Researchers Use DNA To Record a Cell's Life History 48
sciencehabit writes If cells could talk, they'd have quite a story to tell: Their life history would include what molecules they'd seen passing by, which signals they'd sent to neighbors, and how they'd grown and changed. Researchers haven't quite given cells a voice, but they have now furnished them with a memory of sorts—one that's designed to record bits of their life history over the span of several weeks. The new method uses strands of DNA to store the data in a way that scientists can then read. Eventually, it could turn cells into environmental sensors, enabling them to report on their exposure to particular chemicals, among other applications.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Music_(novel)
A good book, but IIRC, that was about sentient cells, not memory recording.
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Read that a couple years back, loved it--didn't realize it was so old. I definitely recommend it, it's fun to see a sci-fi book that takes its idea and just keeps running with it for a lot longer than you'd expect.
Raquel Welch reference (Score:2)
Perfect for ratting you out to health insurance (Score:2)
...so they can deny your claim and get you turned into soylent faster! Go future, go!
Soon to be a basic tool of synthetic biology (Score:2)
Ever try debugging without having something like a log-file available?
a reprogrammable protein factory (Score:1)
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It will give "Terrorist Cell" a whole new meaning!