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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 theDNA 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 orbirth control pillsare 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 centimeterstoo 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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