Hiding in DNA
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|Ivars Peterson (MathTrek)|
|Spies might have to start boning up on molecular biology to pass along and decipher secret messages. During World War II, German spies used microdots to hide information in plain view. Consisting of a greatly reduced photograph of a typed page, a microdot could be pasted on top of a printed period at the end of a sentence in an otherwise innocuous missive sent between a spy and headquarters personnel. Now, itís possible to encode a message in a strand of DNA, camouflage it among an enormous number of similar molecules, and confine the sample to an area no larger than a microdot...|
|Levels:||High School (9-12), College|
|Math Topics:||Human Biology, Cryptography|
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