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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

A ‘molecular thumb drive’ stores big files in small droplets

Information is encoded in spots made of assorted substances.
Composite image of Cat image stored in metabolites and original artwork of Cat Killing a Serpent

A painting of a cat (right) was stored in digital form in chemical spots, which could be ‘read’ to reconstruct the image (left). Credit: Left:Eamonn Kennedy/Chris Arcadia/Brown University Right:Charles K. Wilkinson/Rogers Fund

Droplets of small molecules such as amino acids and sugars hold promise as a highly efficient data-storage system.

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Nature 571, 148-149 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02070-0

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