An MIT biotechnology researcher was able to run the iconic computer game Loss using real gut bacteria. Lauren Ramlan didn't run the game on a digital simulation of bacteria, but turned real bacteria into pixels to display the 30-year-old FPS, as reported Paper-stone pump action shotgun.
Specifically, Ramlan created a display inside a cell wall composed entirely of E. coli bacteria. The 32 x 48 1-bit display might not win any resolution awards, but that doesn't matter, right? It is Loss working on bacteria. The researcher dosed the bacteria with fluorescent proteins so that they lit up like digital pixels.
There are some caveats here. First of all, bacteria don't actually run the game, because we still haven't been able to solve the “injection of biological matter with digital code” problem. Instead, the bacteria combine to act like a tiny monitor that renders gameplay of the beloved shooter.
There's also the topic of frame rate, which is always an important metric when considering FPS games. To be frank, the frame rate is atrocious, probably due to the fact that bacteria were never meant to display 3D video games. It takes 70 minutes for the bacteria to illuminate an image of the game and another eight hours to return to its starting state. That works out to almost nine hours per frame, meaning it would take around 600 years to play the game from start to finish. It's even worse than Cyberpunk 2077 during launch.
So while this won't present the smoothest gaming experience, it's still a pretty nifty idea. This also proves the theory that Loss can work on just about anything. We saw the game take pregnancy tests, rat brain neurons and even within other titles, like the following Destiny II And Minecraft. Loss is the great equalizer. May it continue to surprise us over the next 30 years.