biology
• Lecture:
Location:
• Prereqs:
• Textbooks:
• Website:
Wed. & Friday, 2:30–3:45pm
Keller Hall 3-230
none
none
http://tinyurl.com/ee5393
Grading
• 20% Quizzes:
11 quizzes
(best 10 of 11 scores)
• 80% Homeworks:
5 homeworks
(best 4 of 5 scores)
Astonishing Hypothesis
“A person's mental activities are entirely due to the behavior of
nerve cells, glial cells, and the atoms, ions, and molecules that
make them up and influence them.”
– Francis Crick, 1982
The Astonishing Part:
“That the astonishing hypothesis is astonishing.”
– Christophe Koch, 1995
Domains of Expertise
•
•
•
•
Vision
Language
Abstract Reasoning
Farming
Circuit
Human
• Number
Crunching
• Mining Data
• Iterative
Calculations
Circuits & Computers as a Window
into our Linguistic Brains
Brain
Circuit
Conceives of
circuits and
computation by
“applying”
language.
?
Lousy at all the tasks
that the brain that
designed it is good at
(including language).
Language as a Window into the
way the Brain Works
Steven Pinker, Harvard
Who is this guy?
• Most of the cells in his body
are not his own!
• Most of the cells in his body
are not even human!
• Most of the DNA in his body
is alien!
“Minnesota Farmer”
Who is this guy?
He’s a human-bacteria hybrid:
[like all of us]
• 100 trillion bacterial cells of
at least 500 different types
inhabit his body.
vs.
• only 1 trillion human cells of
210 different types.
“Minnesota Farmer”
Who
What’s
is in
this
hisguy?
gut?
He’s a human-bacteria hybrid:
[like all of us]
• 100 trillion bacterial cells of
at least 500 different types
inhabit his body.
vs.
• only 1 trillion human cells of
210 different types.
“Minnesota Farmer”
What’s in his gut?
“E. coli, a self-replicating object only a thousandth of a millimeter in
size, can swim 35 diameters a second, taste simple chemicals in its
environment, and decide whether life is getting better or worse.”
– Howard C. Berg
About 3 pounds of bacteria!
flagellum
Bacterial Motor
Bacterial Motor
Electron Microscopic Image
We should put
these critters to
work…
“Stimulus, response! Stimulus
response! Don’t you ever think!”
Artificial Life
Going from reading genetic codes to writing them.
US Patent 20070122826 (pending):
“The present invention relates to a
minimal set of protein-coding genes
which provides the information required
for replication of a free-living organism in
a rich bacterial culture medium.”
– J. Craig Venter Institute
Artificial Life
Going from reading genetic codes to writing them.
Moderator:
“Some people have accused you of
playing God.”
J. Craig Venter:
“Oh no, we’re not playing.