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Music From DNA Patented

stm2 writes "Two lawyers have patented generating music from a DNA sequence. According to the patent, it covers 'music generated by decoding and transcribing genetic information within a DNA sequence into a music signal having melody and harmony.' A comment to the blog post mentions DNA-derived music being performed at a conference in 1995."

203 comments

  1. Uh... What? by Kid+Zero · · Score: 1

    Why? I just want to know what possible profit/benefit you could find from making music from DNA.

    1. Re:Uh... What? by Jugalator · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's in the end of the patent... Not that it makes much sense to me... I guess there could theoretically be a minority market for it. :-S

      ----

      The music signal generated from the genetic data can be used in a variety of consumer and industrial products and methods. For example, novelty products such as greeting cards, genetic music CDs, and the like can incorporate a person's individual music generated from their own sample of DNA. The specific DNA sequence can be provided to a company for generation of the genetic music. Alternatively, a sample containing the genetic material can be provided for sequencing and generating the music.

      Useful products include individual identity analysis, for example, for security checking, paternity testing, and the like. The music generated by an individual sample can be compared with a control sample. An identity analyzer can be configured to provide an audible signal for a specific comparative result, for example, if the sample and the control differ, e.g., signaling an alarm in a security setting, or when they are the same, e.g., adding excitement to live television coverage of paternity determinations.

      Clinical analyzers that compare sequences of patient samples with controls may be programmed to provide soothing melodies when the sequence is "normal" and to provide an audible, for example, discordant music when an "abnormal" sequence is detected. Such signals can provide a signal for the clinical technician to alert a physician to the difference in the sequence.

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    2. Re:Uh... What? by camperdave · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, I had thought of digging up Elvis, cloning him and embedding him into a bunch of ipods. But, I guess I can kiss that scheme goodbye now.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    3. Re:Uh... What? by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How would this be any different from generating music from the atomic structure of crystals, or from the x-rays being given off by a pulsar? How the fuck can you patent this? What is there to fucking patent? Christ, I wish they'd simply fine guys like this several million times their net worth or make them sign a document promising never to even go within five miles of the patent office or even think about sending in letters.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    4. Re:Uh... What? by mblase · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's a faster and straightforward way for geneticists to identify junk DNA in our chromosomes, because it sounds much more like top-40 music.

      Similarly, DNA for coding the human brain will sound like NPR; for muscles, Jock Jams; for reproductive organs... well, you get the idea.

      Interestingly, the first DNA sample they plugged into this technology was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's. They found out that his chromosomes, in fact, sound remarkably like the Spice Girls being played at 78 rpm. Strange but true.

    5. Re:Uh... What? by ushering05401 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It just makes no sense.

      Translating DNA into music is a really neat concept. Translating anything that has a decipherable system to its design into another design system is rad. But why, why, why, patent it? Is it so someone else does not come along and claim credit for your innovation? I doubt it. Prior art would invalidate any later patent claims.

      It just makes no sense. Please bear in mind that I write proprietary software for a living. I would never imagine attempting to prevent a competitor from providing their customers with the best product that they can produce, whether or not it resembled my product. I compete based on the quality of my product and service.

      And this translation of DNA into music is not even a salable product... I agree with parent poster. This is yet another bewildering use of the patent system.

      Regards.

    6. Re:Uh... What? by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'd say he's in the clear. The patent office, on the other hand, needs a good kick.

      --
      Everything will be taken away from you.
    7. Re:Uh... What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure someone asked about the possible profit/benefit of making music with a computer at one point...

    8. Re:Uh... What? by TobyRush · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The music signal generated from the genetic data can be used in a variety of consumer and industrial products and methods. For example, novelty products such as greeting cards, genetic music CDs, and the like can incorporate a person's individual music generated from their own sample of DNA.

      I wrote a program quite a while back which converted text files (say, The Gettysburg Address) into standard MIDI files, and for the result to be anything even remotely playable I needed to do quite a bit of normalization as part of the translation.

      So if anyone uses this for greeting cards, it's going to be 1% DNA source material and 99% pre-conceived structure. I'm sure they'll market it as "this is the music that is coursing through your veins!" when in reality it's just a really expensive random-number generator. And I'd be very interested to see what happens if you send the same DNA sample in twice, say a few months apart, and compare the results (which should be identical, right?)...

      --
      Sam! If you will let me be,
      I will try them.
      You will see.
    9. Re:Uh... What? by symbolic · · Score: 4, Funny

      Seems to me that avante garde artists like John Cage already have stuff like this covered- not by patent, but by prior art. I doubt any of them dealt with DNA specifically, but they were notorious for creating music (in the loosest sense of the word) using any of various sources of random influence.

    10. Re:Uh... What? by pallmall1 · · Score: 4, Informative

      And this translation of DNA into music is not even a salable product...
      Litigation is a profitable product for lawyers.
      --
      3 things about computers: they're alive, they're self-aware, and they hate your guts.
    11. Re:Uh... What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Mod parent up

    12. Re:Uh... What? by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Given that DNA is fairly random [when including all forms of life with DNA as we know it], this means they've patented pretty much every note combination possible. Now, you will have to pay them royalties if you make or play any new composition.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    13. Re:Uh... What? by sh3l1 · · Score: 2, Funny

      For reproductive organs the sex pistols will play :-)

      --
      Help Me! I'm trapped in the tubes! Oh noes! Here comes a internet!
    14. Re:Uh... What? by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      There was a Hollywood movie a While back where they used music to encode or decode a lock on a door to the face on mars. I think it was called red planet or something similar. I think it came out around 2000 or so. I suppose something like this could be done in real life like the ultimate in biometric security or something.

      However, I doubt it. But I'm wondering if there is anything in the movie that could be prior art on the concept or if the movie is now subjected to the patent. It would be interesting to find out how this is effected or effects it.

    15. Re:Uh... What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not to mention generating music from modulating electromagnetic waves.

    16. Re:Uh... What? by Wiseman1024 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      American patents are ridiculous. You can go as far as patenting a live being. I'll eventually find myself patented in America and sued over the usage of me. onlyinamerica.

      --
      I was about to say 13256278887989457651018865901401704640, but it appears this number is private property.
    17. Re:Uh... What? by fr4nk · · Score: 1

      I think it was called red planet or something similar. It was called Mission to Mars.
    18. Re:Uh... What? by Strilanc · · Score: 1

      Now they just need to argue that being formed in the womb, and learning to play an instrument is an algorithm which takes DNA and produces music. Instant lawsuits vs everyone!

    19. Re:Uh... What? by ben0207 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Make that Barry White, thankyouverymuch.

      --
      cmd-q.co.uk - some sort of stupid fucking internet bullshit
    20. Re:Uh... What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get your own DNA ringtone today!

    21. Re:Uh... What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This sort of thing has been being taught in tech focussed music schools for decades, there is loads and loads of prior art of making music from DNA. Some of it produced by personal friends of mine, though I think they were using virtual DNA in ALife organisms.

      However it's a pretty useless idea, there is SO much damn information contained in genetic structures you just have to chuck most of it out to make something that sounds remotely musical. Not only that you can forget about information encoded in DNA mapping directly to what we recognise as scales, chords and rhythms. You have to do such a transformative hack on it to make it sound "musical" the resulting music has very little to do with the input material.

      Using this amount of information to generate a timbre (sound colour, like the sound a flute makes v/s a guitar) on the other hand and then using that "instrument" to compose with in the normal way is far more effective. This is my own conclusion from experiments at generating music and timbres from cellular automata.

      Lorien Dunn

    22. Re:Uh... What? by Aladrin · · Score: 1

      It didn't manage to invalidate this one! Why would they think it would work -for- them, if it didn't prevent them from getting this patent?

      We don't know WHY they chose to try to patent this. They could be money-grubbing assholes, or slimey lawyers, or patent trolls... Or they could be a company that wanted to make absolutely sure that nobody could patent this later and take it from them. So they submit a patent and 1 of 2 things happens:

      1) They don't get the patent, but they've got a legal document preventing anyone else from getting it, covering their asses nicely.

      2) They get the patent, covering their asses nicely.

      If they truly plan to make money on this, the little money they spent on the patent was worth it, no matter the outcome.

      --
      "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
    23. Re:Uh... What? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 2, Funny

      And I'd be very interested to see what happens if you send the same DNA sample in twice, say a few months apart, and compare the results (which should be identical, right?)...

      Unless you're mutating into something else.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    24. Re:Uh... What? by Dersaidin · · Score: 1

      ...or generating music from the bursts of electricity and chemicals in your brain... oh...

    25. Re:Uh... What? by Slightly+Askew · · Score: 1

      You sure it wasn't Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? (Rachmaninoff).

      --
      Public use of any portable music system is a virtually guaranteed indicator of sociopathic tendencies. -- Zoso
    26. Re:Uh... What? by ortholattice · · Score: 1

      So if anyone uses this for greeting cards, it's going to be 1% DNA source material and 99% pre-conceived structure.

      Almost all music generated from "natural" sources is like that, for example, the music generated by the digits of pi. If you take the digits of pi and convert them to a sequence of 10 pure MIDI tones, it would be very boring without the embellishment with elaborate orchestration.

      There is at least one "natural" source, however, that bears some passing resemblance to "real" music: the patterns that occur in the proof trees of formal logic proofs. From the Metamath music page:

      The music generated from these mathematical proofs stands in sharp contrast to certain other experimental music based on such mathematics as the digits of ? (pi). Unlike a proof's tree structure, which is inherently suggestive of a musical score, the digits of ? have no obvious pattern. To make it interesting, a human composer will often add a non-mathematical creative element such as an underlying beat with pre-selected chords and instrumentation. What one hears, then, might be based as much on the originality of the composer as on the essential nature of ?: the same algorithm applied to the digits of say e (Euler's constant), or even a series of random digits, would typically sound about the same after the first few notes. The music here, on the other hand, is a raw and unadorned representation of the mathematics itself, involving few human preconceptions beyond a basic mapping needed to accommodate the Western tonal scale.
      It is an extreme in the other direction: 99% source material and 1% pre-conceived structure (of which there is essentially none, just a blind mapping to MIDI tones). (BTW the author not only has not patented it but has explicitly released it to public domain.)
    27. Re:Uh... What? by colinbrash · · Score: 1

      Interestingly, the first DNA sample they plugged into this technology was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's. They found out that his chromosomes, in fact, sound remarkably like the Spice Girls being played at 78 rpm. Strange but true.

      VERY strange. I'm trying to imagine how one would begin fitting all the spice girls onto a turntable, let alone trying to play them...
    28. Re:Uh... What? by DigitalReverend · · Score: 1

      Nah, it will be the simplest tune.

      Boom Chicka Wah Wah

      --
      I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
    29. Re:Uh... What? by ADrannon · · Score: 1

      Peter Gena is a Cage devotee who has been composing DNA Music for years in collaboration with geneticist Charles Strom. At his site, check out the sound clips of "DNA Music for Genesis," as well as a couple of the score excerpts for examples of both tonal and atonal music whose parameters are defined by DNA structures.

    30. Re:Uh... What? by ClickOnThis · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The parent should be modded "Insightful", not "Funny". John Cage was a notorious jokester but also a committed artist. He did say once that "[his] purpose [was] to eliminate purpose" but later he retreated from this and admitted that the artist has an important role to play in the creation of a work.

      I think it's important to draw a distinction between "randomness" and "chance". Cage's approach was to choose certain (not all) aspects of a composition to be left to chance, or if you will, to something out of his direct control. He employed various things, including I Ching, the positions of stars on maps, even the manufacturing defects on manuscript paper, for the sources of pattern in his work. That may seem whimsical, but I still think he was serious about his objectives.

      I think that John Cage's music was not so much about creating musical works as it was about defining musical processes and then following them to see where they would go, no matter where that was. I'll admit that I don't have John Cage loaded up on my MP3 player, but the works I have heard by him are still intriguing in their own way.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    31. Re:Uh... What? by SparkleMotion88 · · Score: 1

      I think it's ridiculous to patent any type of music, art, or any method for creating music or art. I believe what's happening here is the patent also describes all sorts of ludicrous technical uses for this (e.g. computer converts DNA to a song, injecting dissonance if there is a problem, play the song and have a doctor listen for dissonance to it to see if there are any problems). What the folks at the patent office won't understand is that if there is some indirect reasoning that can be done on the DNA using music as an intermediate form, then you could almost certainly just perform that reasoning directly on the structure of the DNA (e.g. computer analyzes DNA, if there is some problem in the DNA, the computer goes "bing").

    32. Re:Uh... What? by PPH · · Score: 1

      Those are going to be big, fat iPods.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    33. Re:Uh... What? by Quietly_Confident · · Score: 1

      I wrote a slashdot post on this very subject back in March 2006 http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=179975&cid=149 07572 as follows;

      I have been for a while sketching out a musical idea to use the number sequence of PI to generate a theoretically 'never ending' melody (decimal can be converted to Hex or any number to fit any scale) and the human DNA sequence (ATCGDP) as the trigger for rhythm section instruments with a human heart beat to set the tempo.

      I thought this would make a great interactive (the heartbeat can be from the hand of a listener on a sensor) 'musical statue' in a public place and stream the midi data or something similar.

      I haven't had time to develop this past the theory, or to develop a clear philosophical reason for the work (otherwise it will not appeal to the art world) but any collaboration would be welcomed.

      I guess I should have run to the patent office rather than post on a public forum!

      --
      http://www.doreymedia.com - Accessible Web Design in Surrey UK
    34. Re:Uh... What? by bobp0303 · · Score: 1

      Not only that, but Mary Doria Russell described music based on DNA years ago in her 1998 "Children of God" -- great sequel to "The Sparrow" if you haven't read them.

  2. Melody and harmony by markov_chain · · Score: 2, Funny

    So I suppose as long as it's heavy metal it should be safe from litigation ;)

    --
    Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
    1. Re:Melody and harmony by imamac · · Score: 1

      And rap.

    2. Re:Melody and harmony by Anthony+Baby · · Score: 1

      Damn it, I just know my DNA sequence is going to sound like ABBA's "Waterloo".

    3. Re:Melody and harmony by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      Hopefully Metallica's Master Of Puppets will infringe on some insane patent like this.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  3. Prior Art by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is the kind of invention that would be worth protecting if it protected only the specific device the inventors produced to do it.

    But as it happens, the patent as granted would protect them from competing with me, and anyone else whose DNA codes their bodies functionality to play a musical instrument with melody and harmony.

    It's a joke, it ruins "science and the useful arts" in the name of "promoting" it, and it ruins the actual narrower right of authors/inventors to be protected for a reasonably limited time from competition stealing their investment just in time to compete with them.

    But no one is talking about replacing it with something Constitutional. That would be a great invention, based on the original prior art, that should be as widely copied as possible.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:Prior Art by Anonymous+McCartneyf · · Score: 1

      And these geniuses have patented something that was done twelve years ago! Presumably not by them.
      Grrrr....

      --
      There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney
    2. Re:Prior Art by retiarius · · Score: 1

      v.i.z. (circa 1996):

      http://www.aber.ac.uk/~phiwww/pm/

    3. Re:Prior Art by Chris+Brewer · · Score: 1

      Pete Townshend could probably bust this patent - see Baba O'Riley

      The original concept for the Lifehouse project was to plug in a person's vital statistics into the synth and have that as the intro to Baba O'Riley - never worked out in the end, but the concepts the same, I believe (didn't RTFA)

      --
      Consultancy: If you're not part of the solution, there's money to be made in prolonging the problem
    4. Re:Prior Art by or-switch · · Score: 0

      I remember a computerized exhibit at a science museum (I think the Exploratorium in San Francisco) when I was in college (mid 90's) that had computers playing DNA and protein sequences in an interactive exhibit. The authors of this patent really missed the boat. The DNA gives you 4 'notes' to play with, and sure you can make more by looking for specific sequences, but protein codes, and there's lots of them, have 20 notes, and tons more if you make combinations. I suspect protein music is more interesting than DNA music.

    5. Re:Prior Art by helioc · · Score: 1
      Electronic group The Shamen released Axis Mutatis in 1995, way before this. Quoting review from 1996 page http://www.westnet.com/consumable/1996/01.18/revsh ame.html:

      "S2 Translation" is probably the most interesting piece on the album because of the way it was constructed. The MIDI sequence was created by the use of data from "the amino acid characteristics and the DNA coding for protein S2, a receptor for serotonin and other tryptamines." This incredible feat was accomplished through the use of a computer program devised by Colin.
    6. Re:Prior Art by iter8 · · Score: 3, Informative

      A quick google for "dna music" yields 29000 hits. Including http://www.nslij-genetics.org/dnamusic/ and http://www.algoart.com/music.htm. There are lots of samples of music generated by DNA and protein sequences on the web. It's not even much of a trick. I'm off to patent my technique for music made by barking dogs.

    7. Re:Prior Art by donaldm · · Score: 1

      If you can call the pianola (like a piano but with a punched hole reader) prior art then I guess you can call generating music from a DNA sequence prior art. All you need is a sampling speed and to assign a frequency to each DNA sequence. Actually it is more complex than that since you would have to assign a sound level and possibly the length of time you can hold at the frequency. There I think I have got the gist of how to do this without reading the patent although I have to stress I am not a musician.

      If the "music" player/concept is patented and it is now (sigh!) then what about the music or DNA sequence? After all music and lyrics are Copyright and if memory serves me this is for a fairly long time so we should all Copyright our DNA (err music and lyrics) so that anyone who listens to our personal music has to pay us royalties. I even think the Music industry would be interested in this. This should be fun in a law court, think DRM at it's most ludicrous.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    8. Re:Prior Art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Here's something interesting. The person that submitted the story did not even read the patent. The proof is quite simple. At the start of the patent is a list of prior art. This list includes:

      Gena et al., Sixth International Syumposium on Electronic Art, Montreal, 1995: 83-85. XI Colloquio di Informatica Musicale, Univerista di Bologna, 1995: 203-204. http://www.artic.edu/.about.pgena/docs/CIMXI-gena- strom.pdf, pp. 1-2 "Musical Synthesis of DNA Sequences." cited by other.

      I presume this is the self same conference mentioned in the submission. So, it was cited against the application and it was found to be novel over that and plenty of other cited prior art documents. I'm sure you could look at the file wrapper for a deeper reading of the arguments but the point is clear. The applicants and examiner were both aware that something similar was done in 1995 but that this patent has some advance over that.

    9. Re:Prior Art by I'm+not+evil.+See · · Score: 1

      Endo, the alien creature at the heart of this years ICFP Contest, has already stuffed all manner of information into his/her DNA. Plenty of images, and some audio also. Do our earthly patent systems extend to outer space?

    10. Re:Prior Art by Anthony+Baby · · Score: 1

      I would be surprised if Ray Kurzweil didn't already do this many years ago. In any case, I too remember this being done already.

    11. Re:Prior Art by DigitalLifeForm · · Score: 1

      Check out John Dunn and his software at http://www.algoart.com/ He has software that does specifically handles DNA sequencing for music; and he's been at it for a long time. He released a product called MusicBox into public domain in 1986 and I believe this software was commonly used to DNA to MIDI sequencing.

    12. Re:Prior Art by umghhh · · Score: 1
      and this advantage being that a patent has been filed by lawyers?

      //

    13. Re:Prior Art by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      Actually, Townshend's concept for Lifehouse was for Townshend to serve as the live interface for people's vital stats (and live state in the audience/band) to the synth and the rest of the instruments (including the audience and the band). No one could understand what he was talking about in 1970. He should have said "hippie magic" and just done it.

      --

      --
      make install -not war

    14. Re:Prior Art by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      US patents apply only to infringement (including marketing the product) in the US. There are international patents, as well as programmes for "harmonizing" foreign patents, and some foreign jurisdictions merely use the US registry for exclusions in their own jurisdiction.

      But so far no one from space has sued in a US court. But we haven't heard from Johnny Cochran in a while, maybe he's beamed up, to raise his prices and profile.

      --

      --
      make install -not war

    15. Re:Prior Art by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      A clear display of prior art, even for unimaginative patent examiners.

      My point is that patenting a process like this by its inputs and outputs, not the specific mechanism that processes it, is entirely too vague. It's like patenting the gene itself, or otherwise gaining a monopoly on its any expression, not on a novel mechanism for expressing it. Because every human with that gene is executing that process, as we have been. That's a discovery, not an invention. Discoveries are to be published after peer review without further restriction, protecting only the content of the report, but not from fair use by other researchers in reproducing and improving on the experiments.

      That point is at the heart of all biotech, and really the entire broken patent system that doesn't require working models to constrain patent applications to the specific novel device, rather than some virtual abstraction of the value of the device.

      --

      --
      make install -not war

    16. Re:Prior Art by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      Excruciatingly bad Mars movie: Mission to Mars (2000). Anyone who was inspired by that dreck should be deported, not granted a patent.

      --

      --
      make install -not war

  4. My own DNA... by ect5150 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And what happens when the music generated from my OWN DNA is a #1 hit?

    --
    I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
    1. Re:My own DNA... by Loadmaster · · Score: 5, Funny

      The RIAA will send a settlement letter to your parents to forward to you. For only $5000 you can continue to live with your current DNA.

      Swi

    2. Re:My own DNA... by Joebert · · Score: 1

      Then you'll have no problems with paying the royalties.

      --
      Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
    3. Re:My own DNA... by Bob54321 · · Score: 1

      Then it will be about 99.9% similar to anybody elses "personalized song". Once people realize that then it will go the way of the Flaming Homer/Moe...

      --
      :(){ :|:& };:
    4. Re:My own DNA... by ookabooka · · Score: 4, Funny

      I was going to mod you up funny, but then thought you missed a bit of the joke, I would have added just a bit more:
      The RIAA will send a settlement letter to your parents to forward to you. For only $5000 you can continue to live with your current DNA. Otherwise they will take you to court to have the offending material removed.

      --
      If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
    5. Re:My own DNA... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please, everyone knows that only Jesus' DNA would generate #1 hits.

    6. Re:My own DNA... by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

      And what happens when the music generated from my OWN DNA is a #1 hit?

      "Hey Hey, we're 98% Monkeys....."

    7. Re:My own DNA... by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 4, Funny

      You just gave me a great idea for a lyric to sing at atheist meetings.... (heck, atheists need to take a leaf out of the fundies book and get some inspiring hymns...)


      Here we come, a'climbin up the tree,
      We've got opposable thumbs now,
      They help us grasp and eat....

      We're 98% Monkeys,
      Our ancestors came from the ground,
      We follow the path of best fitness,
      'Cause it's the best game in town.

      We're just trying to get laid,
      Because we're programmed to,
      And with each generation,
      The women grow bigger boobs.

      So don't tell us we're special,
      Made by a hand in the sky,
      We're shaped by the forces of nature,
      And here's the guy to tell you why....

      His name is Charles Darwin,
      A science dude with a beard,
      His theory changed our understandin'
      We know you find that kinda weird.

      If you're kinda religious,
      It don't fit with your worldview.
      'Cause it's all about sex, babe,
      And what you do to get some too.

    8. Re:My own DNA... by Dzonatas · · Score: 1

      Great. Now all the RIAA needs is these lawyers to join forces and somehow link our memories of music as encoded into our DNA, and then they can can sue anybody who gives lip service to song. Be prepared to remove all those harmonious and melodic tunes out of the Saturday Morning cartoons, or it won't be just teenagers anymore the RIAA is after. And, better forget that last song you just heard.

      In other future related news, some of the congressmen decided tried to suggest Red Red Wine over a cigar joke. The RIAA was unforgiving on the use of such harmonic memory. The congressmen, in protest of their fond memories being materially removed, started to support psychedelic remedies for the masses. The congressmen evangelized about holy water derived from grain fungus, one that miraculously grows on rye. Not only did the churches add such holy water to their sacrament, but after a few practiced Sunday rituals, everyone voted in unison, like a referendum, to replace all drinking water with Gatorade.

    9. Re:My own DNA... by TemporalBeing · · Score: 1

      The RIAA will send a settlement letter to your parents to forward to you. For only $5000 you can continue to live with your current DNA.
      You won't get a dime as you're not the creator of the work - your parents are. So it'll fund their retirement and then you'll get it as an inheritance in the postmortem payments to their estate.

      Remember, it's the artist that gets paid, not the work.
      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
    10. Re:My own DNA... by Creepy · · Score: 1

      then you say you had music in your blood (and bones, and spleen)?

    11. Re:My own DNA... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Humans are so boring though. I'm currently listening to Fruit Fly in D minor.

    12. Re:My own DNA... by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      slashdot collaboration at its best :-)

  5. Prior Art by Aranykai · · Score: 2, Informative

    I cannot find a source, but I too can attest to this being done many years ago. My 9th grade Biology teacher played it for us in fact. And now Im 21.

    Prepare to meet prior art you two.

    --
    If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
  6. Pickover? by rockmuelle · · Score: 2, Informative


    Didn't Clifford Pickover's Mazes for the Mind (1994) book have a chapter on this?

    (on vacation and don't have my copy handy to check...)

    -Chris

    1. Re:Pickover? by mblase · · Score: 1

      No idea, but Mary Doria Russell tried it out in Children of God as well.

    2. Re:Pickover? by Ambiguous+Puzuma · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yes it does. Chapter 39, titled "There is Music in our Genes", describes work done by Susumu Ohno, Nobuo Munakata, and Kenshi Hayashi to map DNA sequences to melodies.

      Ohno has also done the reverse, mapping existing music to DNA sequences. "For example, Ohno maps pieces such as Frederic Chopin's Nocturn, opus 55, no. 1, to musical scores and shows that the Nocturn sequences have remarkable similarities with DNA sequences....Some of these similarities arise from the fact that both DNA and gene sequences contain tandemly recurring segments."

  7. For Christ Sake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Look, I know it's standard groupthink around here to hate patents and anything patent related, but we don't need blatently false stories to rile everyone up.

    The patent is not for "music obtained from DNA" it's for a METHOD to obtain music from DNA. The idea is actually pretty damn unique if you ask me. This is not a frivolous patent.

    God damn Slashdot seems to get more and more inaccurate every year.

    1. Re:For Christ Sake by brianf711 · · Score: 1
      Though the method may be unique (and I'm not sure it is), I can't imagine any use that isn't pure novelty. From the patent:

      Useful products include individual identity analysis, for example, for security checking, paternity testing, and the like. The music generated by an individual sample can be compared with a control sample. An identity analyzer can be configured to provide an audible signal for a specific comparative result, for example, if the sample and the control differ, e.g., signaling an alarm in a security setting, or when they are the same, e.g., adding excitement to live television coverage of paternity determinations.

      Clinical analyzers that compare sequences of patient samples with controls may be programmed to provide soothing melodies when the sequence is "normal" and to provide an audible, for example, discordant music when an "abnormal" sequence is detected. Such signals can provide a signal for the clinical technician to alert a physician to the difference in the sequence. It is like they took legitimate uses for DNA and just give you the results in a song. I don't get it. But then again, pet rocks and moon property have been successful, so why can't this?
    2. Re:For Christ Sake by GuyverDH · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry Mr. Smith, we can't insure you. Your DNA did not complete the William Tell Overture correctly.

      --
      Who is general failure, and why is he reading my hard drive?
    3. Re:For Christ Sake by fredrated · · Score: 1

      God damn Slashdot seems to get more and more inaccurate every year.

      And yet you are still here, still reading, still posting, why would that be, Mr. Coward?

    4. Re:For Christ Sake by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Pet rocks are taken, but pet bricks are still open.

    5. Re:For Christ Sake by chris_eineke · · Score: 1

      it's for a METHOD
      Well, guess what. Method Man wants to have a word with you.
      --
      "All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
    6. Re:For Christ Sake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm a foolish optimist. I hold on to the hope that this place will become a legitimate source of news and intelligent debate.

      Probably will never happen, but I can dream!

      -Mr Coward.

    7. Re:For Christ Sake by jombeewoof · · Score: 1

      where can I get moon property?
      I would love to own part of the moon. That would be awesome.
      I would tell my kids that when we have to go to the moon because that damn America blows up the planet, you can't go.
      You little brats have to stay here and deal with the Americans.

      That'll learn the little bastards.

      --
      Linux Zealots: Smarter than Mac Zealots, but still zealots.
    8. Re:For Christ Sake by martinX · · Score: 1

      adding excitement to live television coverage of paternity determinations

      i'm not sure if i could take the added excitement!

      live television coverage of paternity determinations is already a thrill aminute!

      --
      When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
    9. Re:For Christ Sake by DigitalReverend · · Score: 1

      QUOTE
      martinX wrote:
      adding excitement to live television coverage of paternity determinations

      i'm not sure if i could take the added excitement!

      live television coverage of paternity determinations is already a thrill aminute!
      END QUOTE

      With my luck, in a paternity case, the tune played would be the Jeopardy theme song.

      --
      I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
    10. Re:For Christ Sake by Shadowlore · · Score: 1

      Look, I know it's standard groupthink around here to hate patents and anything patent related, but we don't need blatently false stories to rile everyone up.

      Right, we prefer patently false ones.

      --
      My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.
  8. Tune in to DNA 104.5, your (s)hit music station by cookieinc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Im pretty sure my DNA sounds like "Oops I did it again"

    1. Re:Tune in to DNA 104.5, your (s)hit music station by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, then you must be from the country ;p

      Now, who has the DNA for Drum rolls?

  9. Beautiful Music by Joebert · · Score: 4, Funny

    So much for finding a nice girl & making beautiful music together.

    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  10. Music from DNA, DNA from music by shigelojoe · · Score: 5, Funny

    This will complement nicely those audiophiles who emit DNA every time they listen to their $30,000 hi-fi systems.

    1. Re:Music from DNA, DNA from music by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      This will complement nicely those audiophiles who emit DNA every time they listen to their $30,000 hi-fi systems.

      You realize that's *still* far cheaper than giving it to a human female.

  11. There's no prior art for transcoding? by syousef · · Score: 1

    That's all you're doing here transcoding one kind of information to another.

    What's the point in encouraging people to invent shit if they get to lock it up for several lifetimes? What you'll get from this is one really bad DNA->music encoder, and every bit of competition locked out of the race for decades.

    If the patent system were a car it'd be a rusted out common piece of shit from the 70s that isn't even worth salvaging as scrap metal.

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
  12. Patent on HUMAN DNA to make music? by fi1th · · Score: 0
    As mentioned above, you are individual down to the very mutation. Be insertion; deletion; translocation, or just VARIATION to differentiate from the species. To claim the DNA sequence as a patent for making music is the latest, most stupid thing I have heard. It only reconfirms my disdain for where humanity is going... (correct me if I'm wrong but this can only truely have a chance in the "Great" U.S.A where everybody strives to reach the "American Dream")

    SCREW YOU ALL I'M GOING TO PATENT THE SEQUENCE FOR BLOW-FLYS!! You will see when my bow-fly music is found to be truely harmonic, well above the humans sequence moronic melodies

  13. "Mission to Mars" "prior art"? by hkfczrqj · · Score: 1

    Was it the movie Mission to Mars that featured something like a DNA sequence transmitted through music? If so, would that count as some sort of prior art?

    1. Re:"Mission to Mars" "prior art"? by Oldav · · Score: 0

      Wasnt that a for andromeda?

    2. Re:"Mission to Mars" "prior art"? by jumperboy · · Score: 1

      A fictional depiction of something isn't prior art. For example, H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" would not invalidate the patent for a real time machine.

  14. When art starts getting patented... by Moochman · · Score: 1

    ...you know the intellectual world is going down the tubes.

    1. Re:When art starts getting patented... by StringBlade · · Score: 1

      I thought that was the Internet going down the tubes?

      --
      ...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
  15. Guess this won't be played at TGI Fridays either by newgalactic · · Score: 1

    I guess that along with "Happy Birthday to you...", this DNA decoded musical masterpiece won't be played at TGI Fridays either. And it's a good thing too. I can't imagine the amount of revenue, the rightful owners of these two pieces, would lose if either of these two songs entered the public domain. WHEW...It's a good thing we have such wonderful copyright laws protecting the owners of these two fine pieces of ...ARE THEY EVEN REAL FRICKEN SONGS?

  16. So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's plenty of prior art on this. Mapping some sequence (DNA, fractals, etc.) has been around for a long time. Heck, wind chimes map wind gusts onto a pentatonic scale.

    If someone patents a methodology that prevents me from creating real music, then I'll start to care.

  17. prior art exceedingly likely, except ..... by paulbd · · Score: 4, Informative

    i graduated with a bachelors in molecular biology & biochemistry in 1981. i had already read papers by that time which described audio/musical transcriptions of DNA, RNA and protein sequences specifically designed to take advantage of the greater perceptual bandwidth of the auditory system vs. the visual system.

    the one thing that might be novel here (i don't have time to read a patent abstract at present) is if they have found some way to generate musically meaningful compositions that go beyond a simple (chemical unit) => (musical note) mapping. that could enhance the ability of the auditory system to recognize patterns in sequences, and might be worthy of a patent.

  18. My counter patent by erroneus · · Score: 2, Funny

    See, every time we see a stupid new patent, I have to think of one stupider and yet somehow pertinent. So here's my patent idea:

    Wind Chimes!!

    See, they are similar because it's about making "music" from the things we find in nature.

    1. Re:My counter patent by newgalactic · · Score: 1

      Keep your money grubbin litigation happy hands away from my back porch BITCH!

    2. Re:My counter patent by Nazlfrag · · Score: 2, Funny

      I refer you to the parent post, henceforth known as 'Exhibit A'. Here the defendants claims prior art on their back porch, but it clear this information only became public knowledge a whole entire four minutes after the plaintiffs initial patent deceleration. I move that 'Exhibit A' be struck from the record and summarily dismissed.

    3. Re:My counter patent by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      See, every time we see a stupid new patent, I have to think of one stupider and yet somehow pertinent. So here's my patent idea: Wind Chimes!! See, they are similar because it's about making "music" from the things we find in nature.

      Too artsy. How about:

      * Farts
      * Barf colors
      * Boogers
      * Jizz patterns
      * Floating poop logs
      * Skid marks in underwear

  19. More prior art by Kadin2048 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I can with absolute clarity remember seeing albums/tapes of "DNA music" being sold in the gift shops of various museums -- notably the Boston Museum of Science -- in the mid/late 1990s. I remember because I saw it there one day when they were playing it, but didn't buy it, and then I was never able to find it again (I had really wanted to get it as a gift for a biologist friend).

    But even beyond that, just typing "DNA music" into Google turns up lots of results, some of which have a lot of history behind them.

    The people at AlgoArt (not sure if they're the people behind the patent or not) have been making (transcribing?) music from DNA sequences since 1992. They have three CDs available. I rather suspect that it might have been one of these that I heard in Boston those years ago.

    And this summary page contains a reference to a paper published in 1984 which contained specific references to the idea of making music from DNA sequences. ("Hayashi and Munakata , using a system that assigned pitches to the four DNA bases according to their thermal stability within the interval of a fifth, found that converting the DNA sequences to music helped to expose the meaning of specific sequences and made remembering and recognizing specific DNA patterns easier.")

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  20. The Shamen's "S2 Translation" is prior art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What a crock. I did this using CSound in 1997 after listening to The Shamen's 1995 album Axis Mutatis, which has a track that does the same thing called "S2 Translation". Do they even Google for prior art? These patent inspectors are truly no Einsteins.

    Here's a link with a description of the method used to make "S2 Translation":
    http://www.nemeton.com/axis-mutatis/s2.html

    1. Re:The Shamen's "S2 Translation" is prior art by realsilly · · Score: 1

      Great CD. I'm quite a fan of "The Shamen".

      --
      Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
    2. Re:The Shamen's "S2 Translation" is prior art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Ooooh, comin' on like a Seventh Sense."

      I saw them in concert a few times at the Brixton Academy in London, and Mr.C used to DJ all over the place when I went to raves. I even have their stuff from before they hit it big with Move Any Mountain (In Gorbachev We Trust is a GREAT album).

      Ah, those were the days days.

  21. On other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I patent sexual intercourse. Now everybody wanting to do it pays me or goes to jail!!! Send $159.99 to get your sex permit or live in celibacy!

  22. Dejavu? by SamP2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A good century ago or so, at the dawn of radioastronomy, there was a whole big point of "celestial music". People thought that the radio signals emitted by stars have a certain harmony, and when used right, can produce "heavenly" melody.

    Needless to say that didn't go very far.

    Same story here. Just because you find something which, when transformed, can generate certain audio patterns, doesn't mean it will be any good as *music*. In fact, looking for some "objective", "universal" melody source is pretty much dumb as music preference varies greatly even within our own species (*waits for rock vs rap flaming to start*), and many other species have different combinations of sound they perceive as music (and which we perceive only as noise).

    Music is *produced* with a specific purpose in mind, and the production rules vary depending on that purpose. You won't find it bestowed upon you, whether from the stars or magically encoded in some DNA sequence.

    1. Re:Dejavu? by jovius · · Score: 1

      I think it would be interesting for you to check out "NASA space probe recordings" and "Symphonies of the Planets". The latter has five volumes total. They raised the frequencies of the voyager space craft recordings of the interplanetary magnetic and electric fields to audible range and released the resulting darkish ambient sound scapes. The local universe is quite musical.. Of course there's no music without an observer who interprets it so. In a sense you are right, because there was a specific intention in the minds of NASA engineers to reveal the musical properties of the data. The electromagnetic waves are present all the time, and we as human beings are able to perceive them as music via this little hack. DNA sequence can be used as algorithm for software which creates the sound - there's no sound in DNA unless you transform its inner vibrations to something audible. Electromagnetic waves are 'sounds' themselves however, and resonate within us all the time. The earth's magnetic fields correlate with our brainwaves for example (Schumann resonance), thus providing the very basic rhythms for the human experience...

  23. I know, I'm gonna apply for my own patent: by darjen · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Method for remembering a musical sequence through notation involving a series of lines and spaces."

  24. Wasn't Douglas Adams prior art for this? by gslj · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I remember that the novel "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" featured a spreadsheet that turned financial numbers into music, and that later in the book the plot turned on discovering that DNA and other natural phenomena translated into the music of Bach. That's how I remember it, anyway.

    So, do novels count as prior art?

    -Gareth

    1. Re:Wasn't Douglas Adams prior art for this? by Torvaun · · Score: 1

      Have not read DGHDA, but fictional works can provide prior art in some cases. Specifically, Arthur C. Clarke prevented anyone from patenting geosynchronous satellites by describing them in great detail before the first one went up.

      --
      I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
    2. Re:Wasn't Douglas Adams prior art for this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Except Clarke's proposal of the communications satellite wasn't in a work of fiction. See http://lakdiva.org/clarke/1945ww/1945ww_058.jpg and http://lakdiva.org/clarke/1945ww/1945ww_305.jpg and overall http://lakdiva.org/clarke/1945ww/

    3. Re:Wasn't Douglas Adams prior art for this? by laejoh · · Score: 0

      You mean Douglas Noël Adams? Yes, you could say he has something to do with DNA

  25. Bullshit by sykopomp · · Score: 1

    What a pair of retards. This is definitely one of those bullshit patents... my school has been doing (and giving courses in) DNA music for years now. No, I don't think the people at my school invented it, but this has been going on for a while. They're lawyers, too... that just pisses me off.

  26. Prior Art: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by HappyEngineer · · Score: 3, Informative
    Wouldn't the book "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams be prior art?

    See Music and Fractal Landscapes (pdf).

    It describes generating music from every aspect of nature.

  27. oh no, the RIAA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now that DNA and music have intersected,
    we're really in trouble.

  28. Prior art (besides what was mentioned in summary)? by thc69 · · Score: 1

    DNA = Douglas Noel Adams...

    Douglas Adams was very interested in the combination of music and math, and biology. I think I even remember reading (probably in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) about music made from DNA (similar to the idea of making music from corporate profit reports). Then again, I could be pulling that out of MYASS...

    --
    Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
  29. Your DNA is not your own by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everybody assumes they own their own DNA. But if you're talking about DNA as a creative work, and in the context of patent/copyright issues, aren't your parents the ones who should rightfully own that DNA sequence. After all, they invented it (and thus, you).

  30. Re:Prior Art: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Age by HappyEngineer · · Score: 1

    Oh, and if it helps, DNA are the initials of Douglas Noel Adams. So that book is an instruction from DNA on how to create music from nature.

  31. The Shamen did exactly this in1995 by psyclops · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The track 'S2 Translation' on the Shamen album Axis Mutatis was *exactly* this, being music generated from the DNA sequence of the S2 protein. Very odd track, strangely hypnotic and ethereal but a little annoying after a while. Pretty visible prior art if you ask me (though IANAL). More about the track here. Not surprisingly, the S2 protein is the receptor for serotonin...

    --
    Nick Donaldson mailto:psyclops@psyclops.com Bit Wrangler Extraordinaire! http://www.psyclops.com/
    1. Re:The Shamen did exactly this in1995 by 0x15e · · Score: 1

      I wish I had mod points right now. This is exactly the first thing I thought of when I saw the headline.

  32. Lots of prior art by jejones · · Score: 1

    People have been generating music from streams of data for a LONG time. Mozart's musical dice game comes to mind, as well as Charles Dodge's Earth's Magnetic Field, from back in 1970, which generated some very pleasant music from K index data. And what about Xenakis's work?

  33. music signal having melody and harmony by iminplaya · · Score: 1

    So if I produce something off key, I'm safe?

    --
    What?
  34. What about prior art? by edwardpickman · · Score: 1

    You can patent the process to convert the DNA to music but not the DNA itself as music. You might have some rights to music made from your own unique DNA but patenting the concept is rediculous. I doubt anything of value would be made from DNA but it's the principal. Part of the point is are they sequencing the DNA themselves or using sequencing done by the Human Genome project? If so what rights do they have to the Genome Project sequencing information? It's meant for medical use not to be exploited for some BS patent for generating music.

    1. Re:What about prior art? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Just don't tell them where the music came from. Tell them it came to you in a dream. It's not like the Patent Police are going to give you biopsy. The only place it may matter is like a circus booth that "plays" your DNA.

  35. Still safe forms of music by AuMatar · · Score: 1

    This only covers music with melody and harmony. That means we can still change DNA into rap, punk, and metal.

    --
    I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    1. Re:Still safe forms of music by agentforsythe · · Score: 0

      May I point you towards the works of Blind Guardian, Manowar, Hammerfall and Iron Maiden, for examples of metal music with plenty of 'melody and harmony'.

    2. Re:Still safe forms of music by AuMatar · · Score: 1

      Very interesting. May I point you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humor

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  36. Are they saying... by AdmNaismith · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...that they cornered the market on transcribing DNA sequences into music notation in general, or by their parameters? If they are talking in general, they have no leg to stand on- there's too much prior art, fictional and practical. If they have a specific algorithm that makes a particular 'sound', it's still pretty craptacular.

  37. Totally ill-founded patent by Morgaine · · Score: 1

    No it is not worth protecting this kind of patent, under any circumstances, because it corrupts the entire basis on which patents are granted.

    A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a patentee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an invention.

    And the reason why the state affords a patentee such a protected period is so that the public disclosure does not place the patentee at a disadvantage while bringing the invention to market, versus others who have obtained the details without effort through the disclosure.

    There has been no actual invention here whatsoever, there are no innovative details to offer the public, and only one single unremarkable choice was made. The alleged "invention" consists merely of taking one class of datum (a gene sequence) and using it as input to a process, a generative music generator. Neither one nor the other is new, and this kind of juxtaposition is arbitrary and does not result from insight nor from effort. And as many others have pointed out, it's not even a novel choice, but has been done countless times before.

    Also, the lawyers aren't actually producing anything so there is nothing to protect, and release of the details provides the public with absolutely nothing of benefit in exchange. What we have here are the usual worthless sons of bitches thinking they can carve out a piece of the public ideas space and claim that they own it --- totally at odds with the very concept of patents.

    So no, it's not worth protecting, regardless of any other point. It's simply contemptible, corrupting of the patent system (as if it could get any worse), and totally ill-founded.

    --
    "The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
  38. Whew! by theendlessnow · · Score: 1
    Bet they're breathing easier since they got their patent in before patent reform.

    But... they're still waiting to see if their Music from Meatloaf patent gets approved. But such is the life of the great innovators.

    1. Re:Whew! by dido · · Score: 1

      Music from Meatloaf? Lots of prior, art on that one!

      --
      Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
  39. What about copyrights? by robo_mojo · · Score: 1

    They may have a patent to convert DNA into music, but if they try to do it to MY DNA, they'll be suffering from a copyright lawsuit!

  40. We truly are in hell now by bryan1945 · · Score: 1

    While lawyers may have applied for the patent, some PhD in biology wrote the damn thing. My head nearly exploded from trying to read it.

    And when I searched for the term "music", nowhere in the patent did the term "music" pop up.

    Either someone screwed up the article or they linked to the wrong patent. Dang, I read the article AND tried to read the patent. A first!

    --
    Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
    1. Re:We truly are in hell now by immerrath · · Score: 1

      Wrong patent. Shows you how many people even bother to RTFA.

    2. Re:We truly are in hell now by bryan1945 · · Score: 1

      Wrong- I clicked on both the link in the summary and the link in the article.

      Maybe you should have read my entire comment.

      --
      Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
    3. Re:We truly are in hell now by immerrath · · Score: 1

      You're blabbering. The patent linked to from the article and the slashdot summary has nothing to do with music. I actually read the patent, and understood it (being one of those biology PhDs).

    4. Re:We truly are in hell now by bryan1945 · · Score: 1

      "The patent linked to from the article and the slashdot summary has nothing to do with music."

      Ah, that was pretty much what I was saying from the start. The title was mis-titled or mis-leading- "Music from DNA patented". Though I do respect the fact that you could actually understand the patent.

      --
      Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
  41. DNA convertamatron by sxeraverx · · Score: 1

    Hmm...Aren't we humans technically devices for decoding DNA into music? I mean, our DNA defines who we are (along with supposedly environmental factors, but most of that is either just pure chance, or caused by other blobs defined by DNA/environmental factors), so technically, any musician who will produce, or is producing music that they describe is violating the patent, and anyone who has produced music has prior art. US Patent Office FTW!

  42. The actual patent by geeknado · · Score: 4, Informative
    Having attempted to actually read this patent, it appears that the links in both the summary and the (very brief) article take us to one pertaining to the chimeric encoding of plastidic phosphoglucomutase. Not ideal.

    Here's a link to the actual patent of interest.

  43. Umm... when did these lawyers patent this? by Ra+Zen · · Score: 1

    People have been performing music from DNA for YEARS, how the hell can a couple of dudes patent what's already entered the public domain?

    Douglas Hofstadter noted the idea in 1980 and Hayashi and Munakata made the first music from DNA in 1984! In exactly the same way as these lawyers propose to do so no less. Not to mention the numerous artists who have also created genetic music since then (http://whozoo.org/mac/Music/Sources.htm). Patents in the US are granted for 20 years from the date of filing (and this is recent, it used to be 17; http://www.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article =1329&context=bejeap). 2007 - 20 years = 1987. So unless these guys were able to pull out some crazy extentions there is no way they thought of this first.

  44. Wrong patent linked? by Ambiguous+Puzuma · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think the intended patent is 7247782, "Genetic music".
    The link in the story takes me to patent 7250557, which appears to be unrelated ("Plastidic phosphoglucomutase genes").

  45. In other news by Mr.+Freeman · · Score: 1

    I've patented the creation of music by interpreting electrical signals sent to an amplification device from a guitar.

    Seriously, what the hell is this crap? Making music that is somehow based off of DNA. "The song you created starts with a "D", and DNA starts with the same letter, therefore you are guilty of copyright infringement". Or, "This techno beat seems to follow a pattern and DNA has a pattern, therefore we're going to sue you".

    There's 2 things you can throw into a proposed law/patent application to make it work. One is words related to terrorists "preventing TERROR/AL QUIEDA!/BOMB/FREEDOM/etc", the second is science words which people don't understand.

    --
    -1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
  46. bollocks to that! by pjr.cc · · Score: 1

    I spent an hour attempting to read that and I still dont have the faintest idea about what it means really but IANA biologist.

    It certainly didnt sound like a frivolous patent to me. But, im also very lost when it comes to how it relates to music. it seemed more like they were into cloning than anything else or storing dna in some fashing. It would have been nice if someone with a clue had said "oh, this section here, this means encoding music from a dna stream" or something even vaguely represented something that was like english (or even american english considering i can almost read that).

    Is the wrong patent linked or have patents become such that they use terminology that doesnt make sence to a single human being in the known universe? i mean for the love of god, "music" doesn't even appear once in the patent and nor does "harmony", "song" or any other terminology that seems to even relate to music except "encoding".

    Speaking as a layman - oh well i cant turn my dna into music (apparently). But I probably couldn't in first place anyway and nor would I want to for that matter. I'd love to be angry at the patent and shake my first at it, but its so hard when it is just incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo and even sounds like theres been alot of work put into it. I'm certainly not going to take someone word for it that its a bad patent.

    But then again, thats what lawyers do, i remember a lawyer turning a sentence i wrote about how i wanted the software i'd written for a company into 50 pages of rubbish i couldnt understand anymore.

    1. Re:bollocks to that! by cyborg_zx · · Score: 1

      Translating information from one encoding sequence to another cannot be considered an invention. A specific way of doing it yes; but the general concept? Ludicrous.

    2. Re:bollocks to that! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, the wrong patent was linked, both on /. and on the original post. A link to the correct patent was listed above, but I will repost it here.

  47. Has anyone bothered to go to the patent? by kocsonya · · Score: 1

    The link in both the /. article and in the original Genome Technology article leads you to a patent that has absolutely nothing to do with music. It is a gene patent, awarded to DuPont 6 years ago, namely US patent # 7,250,557 and is about generating GM plants with modulated sugar/starch content. Half of the actual patent is a long sequence description. However, the word 'music' does not occur anywhere in it.

  48. What if I already make music with DNA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Admittedly, it's not fabulous, but I have made music with DNA sources for a while. The example below uses an incomplete strand of smilodon DNA from La Brea for the torn arpeggio throughout the song. Another one uses a strand of 5-HT serotonin

    http://www.last.fm/music/Lucite.org/_/Chocolatefac e

    Translating standard DNA descriptions to MIDI is not difficult, and not a new idea. There used to be some old Apple and DOS programs for doing it as well. If I continue to to make such music, is there any way I could conceivable get in trouble?

    *****

    LOCUS S46659 132 bp DNA linear MAM 08-MAY-1993
    DEFINITION 12S rRNA [Smilodon fatalis=saber-toothed cats, Mitochondrial, 132
    nt].
    ACCESSION S46659
    VERSION S46659.1 GI:257782
    KEYWORDS .
    SOURCE mitochondrion Smilodon fatalis (saber-toothed cat)
    ORGANISM Smilodon fatalis
    Eukaryota; Metazoa; Chordata; Craniata; Vertebrata; Euteleostomi;
    Mammalia; Eutheria; Carnivora; Fissipedia; Felidae; Smilodon.
    REFERENCE 1 (bases 1 to 132)
    AUTHORS Janczewski,D.N., Yuhki,N., Gilbert,D.A., Jefferson,G.T. and
    O'Brien,S.J.
    TITLE Molecular phylogenetic inference from saber-toothed cat fossils of
    Rancho La Brea
    JOURNAL Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 89 (20), 9769-9773 (1992)
    MEDLINE 93028544
    PUBMED 1409696
    REMARK GenBank staff at the National Library of Medicine created this
    entry [NCBI gibbsq 115817] from the original journal article.
    This sequence comes from Fig. 1.
    FEATURES Location/Qualifiers
    source 1..132 /organism="Smilodon fatalis" /organelle="mitochondrion" /mol_type="genomic DNA" /db_xref="taxon:13266"
    gene 1..132 /gene="12S rRNA"
    rRNA 1..132 /gene="12S rRNA" /note="12S"
    BASE COUNT 32 a 22 c 33 g 45 t
    ORIGIN
    1 tttatcgatt atagaacagg ctcctctaga gggatgtaaa gcaccgccaa gtcctttgag
    61 ttttaagctg ttgctagtag ttctctggcg gatagttttg tttagggtaa ctatctaagt
    121 ttagggctaa gc //

  49. Knee Jerk Slashdotters Scammed Again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is there a word for slashdotters getting faked out?

    The cited patent is titled "Plastidic phosphoglucomutase genes".

    The word "music" does not appear in any of the patent text.

    As is typical of Knee Jerk Slashdotters, nobody reads past the first paragraph.

  50. Prior art by Shamen by pesc · · Score: 2, Informative

    In about 1995, The Shamen released the track S2 Translation which was generated by decoding the DNA sequence of the S2 protein. http://www.nemeton.com/axis-mutatis/s2.html

    --

    )9TSS
    1. Re:Prior art by Shamen by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      That was the example I was thinking of as well. Mod parent up.

  51. Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought that patents were supposed to advance the useful arts, but on the other hand, I really don't care that someone is using DNA to make music. I mean, I wasn't really planning on doing something crazy like that, anyhow, so the patent won't exactly hurt anything.

  52. Of course. by RulerOf · · Score: 1

    God damn Slashdot seems to get more and more inaccurate every year. It's the patent hating mob mentality here. You see, software patents are so ludicrous that we have become gracious enough to extend our hate to other flavors of patents. Especially the more, ahem, inventive ones.

    Moreover, I'd be willing to bet that, among the average population of people who hear of a newly patented idea and think, "Why I thought of that YEARS ago," a larger percentage of them are probably among /. readers, thus, adding fuel to the patent hating fire.
    --
    Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
  53. Dead people's DNA? by greylion3 · · Score: 1

    First of all, don't *you* have copyright of your own DNA?
    Also, I think music from it could/should be considered a derivative work.
    So to make any music from DNA legally, that someone would either have to obtain (buy/lease) the copyright from someone else, or use their own DNA.

    Considering that copyright extends for 70 years beyond the 'author's death, maybe these lawyers will try to dig up people who have been dead for 70 years .. somehow, the notion of lawyers digging up long-dead people doesn't seem all that strange to me.

    --
    Privacy begins with ..
    1. Re:Dead people's DNA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) Rich person decides to build a shrine to self.
      2) Lawyers offer to make a musical rendition of rich person's DNA.
      3) Rich person pays lawyers gobs of money for patent licensing.
      4) Profit!

      It also works with the rich person's kids, and those creepy people who worship their miscarriages.

  54. DNA Music by rat10177sd · · Score: 0

    And Lawyers wonder why they are held in such low esteem Here Siggy siggy siggy...Here Siggy siggy siggy

  55. Er, no. by Macthorpe · · Score: 2, Funny

    1) DNA isn't even fairly random.

    2) Patenting a method of converting DNA into music does not mean they have patented 'every note combination possible', just this one method of turning one type of data input into music. People who make music the normal way will still be able to and won't have to pay royalties.

    Other than that, your post was 100% correct, in the sense that I assume your username is right.

    --
    "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
    1. Re:Er, no. by It'sYerMam · · Score: 1

      1) DNA isn't even fairly random.

      From the point of view of a piece of music it is. Splashes of paint falling on a piece of paper aren't random but you could use them as a source for a random number generator easily.

      --
      im in ur .sig, writin ur memes.
    2. Re:Er, no. by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      That's it, I'm going to patent music made from RNA. Then we'll see who get's rich quick.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  56. It's U.S. government corruption. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 2

    Big companies want patents to scare smaller companies. They don't care if the patents are valid, because it is too expensive to go before a court. Some lawyers in the U.S. charge $600 per hour. The U.S. government is being sold to anyone who has money.

    People in other countries know the U.S. government is corrupt, but Americans either don't know or don't really care.

    See this billboard in New Zealand advertising pizza: Hell. Too good for some evil bastards.

    1. Re:It's U.S. government corruption. by DaedalusHKX · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Every government is corrupt, the fact that you haven't seen this yet speaks a lot. Eyes open, but not yet seeing the picture. No biggie, sooner or later everyone gets it :)

      The upside is this. Patenting DNA based music has to do with that lovely 95 to 96% of the unknown DNA, that scientists, like those "world is flat" guys before them, are calling "junk DNA". I.E. "we don't know or won't tell you what it does yet, so we're going to call it junk, and you'll believe us, because we're *experts*".

      Its information storage... and there are those who know how to read it, they won't tell you or me they can, but there's enough in there to make someone very wealthy if they exploit it without allowing "competition". Patents on "information" are as idiotic as they were when they came about.

      If someone with a strong mind had patented stupidity and gullibility, would the world be full of brilliant free acting individuals instead of gullible sheep, just because they'd have to pay to be stupid and gullible? Since almost 99% of city dwellers have cable TV, I bet they would also pay to use a "stupidity" patent.

      --
      " What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
    2. Re:It's U.S. government corruption. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      "Every government is corrupt..."

      When presented with evidence of government corruption, many Americans give excuses.

    3. Re:It's U.S. government corruption. by It'sYerMam · · Score: 2, Informative

      Every government is corrupt

      Is that inherently, or have you actually examined every world government to determine this? I suspect it's merely a hasty generalisation.

      The upside is this. Patenting DNA based music has to do with that lovely 95 to 96% of the unknown DNA, that scientists, like those "world is flat" guys before them, are calling "junk DNA". I.E. "we don't know or won't tell you what it does yet, so we're going to call it junk, and you'll believe us, because we're *experts*". Its information storage... and there are those who know how to read it, they won't tell you or me they can, but there's enough in there to make someone very wealthy if they exploit it without allowing "competition". Patents on "information" are as idiotic as they were when they came about.

      Due to this not being funny, I'm going to assume it's serious. Point being that so-called "junk" DNA firstly isn't transcribed into proteins, and secondly isn't conserved at all. It's known to serve a function (buffering the rest of the DNA from mutation) but only due to its bulk, not what's contained in it. As for information storage, one has to wonder what anyone would want to write down on a medium that is less reliable than most other modern methods, including paper.

      --
      im in ur .sig, writin ur memes.
  57. Oh man, I gotta patent my tree ring algorithm fast by ydra2 · · Score: 1

    And the "digital photo of you to music" and the "turtle growth rings to music", and "hair on the barber shop floor to music" and "snail trails on the sidewalk to music" and "sand wavelets on the beach to music" and "fingerprints on a monitor to music" and any other "to music" algorithm I can think of that is perfectly obvious to the skilled or unskilled practitioner. Should I add the words "calculated and converted by a computational device connected to a method of input" to make it sound brainier?

  58. Prior Art, Bitches! by Greyfox · · Score: 1
    Humanity has been making music from DNA pretty much since the dawn of time. See also: every song ever made!

    These snarky comments posted to Slashdot also made from DNA.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  59. Philip K Dick - a short story.... by bukuman · · Score: 1

    I think I recall a Philip K Dick short story involving someone thrying to preserve music over very long time spans by encoding it in DNA inserted into the genomes of various species. The idea was that it would be a great distributed, fault tolerant, etc etc medium - within the living body of every rabbit (say - I cannot recall the animal). I really don't understand how the idea as stated here can be patentable - there seems like many many cases of prior art.

  60. Utter nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People were generating music from biological sequences on Macs in the mid-80's and on DOS PCs before that.

  61. We're just a GA for producing better music? by Mathinker · · Score: 1

    A society where people with DNA which generates "bad" music are killed or disadvantaged will tend over time to evolve individuals whose DNA produces "better" music (kind of gives a new twist to the "Let's make music together" line).

    These lawyers are members of a strange cult which wants to break off of human society and start to implement these ideas, the patent is just so that there will be prior art on the books in case someone else tries to patent it to stop them.

    Or perhaps they've discovered that human society is just an alien-run genetic algorithm to produce the next alien musical masterpiece, these lawyers are freedom fighters who have discovered the plot, and before they can apply for the galactic patent, which is our only chance to stop this madness, they have to show that our own patent system doesn't object to it. (Damn, should have tried to sell that idea to Piers Anthony before posting...)

    Wow, all this imagination, and even before my first cup of coffee!

  62. Melody and harmony by postlude · · Score: 1

    The patent involves "Genetic music generated by decoding and transcribing genetic information within a DNA sequence into a music signal having melody and harmony,", so presumably a 'musical signal' without melody and harmony is exempt. Now where's the patent office again?

  63. That music in my soul by pseudosero · · Score: 1

    Might not be mine legally.

    --
    sometimes, nothing.
  64. Stop AIDS: Copyright your own DNA! by mikiN · · Score: 2, Funny

    I propose to start suing all retroviruses under the DMCA since they hijack our DNA in their reproductive cycle, circumventing our copy protection scheme in the process. No matter what damages are awarded, this will put an end to the spread of HIV/AIDS, for the viruses will quickly (as in: immediately) run out of finances to support the ensuing legal battles. their only options being to either face jail time or simply go extinct.

    --
    The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
  65. Of course, there's the issue of prior art... by keraneuology · · Score: 1

    ~sigh~

    --
    If the g'vt kept the data on you that google does you'd better believe you'd be calling it "doing evil"
  66. Next Steps by DynaSoar · · Score: 1

    Patent music made by coutning how many petals are left on a flower after removing one, chanting for each in turn "she loves me not, she loves me".

    The first attempt at this was done by a classically trained opera signer turned radio astronomer. She was on Letterman many years ago.

    Since the DNA sequences are owned by the people, via the government, they cannot patent or copyright the sequence. They can, however, copyright the collected works based on any sort of production method they wish. But patent it? Not bloddy likely, given prior art that does the same regardless of the source of the numbers.

    --
    "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
  67. Prior art! This was done in 1984! by tackledingleberry · · Score: 1

    And published in Nature! Hayashi, K. and Munakata, N., Basically Musical, Nature 310:12, pp. 96 (1984).

  68. Prior Art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Speaking of prior art, wasn't this already done in some movie? It's one of those ones in the late 90's early 00's where they have a mission that lands on mars in order to rescue the first mission that was stranded there. Well they find one guy still alive and he's working on some output from a face that's a geological feature. It turns out it's a DNA sequence that's coded into sound and so they make a code into sound of human DNA and it opens up a cave and one guy flies to the martians. I'm telling you it happened.

    I'm saying this is an obvious invention. These idiots must have watched that bad movie as well.

  69. Prior Art? Link by PrvtBurrito · · Score: 1

    Ask and ye shall receive: DNA Music Paper from 1995. Note, I didn't read the patent, but DNA music has definitely been done before.

    --
    Laboratree - Scientific collaboration based on OpenSocial.
  70. So... by Sierpinski · · Score: 1

    So if I took a DNA sequence, converted the letters to notes and started playing on my old high school saxophone, I'd be infringing on a patent?

    What kind of morons do we have working at the PTO nowadays? That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard of in a long time. Maybe I should go through with filing my patent about making a squeaking noise by blowing air through my two thumbs with a blade of grass in between them. Unbelievable.

  71. I Played My DNA Backwards . . . by aplusjimages · · Score: 1

    . . . and it said "Satan is good, Satan is my pal. I want to kill everyone."

    --
    Can I bum a sig?
  72. Re:Prior Art: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Age by kria · · Score: 1

    Alas, you beat me to posting. Glad to see people remembering the Dirk Gently books. I know that I love them.

    Anyway, can something fictional really be prior art? :)

  73. hmmm by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 1

    DNA, by it's very nature, has DRM built-in! Your DNA is unique and won't work without medication in another human being. That's unfortunate because all my DNA has been playing is jazz. I want something else damn it!

    --
    The game.
  74. Re:Uh... What? My property 1325627888798945765.... by OldHawk777 · · Score: 1

    I just registered the "13256278887989457651018865901401704640" numerical sequence with the Reprobate Intellectual Property (RIP.sux) of America. Maybe now your outlandish free-speech can be legally suppressed by perversive dejure sustaining our mediocrity republic.

    IOW::TAI [there were no spelling errors]

    Next time, for gods' sake, elect a flaming Bush!

    !HAVEFUN!

    --
    Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
  75. this is lame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This may be a neat concept but it is never going to be in high enough demand for these guys to make any money from it. I'm sure there are several people already producing "music" like this and the patent won't be able to touch them because of prior art. The idea of getting music from a DNA sequence sounds cool but it is really just some sort of lame gimmick. If they want the patent, let them have it. No sane person would really expect to make any money off of this. Lame.

  76. Prior art exists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Well, there's prior art, Protein Music http://www.aber.ac.uk/~phiwww/pm/index.html/

    ProteinMusic is a Java program converting DNA sequences into music. The original idea for this project came from R. D. King here at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and C. G Angus from the Shamen (King, R.D. & Angus, C.G. (1996)). They developed a program written in C on an Apple Mac together with a MIDI connection to a synthesizer in 1996. This program here is a complete re-write of the original program in Java. by A. Karwath.
    Contact: R. D. King or A. Karwath So what now, pubpat with it?
  77. So.... by TemporalBeing · · Score: 1

    ...where do parents apply for copyright protection of the DNA they assembled to make their children? After all, they own the copyright for the next few decades thanks to Disney, the RIAA, MPAA, and all those other leech organizations. Why should parents be left out of the mix?

    Next thing you know it'll be sibling rivalries over who has the better DNA for music, and Johnny will complain when Susie makes #1 and he can't get on the charts. Either way, their parents will be rich.

    --
    Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
  78. Call the Lawyers by Orkinman · · Score: 1

    So if my DNA sequence sounds like the new Fergie album, does this mean I can sue Interscope for copyright infringement?

  79. prior art by Schoenberg by ffflala · · Score: 1

    This technique sounds like a subset of serial composition. In serial composition, a set (sometimes called a "row") is used to determine melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics, or other elements of the music.

    Compare the language of the patent
    http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PT O1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fs rchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7247782.PN.&OS=PN/72477 82&RS=PN/7247782

    In the simplest method, each of the DNA nucleotides A, C, T, and G can be assigned a specific musical note. The data stream of nucleotides can then be transcribed into a data stream of musical notes. Alternatively, the nucleotide sequence can first be decoded to an amino acid sequence, whereby the twenty amino acids can be each assigned to a specific musical note. Variations can be used to produce chords, to specify rhythms, tone, volume, to generate melodic music and harmonic music, and the like.

    ...with serial composition (aka serialism)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serialism

    is a technique for composition that uses sets to describe musical elements, and allows the manipulation of those sets. Serialism is often, though not universally, held to begin with twelve-tone technique, which uses a set of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale to form a row (a nonrepeating arrangement of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale) as the unifying basis for a composition's melody, harmony, structural progressions, and variations. When not used synonymously, serialism differs from twelve-tone technique in that any number of elements from any musical dimension (called "parameters") may be ordered, such as duration, register, dynamics, or timbre.

  80. I think I have a good patent idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm going to patent my DNA. If these guys try to use any sequences that appear in it, I'll sue the pants off them! Buahaha.

  81. Prior Art Was Ignored! by LifesABeach · · Score: 2, Funny

    Bag Pipes are the only instrument that comes to mind that could play the melodies of DNA.

  82. Re:Prior Art: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Age by biocal · · Score: 1

    At my undergrad class back in 1989 we had a professor who played us music from DNA and started to dance to it in front of the class. He was a bit strange but was say that as researcher in stead of reading sequences we (as researchers) would listen to DNA music to understand different sequences. Yea prior art.

  83. Prior art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have been using nucleotide sequences to generate music since 1987 and I'm curious to know how this patent will affect my research, the goal of which is to explore isomorphism in structural patterns between musical and DNA structures. Like most types of algorithmic music, the output is not likely to hit the top of the charts.

  84. the patent is only for plant dna by justo · · Score: 1

    so please bring back elvis!

  85. Seems a bit silly. by somasynth · · Score: 1

    Music can be arbitrarily interpreted from anything, I'm sure one could even do the reverse and create a genome out of music. Might turn out to be a retarded frog fish, but most likely nothing at all, nevertheless. This should be one of those 'rejected due to obviousness' patent attempts.

  86. I Rock by blaster151 · · Score: 1

    So in the future, "I rock!" will be a scientifically verifiable claim!

  87. Cool! A Minnie Driver/Anne Hathaway love scene. by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    OH FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! They'll let people patent any old obvious thing now! >:(

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  88. Patterns my DNA based brain comes up with... by a1mint · · Score: 1

    I just patented *everything*.

    ps. best story on patents, ever:
    http://www.philsalin.com/patents.html

  89. Just a small slightly related cartoon by owidder · · Score: 1