This Plastic Bunny is Filled With Artificial DNA. The Data Inside: More Bunnies – Discover Magazine

Manufacturing tiny plastic bunnies with a 3D printer isn’t anything new. But the toys described in a new Nature Biotechnology paper have an unexpected twist — the bunnies contain the very information needed to make more of them.

Produced from a partnership between Israeli and Swiss labs, the figurines encase synthetic DNA that holds the code required to 3D print more bunnies. In further tests, they were able to extract the computer code and “reproduce” the bunnies, the researchers write. It’s a proof-of-concept that showcases DNA’s potential as a hyper-dense medium for future data…