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WHEELER, pt. 1 Challenge #1 - DNA

This challenge can be found when Martina collects DNA samples.

The Setup

Martina got these 2 files from the dna scanner: dna1.txt, dna2.txt

There is something more hidden in those files, can you find it?

Hint: T->00, A->01, C->10, G->11

We are given two .txt files.

The Sequence

The two text files each contain a list of base pairs, for example GC, TT or GA.

There are 90 pairs in each sequence.

We are given the hint: T->00, A->01, C->10, G->11

Here are all of the things I tried:

After that, I wondered "why would they give us two files?", and this is the insight that led me to the solution.

With two files, you can compare them with each other. So I did, and I noticed that at each line, either they had the same pair, or they had at least one element in common.

This led me to the solution:

  1. Find positions where the two DNA files differ
  2. Take only the differing bases from DNA2 (not DNA1!)
  3. Convert those bases to binary using the hint (T=00, A=01, C=10, G=11)
  4. Decode to ASCII

From my experience, and the experience of a lot of people on the comic's Discord, this was the hardest challenge yet. It was frustrating to solve at times, but extremely rewarding in the end.