New Ink Allows Authors to Embed Their DNA into Their Work

Over the centuries of history, the works of certain authors have been given a more "personal" touch. Some chose to have a copy of their book bound in their own skin after their death. Others have written in their blood. Now, Ko-Sin Printing in Tokyo is offering people the ability to incorporate their DNA or that of their pets into a special ink destined for the printing press.

Ko-Sin has patented the process for allowing authors to send a sample of hair, fingernail, or such material to be used in printing their books. It claims that this process allows genetic information to be extracted from the books printed with the special DNA ink.

Whether this is true or not, it certainly gives one pause for thought. In the future, is this the sort of thing which would "embody" an author's message tastefully? Or is it another fad at which later generations will wonder? Will a book with your DNA or that of a favorite pet risk getting damaged because of some later person's desire to attempt a cloning? Or will it remain on the shelf, undamaged, a nice testimony to the achievements of the modern times whereby a person may truly personalize his or her creation with their DNA?

After all, at this time in history, books written in blood or bound by or written on human skin (anthropodermic bindings and sheets) are rare. It is repulsive for those of our times to think of the origin of these books. Even the less gruesome sentimental practice of keeping locks of hair has died out. Could DNA ink printing be numbered among these practices? Will it fade into oblivion? Or will it increase the number of this peculiar sentimental encasement of an author to be treasured in limited editions?

Coming at it from another angle, the ability to clone an animal from the DNA extracted from the pages of a book may be the single most important benefit that might be available to the owner or future owners of the book. Perhaps your cat may be able to be cloned centuries later from the DNA in its biography. Or if cloning was more widespread, perhaps you could collecting and selling pedigree certificates with a "tear off" section for the DNA to be removed without damaging the entire certificate. Whether that's ideal or not, though, is an entirely different issue.

As this DNA ink blending process is very new, time and thought will give us answers to these and other questions that will inevitably arise.

For now, though, I recommend that we stick to more conventional ways of remembering a person or pet. Also, I would venture to guess that Associated Content is one publishing entity that will probably not consider the possibility of competing with Ko-Sin. After all, how would you get DNA to show up in real-life form on the computer screen?