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As I read the newest papers about DNA-based computing, I had to confront a rather unpleasant truth. Despite being a geneticist who also majored in computer science, I was struggling to bridge two concepts—the universal Turing machine, the very essence of computing, and the von Neumann architecture, the basis of most modern CPUs. I had written C++ code to emulate the machine described in Turing's 1936 paper, and could use it to decide, say, if a word was a palindrome. But I couldn't see how such a machine—with its one-dimensional tape memory and ability to look at only one symbol on that tape at a time-could behave like a billion-transistor processor with hardware features such as an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), program counter, and instruction register.

Drones have revolutionized how scientiots conduct environmental and biological studies, sending back pictures and other information from areas whose climate, terrain, or indigenous wildlife make in-person treks hazardous. Now, researchers at the University of Washington and Universite Grenoble Alpes have improved an alternative tool for surveying large, remote areas: swarms of miniature wireless robots called microfliers. These tiny paper gliders, designed to change shape in midair as they descend from their drop-off point, previously depended on batteries to power their onboard actuators. But the American and French collaborators have demonstrated a batteryless glider whose actuator runs on energy collected by a solar panel on its top surface. Because the changes in shape allow a measure of control over a microflier's landing spot, researchers can count on the supercheap sensor nodes being dispersed evenly across the area to be surveilled.