by John McCaskill Biomolecular computing, computations performed
by biomolecules, is challenging traditional approaches to
computation both theoretically and technologically. Often placed
within the wider context of natural or even unconventional
computing, the study of natural and artificial molecular
computations is adding to our understanding both of biology and
computer science well beyond the framework of neuroscience. The
papers in this special theme document only a part of an
increasing involvement of Europe in this far reaching
undertaking. In this introduction, I wish to outline the current
scope of the field and assemble some basic arguments that
biomolecular computation is of central importance to both
computer science and biology. Readers will also find arguments
for not dismissing DNA Computing as limited to exhaustive search
and for a qualitatively distinctive advantage over all other
types of computation including quantum computing. The idea that
molecular systems can perform computations is no