Chemically-operated turing machine

1. A Turing machine based on a non-linear oscillatory chemical reaction comprising:

an input source to provide a sequence of data to feed a chemical reactor comprising a reactant solution comprising a reactant capable of attaining multiple states when a first chemical species or a second chemical species are added to the chemical reactor, the sequence of data consisting of symbols from a two symbol chemical alphabet;

a first chemical species source to provide a selected amount of a first chemical species to the chemical reactor comprising the reactant solution comprising the reactant, the first chemical species corresponding to a first symbol in the two symbol chemical alphabet;

a second chemical species source to provide a selected amount of a second chemical species to the chemical reactor comprising the reactant solution comprising the reactant, the second chemical species corresponding to a second symbol in the two symbol chemical alphabet;

one or more external controllers communicatively coupled to the first chemical species source and the second chemical species source;

the one or more external controllers adapted to receive the sequence of data from the input tape, and control the addition, to the chemical reactor comprising the reactant solution comprising the reactant, of the first and second chemical species from the first or the second chemical species sources corresponding to the sequence of data; and

one or more external sensors to sense a change of the state of the reactant corresponding to one of the multiple states attainable by the reactant as the above one or more external controllers operate the sources of the first and second chemical species to add selected amounts of the respective first and second chemical species to the chemical reactor to represent the input sequence of data and to correlate the subsequent state of the reactant to a chemical result that is chemically and autonomously computed in the chemical reactor and which depends on the sequence of chemical species in the input source; and

an external computer system including an interface communicatively coupled to the one or more external sensors to allow a user to understand the chemical result chemically and autonomously computed as a function of the sequence input source by:

receiving from the one or more external sensor signals representative of amplitude and frequency of oscillations of the non-linear oscillatory chemical reaction;

correlating the amplitude and frequency signals with the state of the chemical reaction;

processing the information on the state of the chemical reaction into a logical result; and

outputting the logical result.

2. The Turing machine of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors comprises a redox sensor, a pH sensor, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, a UV-Vis sensor or combinations thereof.

3. The Turing machine of claim 1 , wherein the first chemical species comprises a reducing agent solution and the second chemical species comprises an oxidizing agent solution.

4. The Turing machine of claim 3 , wherein the reducing agent comprises malonic acid.

5. The Turing machine of claim 3 , wherein the oxidizing agent comprises bromate ions.

6. The Turing machine of claim 1 , wherein the reactor is a continuously stirred tank reactor.

7. The Turing machine of claim 1 , wherein the reactant solution is a transition metal complex solution and the Turing machine comprises a sensor comprising a spectrometer adapted to periodically detect color changes in the transition metal complex solution.

8. The Turing machine of claim 1 , wherein the first chemical species source and/or the second chemical species source comprise burettes.

9. The Turing machine of claim 1 , wherein the states of the reactant comprise meta stable states.

10. The Turing machine of claim 1 , wherein the reactant solution comprises a transition metal complex.

11. The Turing machine of claim 10 , wherein the transition metal complex comprises a ruthenium (II) complex, a ruthenium (III) complex, cerium (III) or a cerium (IV) complex.

12. The Turing machine of claim 11 , wherein the ruthenium (II) complex is a tris(bipyridine)ruthenium (II) complex.

13. The Turing machine of claim 1 , wherein the input comprises a parenthesis.

14. The Turing machine of claim 1 , wherein said Turing machine is a parenthesis checker.

15. A central processing unit of a programmable chemical computer comprising one or more Turing Machines of claim 1 .

16. A programmable chemical computer comprising a central processing unit which comprises one or more Turing Machines of claim 1 .

17. A method of operating the Turing machine of claim 1 , the method comprising:

providing an input tape to the Turing machine, the input comprising an ordered input sequence of data consisting of symbols from a two symbol chemical alphabet;

sensing a change of the state of the reactant corresponding to one of the multiple states attainable by the reactant;

causing the one or more external controllers to provide a selected amount of the first chemical species to the chemical reactor in response to a first symbol in the two symbol chemical alphabet;

causing the one or more external controllers to provide a selected amount of the second chemical species to the chemical reactor in response to a second symbol in the two symbol chemical alphabet;

to represent the input sequence of data and to correlate the subsequent state of the reactant to a chemical result that is chemically and autonomously computed in the chemical reactor and which depends on the sequence of chemical species in the input source; and

allowing a user to understand the chemical result chemically and autonomously computed as a function of the input source by means of a computer system including an interface communicatively coupled to the one or more external sensors which:

receives from the one or more external sensors signals representative of amplitude and frequency of the oscillations of the non-linear oscillatory chemical reaction;

correlates amplitude and frequency with the state of the chemical reaction;

processes information on the state of the chemical reaction into a logical result; and

outputs the logical result.

18. A Turing machine based on a non-linear oscillatory chemical reaction comprising:

an input source to provide a sequence of data to feed a finite state machine, the sequence of data consisting of symbols from a two symbol chemical alphabet;

a first chemical species source coupled to a chemical reactor to provide a selected amount of a first chemical species to the finite state machine, the first chemical species corresponding to a first symbol in the two symbol chemical alphabet;

a second chemical species source coupled to the chemical reactor to provide a selected amount of a second chemical species to the finite state machine, the second chemical species corresponding to a second symbol in the two symbol chemical alphabet;

one or more external controllers communicatively coupled to the input source, the first chemical species source and the second chemical species source, the one or more external controllers configured to process the sequence of data received from the input source to operate the sources of the first chemical species and the second chemical species;

the finite state machine including:

the chemical reactor including a reactant solution comprising a reactant capable of attaining multiple states when a first chemical species or a second chemical species are added to the chemical reactor; and

a monitoring system including:

one or more external sensors, the one or more external sensors adapted to produce signals indicative of changes of the state of the reactant as the above one or more external controllers operate sources of the first and second chemical species to add selected amounts of the respective first and second chemical species to the chemical reactor;

a display device to visually display output of the Turing machine; and

a computing device coupled to the one or more external sensors and the display device, the computing device allowing a user to understand the chemical result chemically and autonomously computed as a function of the sequence input source by:

receiving from the one or more external sensor signals representative of relationship between amplitude and frequency of oscillations of the non-linear oscillatory chemical reaction;

correlating the amplitude and frequency with the state of the chemical reaction;

processing the information on the state of the chemical reaction into a logical result; and

outputting the logical result.