However, an analysis showed that the distribution of the four building blocks A, C, G, and T was not completely even. This resulted in 12 megabytes of data, which the researchers stored as zeros and ones on a computer. The scientists subsequently used an effective method to determine the DNA sequence of five million of these molecules. The scientists achieved this by using a mixture of the four building blocks, rather than just one, at every step of the synthesis.Īs a result, a relatively simple synthesis produced a combination of approximately three quadrillion individual molecules. In this case, however, the research team built DNA molecules with 64 building block positions, in which one of the four DNA bases A, C, G, and T was randomly located at each position. It is traditionally used to produce a precisely defined DNA sequence. In the past, the ideas put forward by other scientists for generating random numbers by chemical means tended to be largely theoretical.įor this new approach, the researchers applied the synthesis of DNA molecules, an established chemical research method frequently employed over many years. Now, for the first time, researchers have described a non-physical method of generating such numbers: one that uses biochemical signals and actually works in practice.

That means measurements of this background noise can be used to generate true random numbers. For instance, thanks to the tiniest high-frequency electron movements, the electrical resistance of a wire is not constant but instead fluctuates slightly in an unpredictable way. “ has the advantage of being able to generate huge quantities of randomness that can be stored in an extremely small space, a single test tube.”Īs a rule, they are generated using physical methods.

These numbers need to be truly random, such that they cannot even be predicted by people with detailed knowledge of the method used to generate them. True random numbers are required in fields as diverse as slot machines and data encryption. It’s the first time that a number of this magnitude has been created by biochemical means. Researchers have generated a huge true random number using DNA synthesis.

True random number generator algorithm