Adrien Locatelli from Grenoble, France has become the first human ever to translate a religious text into DNA pattern and inject it into his own body.
"Recent studies have reported that it is possible to convert any type of information into DNA for the purpose of storage. Since it is possible to convert digital information into DNA, I wondered whether it would be possible to convert a religious text into DNA and to inject it in a living being," he wrote.
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DNA, the molecule that contains our genetic information, is made up of four chemicals abbreviated as ACGT (adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine). The experimenter, who is believed to be a high school student, assigned one of these four letters to each character in the verses from Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, excluding 2:10 to 2:14, 5, and 7:1 to 7:5, which he deemed "controversial".
Verses 2:10-14 describe the rivers that watered the Garden of Eden, Verse 5 is an account of Adam's family line, while in 7:1-5, God tells Noah to build an ark because a forty-day flood would soon wipe out all living creatures.
Adrien also "translated" Ar-Ra'd, the 13th surah of the Quran, which is dedicated to the world as the creation of Allah and invokes reward for the righteous and punishment for the disbelievers.
He then injected the substance into his thighs, saying that it caused no harm to his health, expect for swelling in his left leg. Adrien has seemingly carried out a risky experiment on himself out of scientific curiosity rather than practical needs.
"It is the first time that someone injects himself macromolecules developed from a text. It is very symbolic even if it does not have much interest," he claimed.
