Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory is revolutionizing the realm of engineering. Many people associate evolutionary principles solely with biological systems. They are not aware that those same principles can be applied to other 'inorganic' realms, however, such as engineering. In fact, emerging engineering approaches that are based on Darwinian theory, such as bioinformatics and genetic algorithms, are expected to transform the entire field of engineering in the not-so-distant future. Bioinformatics is an emerging discipline that uses advanced database technology to study, analyze, and store massive amounts of information pertaining to molecular biology. It is providing a new way for engineers to apply the design principles found in nature to artificial systems. The more mature discipline of genetic algorithms has already resulted in at least two patented inventions, both of which were designed by using artificial evolutionary principles. Another example of artificial evolution being used in engineering is computational biology software. Chris Adami, a physicist at the Keck Graduate Institute, developed a software system known as Avida, which allows the modeling of evolutionary processes on an abstract level. It takes the basic biological processes of mutation, competition, and replication and applies them, in the form of algorithms, to the design of both hardware and software. Another area in which synthetic evolutionary models are being applied is the field of electronic circuit design.