A new method involving bacteria has been created by science to work as a living invisible ink. Sadly too late for Enid Blyton to incorporate a crude homemade version into one of her many Famous Five, Secret Seven or Five Find-Outers books as she did with ordinary invisible ink (it involves an orange and an iron).
Researchers at Tufts University, US, have decided an orange and an iron isn’t good enough for them to use for secret communication. Instead seven different strains of E. Coli were genetically engineered to produce protein. The protein colonies, when placed under the correct wavelength of light, glow fluorescently.
By printing the different colonies of protein into a grid this method could be used to convey messages which are called SPAM, (Steganography by Printed Arrays of Microbes). As well as secret communications, the microbes could also be used for anti-counterfeiting.
Enid also taught me how, should this ever happen to me, to escape from a locked room. Provided I had paper, the room had floor boards, a gap under the door and the key was left in the lock. Thanks Enid.
Kate
Researchers at Tufts University, US, have decided an orange and an iron isn’t good enough for them to use for secret communication. Instead seven different strains of E. Coli were genetically engineered to produce protein. The protein colonies, when placed under the correct wavelength of light, glow fluorescently.
By printing the different colonies of protein into a grid this method could be used to convey messages which are called SPAM, (Steganography by Printed Arrays of Microbes). As well as secret communications, the microbes could also be used for anti-counterfeiting.
Enid also taught me how, should this ever happen to me, to escape from a locked room. Provided I had paper, the room had floor boards, a gap under the door and the key was left in the lock. Thanks Enid.
Kate
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