Circa 2015 face_with_colon_three

From driving water wheels to turning turbines, waterhas been used as the prime mover of machinery and the powerhouse of industry for many centuries. In ancient times, the forces of flowing water were even harnessed to power the first rudimentaryclocks. Now, engineers at Stanford University have created the world’s first water-operated computer. Using magnetized particles flowing through a micro-miniature network ofchannels, the machine runs like clockwork and is claimed to be capable ofperforming complex logical operations.

Using poppy-seed sizeddroplets of water impregnated with magnetic nanoparticles (those handy little elementsbeing used in everything from drug delivery inhumans to creating e-paper whiteboards), the new fluidic computer uses electromagnetic fields to accurately pump thesedroplets around a set of physical gates to perform logical operations. Suspendedin oil and timed to move in very specific steps, the droplets in the system cantheoretically be used to accomplish any process that a normal electroniccomputer can, albeit at considerably slower speeds.

Stanford assistant professor Manu Prakash has spent almost a decadethinking about such a device, ever since he was a graduate student. The manyand varied components required of a fluidic computer have slowly coalesced inhis mind over that time, with the most fundamental component of all – an accurateoperating clock to drive the logic – being the crucial element in bringing hisinvention to fruition. Ultimately, Prakash built a rotating magnetic field to synchronize the flow of all the droplets in a precisely timed manner, andact as the clock.