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From: landman@SUN.COM (Howard A. Landman)
Newsgroups: sci.nanotech
Subject: Re: the "mold" standard
Message-ID: <8906150843.AA06267@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 89 00:11:20 GMT
References: <8906130724.AA21679@athos.rutgers.edu>
Sender: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu
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Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu

In article <8906130724.AA21679@athos.rutgers.edu> "Ron_Fischer.mvenvos"@XEROX.COM writes:
>In "Blade Runner" Deckard identifies
>the genetic engineer who created an artificial snake using such embedded
>"version and author" codes.  In most objects there would be alot of room to
>hide such info.

I wouldn't exactly turn to "Blade Runner" for accurate technical ideas.
Consider that the identifying marks are found on a scale from the snake.
Consider that snakes don't HAVE scales; just skin that's folded up in a
scaly manner.  Only fishes have true scales.

Regardless, I think this sort of ID may already be used.  I seem to remember
an article on genetic engineering where the company inserted a special
sequence of DNA which included its name or initials encoded into the base
pairs, along with the sequence that actually did the job.  Since the
initialization of RNA transcription happens only at certain sites, it's
fairly easy to bury DNA that has no meaning as protein in a longer sequence,
and be sure that it won't express itself.  Still it will be replicated, and
can be tested for using a radioactively labelled complementary strand.  You
can bet some patent-violation suit in the near future will take advantage of
such technology (unless it's all settled out of court).

	Howard A. Landman
	landman@sun.com