The storage of information in synthetic (macro)molecules provides an attractive alternative for current archival storage media, and the advancements made within this area have prompted the investigation of such molecules for numerous other applications (e.g., anti-counterfeiting tags, steganography). While different strategies have been described for storing information at the molecular level, this Perspective aims to provide a critical overview of the most prominent approaches that can be utilized for retrieving the encoded information. The major part will focus on the sequence determination of synthetic macromolecules, wherein information is stored by the precise arrangement of constituting monomers, with an emphasis on chemically aided strategies, (tandem) mass spectrometry, and nanopore sensing. In addition, recent progress in utilizing (mixtures of) small molecules for information storage will be discussed. Finally, the closing remarks aim to highlight which strategy we believe is the most suitable for a series of specific applications, and will also touch upon the future research avenues that can be pursued for reading (macro)molecular information.

中文翻译：

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读取存储在合成大分子中的信息

合成（大）分子中的信息存储为当前的档案存储介质提供了一种有吸引力的替代方案，并且该领域内取得的进步促使人们研究此类分子的许多其他应用（例如，防伪标签、隐写术）。虽然已经描述了在分子水平上存储信息的不同策略，但本观点旨在提供对可用于检索编码信息的最突出方法的重要概述。主要部分将侧重于合成大分子的序列测定，其中信息通过构成单体的精确排列存储，重点是化学辅助策略、（串联）质谱和纳米孔传感。此外，将讨论利用小分子（的混合物）存储信息的最新进展。最后，结束语旨在强调我们认为哪种策略最适合一系列特定应用，还将触及未来可用于读取（宏观）分子信息的研究途径。