The result was an object that contained, encoded throughout its structure, the blueprints necessary to produce more copies of itself.結果得到了一個物體，其整個結構中都含有并編碼了制造更多副本所必需的藍圖。By clipping a tiny fragment of plastic from the finished bunny's ear and running the DNA within through a sequencer,通過從成品兔子耳朵上剪下一小塊塑料碎片，并通過測序器對里面的DNA進行檢測，the researchers were able to recover those blueprints and use them to make further generations of DNA-infused bunnies.研究人員能夠復原這些藍圖，并利用它們制造出更多代的注入DNA的兔子。Satisfied with their proof of concept, they then repeated the trick by encoding a short video in DNA and fusing it in plexiglass, a transparent plastic.對他們的概念證明感到滿意后，他們通過在DNA中編碼一段短視頻并將其融合在樹脂玻璃（一種透明塑料）中，重復了這一把戲。They used the plexiglass to make a lens for a pair of spectacles.他們用這種樹脂玻璃做了一副眼鏡的鏡片。Once again, clipping a tiny sliver from the lens and dissolving the plastic away was able to liberate the DNA, which could be used to recover the video.然后再從鏡片中剪下一小塊并且將它溶解，并釋放出可以用來恢復這段視頻DNA。The cost of both producing and reading DNA is falling precipitously.產生和讀取DNA的成本都在急劇下降。The price of reading a million letters of the genetic alphabet has fallen roughly a million-fold since the start of the millennium.自2000年以來，讀取100萬個基因字母的價格已經下降了大約100萬倍。

For that reason, Drs Erlich and Grass hope their idea might one day have all sorts of uses.出于這個原因，Erlich和Grass博士希望他們的想法有一天能有各種各樣的用途。One, they think, could be to embed relevant information into manufactured goods.其一，他們認為可以將相關信息嵌入到制成品中。They give the example of custom-fitted medical implants that contain a patient's medical records and the precise measurements needed to make another implant.他們給出了定制醫療醫學植入體的例子，這些植入體中包含病人的醫療記錄，以及制作另一個植入體所需的精確測量數據。A second use, for the privacy-minded, could be steganography—第二個用途，對于注重隱私的人來說，可以是速記式加密—the art of concealing information within something apparently innocuous (this was the idea behind the DNA-infused spectacles).是一種將信息隱藏到看似無害的東西里的藝術（這就是注入DNA眼鏡背后的想法）。Their most futuristic idea is an entire world full of objects which, like biological life,他們最具未來感的想法是一整個充滿物體的世界，就像生物生命一樣，contain all the information needed to make copies of themselves in every part of their structure.世界中包含在結構的各個部分復制自己所需的信息。Drs Erlich and Grass have dubbed their technology the "DNA of things", and it is certainly a clever idea.Erlich和Grass博士稱他們的技術為“事物的DNA”，這確實是一個聰明的想法。But the next job might be to come up with a snappier name.但下一項工作可能是想出一個更時髦的名字。

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