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This might look like an ordinary 3D printed
plastic bunny.
But unlike most figurines, it contains the
DNA blueprints for its own creation.
If you clip off a tiny piece of its ear, you
can sequence that DNA
and obtain the plans you need to print another
bunny.
It’s a new way of storing information.
Or, I guess, a new twist on an old way.
The research team that created it call it
the “DNA of Things”:
digital data gets encoded into DNA molecules
which are then embedded into larger physical
objects.
And they think it could change the way we
transmit and store information.
It’s well established that DNA can store
lots of information in small packages
after all, each of your cells, which are pretty
tiny,
contains the blueprints for an entire human.
And scientists have figured out how to tap
into this data-storing power.
They can convert the ones and zeros of digital
information
into the As, Ts, Cs, and Gs of DNA.
And that lets them store information in a
ridiculously tiny amount of space.
We’re talking about up to two hundred fifteen
petabytes per gram of DNA.
That’s two hundred fifteen with fifteen
zeros on the end.
Plus, unlike a computer chip, this information
can be stored in pretty much any shape.
That’s what really excited the research
group behind the bunny,
which was part of a paper published this week
in Nature Biotechnology.
The team first figured out how to put designed
DNA molecules
into tiny glass beads so they could withstand
high temperatures
and many of the chemical reactions that can
damage DNA.
Then, they put those beads into a kind of
plastic that can be used in 3D printing.
And here’s where the research group got
real clever.
Since the blueprints for 3D printed objects
are digital files,
they decided to embed the plans for an object
in the object itself.
The research team took the files for a 3D
printed bunny
and encoded them into a DNA sequence.
They then inserted many copies of that DNA
into silica beads,
and then added those beads to the plastic
material that was used to print the bunny.
The end product was a plastic bunny that contains
the instructions for making itself.
Just like we do!
...not exactly like we do.
And the researchers demonstrated that it retains
that information over time.
They clipped one one hundredth of a gram of
material from the bunny’s ear
and ran it through a DNA sequencer to decode
the plans.
Then, they used those plans to print another
bunny.
They successfully repeated this process of
printing and recovering DNA four times.
They even waited nine months after printing
the fourth copy of the bunny
before extracting its DNA, and they still
got enough data to make a fifth copy.
Now, it’s not hard to imagine using this
kind of technology to hide secret messages,
like in a spy movie.
After all, to the naked eye, you can’t tell
that the bunny figurine is different
from any other.
And to take this secret data idea one step
further,
the group encoded a two-minute long YouTube
video in some DNA beads,
and then added them to a kind of plexiglass
to make a pair of lenses.
WHICH I’M WEARING RIGHT NOW.
I’m not.
That was a lie.
But they did put the lenses in an ordinary
frame,
and it looked like a regular old pair of glasses.
But this tech isn’t just for covert ops.
The researchers hope it can prove useful in
all sorts of ways.
Like, building relevant medical records into
a pacemaker or other implant,
so they’re accessible years or decades down
the line
even if the electronic records are lost.
The method could even be used to build self-replicating
machines.
Though, we’re not quite there yet, since
the bunny would need to have
a built-in sequencer and also, the plans for
a 3D printer in its DNA, as well.
Speaking of self-replication, though
researchers may have found a new, low maintenance
way to prevent pregnancy.
In a study published in Science Translational
Medicine,
the MIT-based team unveiled a new once a month
birth control pill.
Oral contraceptives or “birth control pills”
are great in many ways.
You can administer them yourself in the privacy
of your own home.
And they’re accessible to people in areas
where doctors trained
to implant long-term contraceptive devices
are too few and far between or cost too much.
The trick is that for them to be most effective,
you have to stick to a strict daily schedule.
And humans aren’t always great at that.
So scientists wondered if they could design
a pill that you’d only need to take
once a month, as fewer pills generally means
better adherence to the regimen.
The challenge was to design something that
didn’t immediately pass through the gut
and that would maintain consistent drug levels
for at least three weeks.
The first part was accomplished by creating
a foldable device that fits in a gel capsule.
After the pill is swallowed, the stomach acid
dissolve the capsule,
allowing the device to unfold into an asterisk-like
shape
with a width of about 5.5 centimeters—too
big to pass into the intestines.
As for delivering drugs, the device is made
with a special
digestion-resistant silicone and loaded with
the synthetic hormone levonorgestrel.
So, in theory, it should act kind of like
an implanted device,
and slowly release the hormone over time.
In theory doesn’t really matter as much
as in practice, though,
so the team ran a trial in pigs.
They compared two different formulations of
the device
to a typical daily birth control pill.
And, as expected, the daily pill created a
quick hormone spike
that lasted less than 48 hours.
But the better of the two slow-release devices
kept the hormone level elevated for weeks.
Plus, the devices themselves stayed in the
pigs’ stomachs as planned.
That doesn’t mean this monthly birth control
is ready for people, though.
The researchers only measured the presence
of the drug,
not its ability to prevent pregnancy.
That’s what they plan to look at next
as well as how to get the device out when
the month is over,
because apparently they have not figured that
out yet and it seems important.
So, obviously, follow up studies are needed
before this kind of pill can be tried in humans.
But if it does pan out, it could make birth
control more accessible,
especially in places where implantable devices
are hard to come by
for economic or cultural reasons.
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow
News!
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