• Text size      
  • Send this article to a friend
  • Print this article

the genome is out of the bottle

THEY say everyone has a novel inside them – and now that may be literally true.

And not just a novel, but a whole library and perhaps a couple of concert halls too.

Scientists in Cambridge have apparently spelled out all of Shakespeare's sonnets in DNA (warning: next two sentences incomprehensible: you might want to make tea and rejoin us a little lower down). They used a code that turns every block of eight numbers in a digital code into five letters of DNA. Simple. Thus "thou" from "thou art more lovely and more temperate" becomes TAGATGTGTACAGACTACGC. At least, that's what they say.

Contextual targeting label: 
Arts and Entertainment

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.