>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Wed Jun 09 17:27:24 EDT 1999
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: personal encryption?
>
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_365000/365183.stm
>
>Wednesday, June 9, 1999 Published at 19:04 GMT 20:04 UK
>
>Sci/Tech
>DNA hides spy message
>
...
>Message in a marker
>
>The first step of the technique is to use a simple code to convert
>the letters of the alphabet into combinations of the four bases
>which make up DNA. Next a piece of DNA spelling out the
>message is synthetically created.
>
>This is slipped into a normal piece of human DNA, with short
>marker sequences added at each end.
>
>The secret message DNA strand is then mixed with ordinary DNA
>strands of similar length. The resulting mixture is dried on to
>paper which can then be cut into tiny dots. Only one strand in every
>30 billion contains the message, making finding the message a
>fiendishly difficult task.
>
>"To try and identify it within that complexity, when all the strands
>appear absolutely identical would be, we think, virtually impossible,"
>says Dr Taylor Clelland.
>
>The key to unravelling the message is knowing what the markers
>at each end of the DNA message are. These allow the message
>recipient to use a standard biotechnology technique, the polymerase
>chain reaction, to multiply only the DNA which contains the message.
>
>This DNA can then be sequenced and the message read.
>
It seems to me that you could use the DNA encodings for common words like
"the" and "and" as a marker for PCR. A soop of such initiators, followed by
a gel for the longest fragments should crack this code quickly. You might
need a second "backwards" PCR step to recover the very begining of the
message.
Arnold Reinhold
