---
title: Data Stored in DNA? Self-Healing Wires?
description: Data Stored in DNA? Self-Healing Wires?
---

[JoVE BLOG | JoVE](https://blog.jove.com)

# [Data Stored in DNA? Self-Healing Wires?](https://blog.jove.com/scientist-blog/data-stored-in-dna-self-healing-wires)

 Written by [Neal Moawed](https://blog.jove.com/author/neal-moawed) | Jan 24, 2013 5:00:00 AM

Time again for your weekly headlines from across the scientific world:

- Can human beings use DNA as a long-term data storage device? Scientists from the UK’s European Bioinformatics Institute have developed a technique to [store data in DNA with a 99.9% accuracy](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature11875.html). Some of the first items stored: Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and Watson and Crick's paper describing the structure of DNA.
- Ever wonder what happens in the brain while you read silently? A new study in Journal of Neuroscience shows that the [areas of the brain associated with voice](http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2013/01/23/silent-reading-isnt-so-silent-at-least-not-to-your-brain/) are activated when a person silently reads, and is evidence that different areas of the brain (visual and auditory) work together to communicate.

- <https://blog.jove.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/4327pr-1-1.jpg?hsLang=en>Researchers from IBM and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore have worked together to create special [antimicrobial hydrogels](http://www.research.ibm.com/articles/hydrogel.shtml). These water soluble, biodegradable gels disrupt biofilm production to kill even drug resistant bacteria.
- Have your headphones ever stopped working because the wire breaks? There may be a solution. Chemical and molecular biologists from North Carolina State University have made [new wires that are elastic and self-repairing](http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wms-dickey-healing-wires-2013/) thanks to self-healing polymers and liquid conductive wires.
- Stem cell biologists at Kyoto University have developed [kidney tissue from induced pluripotent stem cells](http://japandailypress.com/kyoto-university-researchers-create-kidney-tissue-from-stem-cells-2321994). This is an important first step towards developing functional kidney replacements, which could save the lives of the more than 4500 people who die waiting for a kidney transplant every year.

Make sure to check back next week for more headlines from the scientific community, and check out all of the cutting edge research from *JoVE*, the world's first [peer-reviewed, pub-med indexed video methods journal.](http://www.jove.com)

[View full post](https://blog.jove.com/scientist-blog/data-stored-in-dna-self-healing-wires)

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