Gif and image written into the DNA of bacteria

bbc ^ | Paul Rincon

[BenLurkin]

An image and short film has been encoded in DNA, using the units of inheritance as a medium for storing information.

Using a genome editing tool known as Crispr, US scientists inserted a gif - five frames of a horse galloping - into the DNA of bacteria.

Then the team sequenced the bacterial DNA to retrieve the gif and the image, verifying that the microbes had indeed incorporated the data as intended.

In order to insert this information into the genomes of bacteria, the researchers transferred the image and the movie onto nucleotides (building blocks of DNA), producing a code that related to the individual pixels of each image.

The researchers then employed the Crispr platform, in which two proteins are used to insert genetic code into the DNA of target cells - in this case, those of E.coli bacteria.

For the gif, sequences were delivered frame-by-frame over five days to the bacterial cells.

The data were spread across the genomes of multiple bacteria, rather than just one, explained co-author Seth Shipman, from Harvard University in Massachusetts.

"The information is not contained in a single cell, so each individual cell may only see certain bits or pieces of the movie. So what we had to do was reconstruct the whole movie from the different pieces," Dr Shipman told the BBC.

...

To "read" the information back, the researchers sequenced the bacterial DNA and used custom computer code to unscramble the genetic information, which spits out the images.

[a fool in paradise]

Viral marketing?

[Fai Mao]

Biological information storage?

[goodnesswins]

That’s a scary thought...”viral marketing”

[UCANSEE2]

Biological information storage?

Yeah, but the download speed is about 1 Megabyte PER DAY. Which is faster than my internet connection the past two weeks.

[plain talk]

possible opportunities here in the world of espionage

[InterceptPoint]

We live in a very different world than the one our parents were born into.

[VRW Conspirator]

Viral marketing?

Unless you are talking about Viagra or Trojan, then it is virile marketing.

[BenLurkin]

I would happily travel back 100 years and live out my final years starting in 1917.

[Tucker39]

I’d go back, but not that far. I’d be happy picking up in 1947, after WWII was over. And knowing what I know now, I could cope pretty well.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Junk DNA?”

[ProtectOurFreedom]

So cool they encoded five frames of a horse galloping. Who understands the homage they are making?

[time4good]

That reminds me - I have to re-watch Johnny Mnemonic with Keanu Reeves

[bitt]

you should read “Time and Again” by Jack Finney, and the following book “From Time to Time” - from 1888 to 1917. Great books.

[RegulatorCountry]

The fifth horseman of the Apocalypse?

[bk1000]

I’m guessing its because the first moving picture displayed was of a horse galloping.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Right you are! Eduard Muybridge at Stanford University.

Wiki: "In 1872, the former governor of California, Leland Stanford, a businessman and race-horse owner, hired Muybridge for some photographic studies. He had taken a position on a popularly debated question of the day — whether all four feet of a horse were off the ground at the same time while trotting. In 1872, Muybridge began experimenting with an array of 12 cameras photographing a galloping horse in a sequence of shots. His initial efforts seemed to prove that Stanford was right, but he didn’t have the process perfected. The same question had arisen about the actions of horses during a gallop. The human eye could not break down the action at the quick gaits of the trot and gallop. Up until this time, most artists painted horses at a trot with one foot always on the ground...Between 1878 and 1884, Muybridge perfected his method of horses in motion, proving that they do have all four hooves off the ground during their running stride. In 1872, Muybridge settled Stanford's question with a single photographic negative showing his Standardbred trotting horse named Occident, airborne at the trot."

[Buttons12]

I have a toaster that can do this with bread. Kind of.

[HereInTheHeartland]

I just want to got back to 1976 with $1,000 to invest in Apple

[zeugma]

I just want to got back to 1976 with $1,000 to invest in Apple

Actually, if you were smart, you'd invest it all in Microsoft. Then, right before the year 2000, say November 1999 or so, convert it all into Apple. You'd probably end up a billionaire.