The first commercially available book printed in DNA is now available from Asimov Press and CATALOG, a DNA printing company.
Embracing the book’s technology theme, we did something very special: With the help of three companies — CATALOG, Imagene, and Plasmidsaurus — we’ve encoded a complete copy of the book into DNA, thus merging bits with atoms.
This is the first commercially-available book to be written in DNA and sold in both mediums; as physical books and nucleic acids. We are deeply grateful to those who helped make it possible.
CATALOG, a DNA computing company, synthesized and assembled millions of nucleotides of DNA into thousands of individual strands in their Boston laboratories. That DNA was then shipped to France, where Imagene, a company specializing in robust and room-temperature storage solutions, packaged the molecules into laser-sealed, stainless steel capsules. Each capsule was sealed under an inert atmosphere — meaning there is no oxygen or moisture inside the capsule — preserving the DNA inside for tens of thousands of years. And finally, Plasmidsaurus “read” the DNA book at their headquarters in California and submitted the final sequence to the internet for everyone to enjoy. You can check out the book’s DNA sequence at CATALOG’s website...
In her 1982 novel The Time of the Dark, author Barbara Hambly described how human memories could be reproduced and tied to the genetic material of a lineal descendant chain:
"We have all talked of the heritable memories of the House of Dare," she went on... maybe the old wizards, the engineers who raised the Keep, knew that records do get lost, especially when, as you said, fire is the principal weapon."
Gil's finger stabbed out like a sword. "They tied the memory to the bloodline and that was their record! A record that wouldn't get lost and couldn't be destroyed."
(Read more about Heritable Memories Bloodline)
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 2/17/2025)
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'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
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