Spurred by the advancement in synthetic biology (Gibson et al., 2010) at the J. Craig Venter Research Institute the editors of Cognitive Computation Journal (Springer Publishers) invite submissions to a special issue on biological substrates as a computational diaphragm. This topic leads to further research questions on computation and the bio-signals produced by living organisms.

We anticipate submissions will contribute to the identification of a new breed of technologies: 1.) bio-computing applications (synthetic biology); 2.) chemical/microbial induced biological configurations;3.) enhancing cognition and animal models; and 4.) neuroengineering sensory circuits and clinical/biomedical research. This special issue will provide a forum for interdisciplinary discussion that points towards the next step in cognition and computing through the excitability of biological substrates.