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700 Terabytes packed into a Single Gram of DNA
  • artiswarartiswar

    http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/134672-harvard-cracks-dna-storage-crams-700-terabytes-of-data-into-a-single-gram

  • 12 Replies sorted by
  • AriaAria

    I had no idea anyone was working on such a thing. I knew that Bio Tech was the future of many of our current digital tech, but didn't know anyone was actually doing any work on DNA for such purposes. This is a totally mind blowing report. I continue to marvel at the amazing properties of DNA and the Human Brain. Just awe inspiring. Makes me sad to see people wasting their lives with such an amazing gift.

  • karlkarl

    Hmmm... maybe I am too sceptical, but from what I read, they actually stored only 700kB of information. Yes, they say they stored 70 billion copies of that, but that is exactly the kind of redundancy that may be helping - or may even be required - to "read out" the data by sequencing. Unless they actually store 700 Terabyte of non-redundant information in 1g of DNA and demonstrate how they can re-read it reliably from a "1g DNA" storage, I remain sceptical of whether this is actually a technological breakthrough.

    Just consider that the information content stored within e.g. the human genome is not at all huge, I've read it is less than 2 MB when compressed losslessly. There may be good reason why living organisms store so little information content in so many copies with such high redundancy when using DNA. If DNA-based storage of information was possible in much larger amounts with much less redundancy, that would have saved organisms a lot of energy, and that usually is enough to give organisms an advantage in reproduction, resulting in their evolutionary success.

  • SASSAS

    Woah, sounds intense.

    I don't quite understand though, what ebook in existence could possibly take up 700 Terabytes of space?

    I think @karl must be right that they copied the data a LOT of times. still, pretty awesome in my eyes.

  • SASSAS

    (in the video that accompanies the article, they say they used an html version of a book for the data)

  • disneytoydisneytoy

    I'd like to be the first to upload all my itunes playlist into my DNA. Kinda like Johnny Mnumonic

  • disneytoydisneytoy

    Conceptually this is just evolution. I have a 256k SIMM card I bought years ago for maybe $50. I just bought 16 gigabytes of DDR3 ram after rebate for the same price. That is 64,000 times the storage. Or would have cost $3,200,000

    I also just found a nice 4mb Compact flash card to go with my 128gb SD. but that's only 32,000x.

  • luxisluxis

    "100 million hours of high-definition video in about a cup of DNA."

    http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Information/News/press-releases/press-release-01232013-DNA_storage.html

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @luxis

    DNA is worst thing anyone can use :-) It is quite unstable, easy to damage. But is makes good title for press.

    I am all for one time memory that is made by special printers ala 3D printers making special transparent brick that can withstand very big temperatures and falls up to 10 meters.

  • luxisluxis

    @Vitaliy_Kiselev It is not the "live" type of DNA...whatever that means...most likely an engineered one. The whole idea bothers me a bit on ethic grounds. But i like the (ex)Sci-Fi approach of the transparent and highly resistible brick :)

  • MihuelMihuel

    @Vitaliy_Kiselev I do not agree with you. If you allow the DNA to replicate, there is a chance that the information contained herein may survive up to 500 million years. It can even fly into space :-) .

  • DrDaveDrDave

    Mutating data. Just what we need.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    I do not agree with you. If you allow the DNA to replicate, there is a chance that the information contained herein may survive up to 500 million years. It can even fly into space :-) .

    No such thing as "allow DNA to replicate" exist, as replication is extremely complex process. And it is not error free.

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