This edition of the South German newspaper is not just a special edition for the 75th anniversary of the Basic Law. In its paper form it is a symbol. The Basic Law is the heritage of democracy and German society. This genetic material is contained in the front page of this paper newspaper in the truest sense of the word. The Basic Law is stored in the ink on this page. This is possible with a new process that works in the same way as biological genetic material. Science fiction? Yes. But synthetic DNA is also the storage medium of the future.
Conventional devices such as hard drives or USB sticks are broken after 40 years. Scientists have now discovered that data can also be stored on molecular strands that correspond to the DNA of the human body, for example. You know them from biology class. This is the double helix with the four letters A, C, G and T in ever new combinations. Nature can read that.
The computer scientist Reinhard Heckel from the Technical University of Munich and the chemist Robert Grass from the ETH Zurich have now found a way to store computer data on DNA, which does not come from humans or animals, but is artificially produced in the laboratory. In the future, data will be preserved for hundreds, if not millions, of years.
Exactly five weeks ago, a book 2 about such new biocomputing technologies appeared in this newspaper. We visited scientists in Germany, Switzerland and the USA. They said that AI is pushing conventional machines to the limits of the laws of nature. Chips couldn’t get much smaller, data storage could no longer get any bigger, and the AI’s neural networks consumed too much power. To do this, they look for solutions in nature.
This synthetic DNA that Heckel and Grass are relying on for the Southgerman newspaper stored a million copies of the Basic Law is hardly visible to the naked eye. It is somewhat reminiscent of the fine sand in an hourglass. This powder was mixed into the ink for the front page at SZ’s four printing locations. This is biologically and chemically harmless. Synthetic DNA has no biological or chemical function. It is already used as an invisible marking, in Europe for textiles and in the USA for food. This is intended to prevent trademark counterfeiting. So people wear them on their bodies or eat them.
As a reader, you cannot yet read the DNA on this page. For Reinhard Heckel and Robert Grass, this campaign is also an experiment. They will dismantle copies of this newspaper in their laboratory and try to reconstruct the Basic Law. That’s still a lot of effort so far. For this page, the SZ also worked with initiator Daniel Koller and the artist Solimán López, who will use this ink for a campaign for democracy lasting several months.
The SZ wants to set an example with the Basic Law in the DNA ink on this front page. For democracy. For civil rights. For the future. We would be pleased if you would keep it as a reminder that not only the Basic Law, but also the free press is one of the pillars of our society.