USA - A Piece of Plastic Password
“Molecules can store information for very long periods without needing power. Nature has given us the proof of principle that this works,” said study co-author Praveen Pasupathy, an electrical engineer at the University of Texas at Austin in a statement from Cell Press. “This is the first attempt to write information in a building block of a plastic that can then be read back using electrical signals, which takes us a step closer to storing information in an everyday material.”
And even the most sophisticated data storage devices can only stably store information for up to 10 years. Molecules like DNA are a promising alternative, as they can store large amounts of information for a long time and with very little energy cost. But actually accessing this information is the hard part, often requiring specialized equipment like mass spectrometers.
“Our approach has the potential to be scaled down to smaller, more economical devices compared to traditional spectrometry-based systems,” Eric Anslyn, a professor in chemistry the University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement from Cell Press. “It opens exciting prospects for interfacing chemical encoding with modern electronic systems and devices.”
-gizmodo.com, 16 May 2025
Arno's Commentary
When it comes to inventions, our minds are directed toward Ecclesiastes 12:12: “And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”
We do well to adhere to the definition of the real wisdom: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33).
Storing precise identification is the issue. Each new discovery or invention labels the previous one old, but there is an eternal one: “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
