DailyDirt: Storing Data On DNA

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Feb 4th 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

There are lots of ways to store information nowadays -- from cloud services to nano-lithography to synthesizing custom strands of DNA. Some methods are cheaper or more convenient than others, but if physical space is really a premium, then encoding a gazillion bits of data on a few grams of DNA seems like the way to go. Here are just a few projects working on using DNA as an archiving medium.

A recent project encoded all of Shakespeare's sonnets (along with some other text and images) on DNA, putting 5.2 million bits of information (including some error correction) into some tangible goo. It costs roughly $12,400 to encode a megabyte of data and $220 to read it, and since sequencing DNA will never become obsolete (and is getting cheaper to do), DNA storage could be an excellent archiving technology. [url]
A milligram of DNA *could* contain all the text every book in the Library of Congress -- and all digital data that humans have ever created could be stored on a handful of DNA. We'd just have to make sure never to forget how to translate the digitized data from DNA back into a comprehensible form. [url]
Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) created the first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell in 2010 -- and included a genetic watermark in the bacteria's DNA. The DNA watermark encoded some extra data such as the names of 46 researchers who worked on the project, as well as a URL and some famous quotations. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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Filed Under: data, data storage, dna, information, j. craig venter institute

12 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2013 @ 5:50pm

How about mining gold with bacteria, or making clothes with bacteria?

One can store data on bacteria DNA and manufacture clothes or bags to transport it.
https://biocouture.posterous.com/biocouture-on-tedcom

Now imagine some mad scientist producing a bacteria that can produce gold and store the geolocation of it in its DNA LoL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupriavidus_metallidurans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delftia_ acidovorans

Another mad idea is having the research about human vision integrated into DNA storage, imagine you tap into the optic nerve transforming the eyeballs into spycams and store those movies in your own DNA.

Now that would incredible :)

Sorry just having fun and letting the imagination go wild.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2013 @ 8:04pm

read & write speeds for DNA are horribly slow!
DNA is good for archiving, but it won't replace SSD or hard drives (or even tape drives) anytime soon........
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McCrea (profile), 4 Feb 2013 @ 11:09pm

When is a virus most like a virus?
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- Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2013 @ 11:31pm
  
  Re:
  When it has a virus code written in its DNA?
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  - btrussell (profile), 5 Feb 2013 @ 6:32am
    
    Re: Re:
    Which includes DRM
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Rekrul, 5 Feb 2013 @ 12:37am

Am I missing something here? DNA is organic matter. Organic matter degrades over time unless it's part of a living organism.
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- Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2013 @ 6:59am
  
  Re:
  Yes it's very friable, but you rely on the fact you can have many, many copies for parity checking.
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- Michael Ho (profile), 5 Feb 2013 @ 10:54am
  
  Re:
  not sure where "Organic matter degrades over time unless it's part of a living organism" comes from... because it's not entirely true. Some organic matter is quite stable, depending on the conditions, and it doesn't "need" to be part of a living cell. This is why we can recover DNA from (dead) fossils that is tens of thousands of years old... and why DNA is a reasonably good choice for molecular storage.
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Jollygreengiant (profile), 5 Feb 2013 @ 7:02am

Covert data transfer
Did you know that during sex the man transfers approximately 1.6TB of data?
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- Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2013 @ 9:29am
  
  Re: Covert data transfer
  That is per unit(spermatozoon) or the whole bunch?
  
  Not counting of course other fluids.
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McFortner (profile), 5 Feb 2013 @ 9:53am

Human DNA
Scientists decoded human DNA and found a message: "We apologize for the inconvenience."
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DNY (profile), 5 Feb 2013 @ 11:31am

DNA and encryption
This somehow reminds me of a former student's science fiction writings, which included a sentient race who knew they were designed, rather than evolved, because their genome and DNA-to-protein mechanisms were based on error correcting codes.
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