Bacteria that do logic

A team engineers microbes to perform AND, OR, NAND and NOR logic operations

If the planet Vulcan had microbes, they might look something like this. Scientists have engineered bacteria that can perform four basic operations of logic: AND, OR, NAND and NOR.

By combining these logic units in various ways, it could be possible to engineer microbes with an internal “decision tree” logic that controls their behaviors.