Researchers are still uncovering the amazing properties of DNA, the long molecule used by living systems to carry information. It is the densest data storage system known. With all that biological information packed into such a tiny space, shouldn't it be difficult to access or copy?

In 1976, evolutionist Richard Dawkins eloquently described how he thought life on earth was characterized by selfish genes competing for propagation within the genomes of countless creatures.¹ Since then, science has described unique segments of DNA called transposons that are able to insert copies of themselves into plant and animal DNA.

Viruses have a bad reputation. They are ultra-tiny, well-designed machines that copy themselves in a process that sometimes causes disease in the organisms in which they reside. One class called retroviruses is equipped with machinery that splices its own viral code into the DNA of a host cell.