DailyDirt: Keeping Information For A Really, Really, Really Long Time

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The problem of storing digital data usually involves transferring data from an older format to a newer one -- with the hopes that the newer one won't be replaced as quickly as the older format it just replaced. Maybe some archivists out there like to go through this periodic technology shift and verify that the data we've stored is still readable, but wouldn't it be nice if there was a "store it and forget it" format?

• A single gram of DNA can store up to 455 exabytes of data, and roughly four grams of DNA could store all of the world's collected information. It's not cheap to store arbitrary data on DNA yet, but the costs are coming down. [url]
• Stored data on DNA encased in glass at freezing temperatures could survive for a couple million years. The DNA of a woolly mammoth in Siberia was preserved for 40,000 in a tundra, so it's not unthinkable that we might want to keep a few backups of our data on ice. [url]
• Making large DNA crystals with precisely-controlled structures is something that can be done with a "DNA-brick self-assembly" method. Being able to do this could help fabricate all kinds of nanoscale designs and create a manufacturing process for complex, artificial DNA structures. [url]

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Filed Under: archive, backup, data, dna, nanotechnology, self-assembly, storage

DailyDirt: Rise Of Flexible Robots

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Robot researchers often look to biology for inspiration because nature has evolved some pretty efficient means of locomotion and self-assembly. The idea of a robot that has a stiff metal body is being replaced by more lightweight, flexible and organic designs and materials. Robot parts made from various polymers could lead to some interesting biomimicry. Here are just a few examples.

• Researchers have created a self-assembling robot that starts as a flat sheet of paper and plastic (and some not-so-flat electronics) and can walk around in under 5 minutes. The prototype cost about $100 in parts and uses some origami techniques to allow the bot to spring into action. [url]
• Robot parts that can be 3D printed and incorporate self-assembling components could be the building blocks of re-configurable or self-replicating machines. Machines making machines? How perverse! [url]
• Making robots out of elastomeric materials can result in flexible and extremely modular designs. Skynet is pretty far from making liquid-metal Terminators, and these T-1000 ancestors aren't too intimidating. [url]

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

Filed Under: 3d printing, biomimicry, origami, robots, self-assembly, self-replicating