On Pseudorandom Number Generation from Programmable and Computable Biomolecules: Deoxyribonucleic (DNA) as a Novel Pseudorandom Number Generator

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) computing has extended the frontiers of computer science. The field has made possible the creation of programmable DNA molecules that perform complex calculations and autonomous DNA machines. Random numbers are a sequence of numbers that lack any pattern. A random number Generator (RNG) is a computational device designed to generate random numbers. The many applications of random numbers include cryptography, statistical sampling, numerical simulation of physical and biological systems, and lotteries. Random numbers are usually generated by sampling entropy in physical phenomena and processing it through a computer. Examples of such phenomena include a radioactive source, atmospheric noise, and quantum mechanics. Random numbers are hard to characterize mathematically, such that even though there exists several statistical tests to verify the absence of certain patterns in a stream of numbers, no finite set of tests exists for characterizing randomness in numbers, as there may be patterns not considered by such tests. This paper discusses the generation of pseudorandom numbers from DNA Watson-Crick units. 1000 numbers from an experimental DNA segment passed two statistical tests for randomness. This work also reports what might be a breakthrough in DNA structural analysis: the Poisson distribution of DNA bases and amino acids.