Breakthrough in storing 700 terabytes of data in 1 gram of DNA

Breakthrough in storing 700 terabytes of data in 1 gram of DNA

www.smh.com.au

Scientists in Britain on Wednesday announced a breakthrough in the quest to turn DNA into a revolutionary form of data storage.

A speck of man-made DNA can hold mountains of data that can be freeze-dried, shipped and stored, potentially for thousands of years, they said.

The contents are "read" by sequencing the DNA — as is routinely done today, in genetic fingerprinting and so on — and turning it back into computer code.

(visit the link for the full news article)

"We already know that DNA is a robust way to store information because we can extract it from bones of woolly mammoths, which date back tens of thousands of years, and make sense of it," said Nick Goldman of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) in Cambridge.
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"It's also incredibly small, dense and does not need any power for storage, so shipping and keeping it is easy."

The project entails taking data in the form of zeros and 1s in computing's binary code, and transcribing it into "Base-3" code, which uses zeros, 1s and 2s.

The data is transcribed for a second time into DNA code, which is based on the A, C, G and T. A block of five letters is used for a single binary digit.

The letters are then turned into molecules, using lab-dish chemicals.

Now this is cool!

This breakthrough allow data to be stored and transported easily. Think f all the data that can be stored in the DNA...

It is noted in the article that the DNA is completely man-made. The scientists do not intend to store data in any living thing, nor do they care for messing with life...still cool though.

www.smh.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

Some how some way this will be used for military or CIA top secret projects.
Really really cool find OP but I worry about abuse from greedy power freaks we call TPTB.

I want to know the Read / Write speeds and how many times it can happen before possible failure

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Not the same article, but same info

Originally posted by cartesia
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Not the same article, but same info

edit on 24-1-2013 by cartesia because: (no reason given)

Thank you for the information.

The search has failed me today...on another thread, and now this one...

Very interesting...
Being that i know very little about genetics and such....
Couls this be used to treat people for illness or to "reprogram" them? I am assuming these experiments were done on genetic materials which were removed from a body of some sort and my mind goes right to the thought, "what happens when that genetic material is re-introduced into that body? Assuming that the immune system would accept it what effect if any would it have?

Then my mind wanders...havent there been some discusions about how we were all programmed like computers anyhow?

@ Aquarius2159....sorry...i think i just gave them those ideas yiu were concerned about?

Already Posted Here

www.abovetopsecret.com...

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