Cramming biology on silicon is not a new effort, and it’s one that has helped advance the science of genomics and led to the $1,000 genome. But in the last few weeks, I’ve noticed some pretty sweet combinations of biology and chip research. They will first end up helping biological research and test new drug compounds, but in the future might become something out of Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity, the melding of man and machine.

A gut chip for a gut check: You and I might not want a chip that mimics the entire process of a human digestive system including peristalsis and living bacteria, but folks trying to test out drugs do. And now, thanks to researchers at Harvard University they have one. The lab-on-chip uses two thin channels coated in a biological growth medium and human intestinal cells to create a mini-intestine that apparently can…