Researchers store DNA in amber-like polymer, Jurassic Park–style

In the blockbuster film Jurassic Park , scientists resurrect dinosaurs by extracting DNA that's been preserved in amber for millions of years. Inspired by such natural preservation, researchers have created glassy polymers that store DNA at room temperature and dissolve when needed to release the molecules ( J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c01925 ). This is a step toward low-cost data storage in DNA . The zeros and ones of digital data can be encoded in the four nucleotides that make up DNA molecules. A coffee mug full of DNA could store all the world's data. But DNA decays in days at room temperature, so it is stored today at cryogenic temperatures. "If I wanted to send DNA on a mission to Mars or collect samples in rural Africa, that's not going to work," says James Banal , cofounder of Cache DNA . So he, Massachusetts Institute of Technology