A secret message hidden in the ink that was used to write a letter has been used to open a text file of a book.
ChrisStokel-Walker
This letter was written using ink that contained data.
It was adapted from the Central Science of the American Chemical Society.
A text file of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz can be unlocked with the help of a hidden message written in ink that can hold data.
Eric Anslyn and his colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a method of hiding messages inside each other.
The team created a cipher key using a common method of cryptanalysis. The group took the cipher key and put it into eight different types of polymers.
Anslyn said that the units along the sequence can carry a sequence of information.
There were 10 smaller compounds called monomers that were used to make the polymers. The details of the key are held by the middle eight monomers, with one on each side acting as the key's synthesiser and decode.
The team mixed the ingredients together to make an ink. The researchers used the ink to write a letter and send it to someone else. The group used the cipher key to extract a sample of the ink and then used it to open the file.
Alan Woodward says that the idea of writing a message but not the real one is fascinating.
Anslyn doesn't like hiding information. He wants to store data. He says that the information density in the molecule is higher than on a hard disc.
The journal was published by the central science.
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