Specific threads remain obscured despite their innovative nature in the vast tapestry of computing history. While ENIAC, UNIVAC, and IBM’s early machines dominate our historical narrative of early computing, a fascinating and largely overlooked experiment occurred at the Carnegie Institute in the early 1950s. The Algatron—a biocomputing device that harnessed living organisms for computational purposes—represents one of its era's most creative departures from conventional computing logic. This remarkable device utilized colonies of living algae as computational elements decades before biocomputing would emerge as a recognized field, pointing toward alternative technological paths that might have been.
Origins in Post-War Research
In 1952, biophysicist Harold Morowitz and electrical engineer Julian Bigelow collaborated on a “photosynthetic computational array.” Their work emerged from an unusual intersection of fields during the post-war scientific boom. Morowitz had been studying the electrical properties of algae membranes, while Bigelow, who had previously worked on the Manhattan Project, was interested in alternative computing paradigms.
The post-war period represented a time of unprecedented scientific exploration in America. With government funding flowing freely into research institutions, scientists were encouraged to pursue unconventional approaches. Morowitz had spent several years documenting how certain algae species generated measurable electrical responses to light exposure. His work caught the attention of Bigelow, who had become increasingly concerned about the limitations and resource requirements of vacuum tube computing systems.
Their partnership was initially viewed with skepticism by colleagues. Computing was firmly established as an electronic engineering discipline, while biology remained largely separate from technology development. Nevertheless, the Carnegie Institute, known for supporting cross-disciplinary research, provided the team with modest funding and laboratory space in a converted storage building on campus. Working with limited resources, Morowitz cultivated specialized strains of Chlorella algae that demonstrated particularly strong and consistent electrical responses to controlled light stimulation.
Their creation, nicknamed the Algatron, used these specially cultivated algae in a matrix of transparent tubes. The algae’s photosynthetic response to controlled light inputs generated measurable electrical potential differences that could be harnessed as computational elements. In essence, they created a biological logic gate system decades before synthetic biology would attempt similar feats.
Technical Implementation and Capabilities
The Algatron’s core mechanism relied on the algae’s natural response to light. When illuminated, the algae's photosynthetic process created a small but measurable electrical potential. The team created a system capable of performing basic arithmetic operations by arranging algae tubes in specific patterns and controlling light inputs with mechanical shutters.
The device contained 32 primary algae tubes arranged in a 4×8 grid. Each tube functioned as a primitive computational unit, with the collective response of the system allowing for simple calculations. The setup included a complex array of light sources, mechanical shutters operated by solenoids, and sensitive electrical measuring equipment. Input was provided through punch cards that controlled which light sources would activate, while output was recorded on a modified seismograph drum that tracked electrical potential changes.
The Algatron could perform basic addition and subtraction with numbers between 0 and 15 with surprising reliability. While painfully slow by modern standards—taking approximately 7-8 minutes per calculation—it demonstrated remarkable efficiency in terms of energy consumption, requiring only light and minimal nutrients to operate. The algae cultures needed replacement only every three to four weeks, making the system largely self-sustaining compared to the constant maintenance required by vacuum tube systems.
Morowitz and Bigelow documented successful runs of over 200 consecutive calculations without error, an impressive feat for such an unconventional approach. They even developed a rudimentary memory system using algae with slower response rates, allowing it to “store” numbers between calculations by maintaining certain tubes in an activated state.
The Algatron’s Demise and Legacy
Despite initial interest, the Algatron project was discontinued in 1955. The rapid advancement of transistor-based computing made biological approaches seem impractical by comparison. Bell Labs’ transistor technology promised faster, smaller, and increasingly reliable electronic computers, shifting funding and scientific attention away from alternative computing paradigms.
Morowitz and Bigelow attempted to secure additional funding by highlighting Algatron’s unique advantages—its self-repairing nature (as the algae continuously reproduced), extremely low power requirements, and potential for scaling. However, the computing landscape was moving decisively toward electronic systems. The Carnegie Institute ultimately redirected funding to more conventional computing research, and the Algatron became little more than a footnote in computing history.
Only three scientific papers were published on the device, appearing in obscure interdisciplinary journals with limited circulation. The original prototype was dismantled, with some components repurposed for other research projects. Bigelow returned to electronic computing work, while Morowitz continued his biophysics research, occasionally referencing the Algatron in lectures as an interesting but failed experiment.
For decades, the concept remained largely forgotten until the emergence of modern biocomputing in the 1990s. In a curious historical twist, researchers at the University of Washington uncovered Morowitz’s original notes in 2012 while digitizing Carnegie Institute archives. Modern biocomputing researchers were surprised to discover that many of their conceptual approaches had been anticipated by the Algatron team nearly 60 years earlier.
Modern Relevance and Rediscovery
Today, as researchers explore DNA computing, engineered bacteria logic gates, and other biological computing paradigms, the Algatron represents a fascinating early attempt to merge biology and computation. Modern biocomputing systems have achieved far greater complexity, but the fundamental insight—that living systems can process information in ways analogous to electronic computers—was demonstrated by this obscure 1950s experiment.
The Algatron’s approach offers intriguing parallels to contemporary concerns. As computing faces increasing energy consumption challenges, the extreme efficiency of biological computing systems has renewed relevance. Modern researchers working on “green computing” have found inspiration in Algatron’s minimal energy requirements and self-sustaining nature.
In 2018, a team at MIT created a working replica of the Algatron using Morowitz’s original specifications, confirming that the unusual computing approach was viable. Using modern measurement equipment, they verified performance characteristics that exceeded what Morowitz and Bigelow had been able to document with 1950s instrumentation. The replica now resides in the MIT Museum as a testament to an unconventional path in computing history that was abandoned but may have been decades ahead of its time.
The story of the Algatron reminds us that the history of technology is not a linear progression but rather a complex landscape in which promising approaches are sometimes set aside, only to be rediscovered generations later when their time has finally come. In an era of increasing interest in alternative computing architectures, biological computing, and sustainable technology, the forgotten Algatron offers both a historical perspective and potential inspiration for future innovation.