We built a computer out of chemicals that solves impossible math problems just as fast whether the numbers are tiny or trillions of digits long.
April 13, 2026
Original Paper
Computing with reaction networks at input-independent speed: exponential and logarithmic functions
arXiv · 2604.08859
The Takeaway
Unlike digital computers that take more time for bigger numbers, these reaction networks compute at 'input-independent' speeds. This suggests a future for analog chemical processors that could handle massive data scales with incredible efficiency.
From the abstract
The concept of input-independent computational time for chemistry-based analog computers was introduced in Anderson-Joshi(2025), where it was shown that arithmetic operations can be computed in a fixed time independent of the input values. Here, by inputs we mean the numerical values encoded by the initial concentrations of designated input species, with the underlying reaction network and rate constants held fixed. Combining these operations via power series to approximate transcendental functi