The Genesis Code Read Online Free PDF Page B

Genomics. She was still seething from her confrontation with the protesters on the street, and her eyes glinted with anger. Security officer Michael Zoovas looked up as she approached.
    “Mornin’, Dr. Nguyen.”
    “Good morning. Mr. Zoovas, would you kindly phone the NYPD and inform them that a group of protesters has assembled on the street in front of the building? They have apparently chosen the Biogenetics Conference as a venue to air their opposition to stem cell research. And probably to science and progress in general.”
    Zoovas tried not to smile.
    “I was harassed by one of them when I entered the building.”
    “Yes, ma’am. I’ll inform the police. I’ll alert Mr. Crowe as well.”
    “Thank you,” she said, rapping her knuckles on the countertop as she passed.
    Zoovas picked up the phone at his desk and dialed a number he knew by heart from his years on the force. “John? Michael Zoovas here…I’m doing well, and yourself? Listen, we have a bit of a problem over here at the Millennium Tower…”
    Four minutes later, after alerting the NYPD to the presence of the protesters downstairs and dispatching a brief e-mail report to Omar Crowe, Zoovas turned his attention back to the security monitors arrayed behind the security desk.
    Several black and white displays showed images from security cameras located throughout the thirty-fourth floor. Zoovas also kept an eye on the small color television set he had placed unobtrusively beneath the security monitors. On the TV screen, a BBC reporter was doing the lead-in for an interview with a distinguished-looking woman in a crisp white lab coat.
    “…Dr. Bancroft has found a way to use the information-carrying capacity of DNA to transmit and receive secret messages. Espionage has embraced biotechnology with Dr. Bancroft’s creation of the microdot, which conceals secret messages in the immense complexity of human DNA.”
    Zoovas turned the volume on the TV set up a notch.
    “In a recent experiment, Dr. Bancroft’s team of researchers proved that the DNA microdot technique works. An account of this remarkable experiment was published this month in the highly respected scientific journal Nature. With us today is Dr. Catherine Bancroft, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Dr. Bancroft, can you explain to us what you’ve achieved in this experiment?”
    “Hey, Occam, check this out,” said Zoovas.
    Occam stepped over and peered at the small TV over Zoovas’s shoulder. On the screen, Dr. Bancroft folded her hands and gathered her thoughts.
    “What we’ve done is encode a short, four-word secret message using the natural properties of human DNA. We’ve created a way to transmit a coded message in DNA that is completely undetectable,” she replied.
    The reporter leaned forward.
    “And how was this accomplished, in layman’s terms, Dr. Bancroft?”
    “Well, the first step of the technique is to use a simple code to convert the letters of the alphabet into combinations of the chemical bases which make up DNA.”
    The reporter looked puzzled.
    “And how is the coded message inserted into a strand of DNA?”
    “Once the message is encoded, a piece of DNA spelling out the message is synthetically created. It contains the secret message in the middle, plus short marker sequences at each end. This is slipped into a normal piece of human DNA.”
    “Remarkable,” said the reporter. “And how would the message be decoded by the person who receives it?”
    “The key to unraveling the message is knowing what the markers at each end of the DNA message are. The markers allow the message recipient to use a standard biotechnology technique, the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, to multiply only the DNA that contains the message.”
    “I’m afraid that’s way above my head, Dr. Bancroft.”
    “Let me put it this way. If the recipient of the message knows where to look for the message in the strand of DNA, that portion of the DNA can then be