An organic computer has been the purview of science fiction until now.  But the future prospects of creating such a computer can become reality soon if we go by Alejandro Tamayo’s findings. His experiments proved to be successful as he  replicated the memory of a computer with fruits, that too the humble lemon & avocado.

The experiments took place at the garage science workshop on 22^nd August 2010 and systemically outlined how the organic information from lemon and avocados can be utilized to implement the logical decision making power of a computer.  The idea of checking the pH level of various fruits took root as it could be utilized to store binary information and even reversed suitably to permit various programming as well as re-programming to occur.

Avocado and lemon were selected due to the difference in their pH levels which allowed for making certain alterations. The pH values were also convenient for making changes with the help of less quantities of the organic matter. The experiments proved that the logic state could be altered several times until the fruit receiving it became full. The only glitch seems to be in the amount of avocados which are far more than the quantity of lemons required.

The pH related experiments hope to continue with the aim of creating a 11 bit memory with organic material. The results would be the equivalent of an 11 character word such as a greeting message akin to “hello world”. The natural process of degradation would also be observed side by side and any changes affecting the storage of information will be noted. 

Well, fruit orchards may soon take over the silicon valley if the organic logic gates become the accepted norm. And we thought that lemon juice has a limited number of uses! Do write and tell us what you think of working on fruity computers eventually.

 Image Credit- wiki.medialab-prado.es