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Technology

Unthinkable Amounts of Digital Information Can Be Stored in…Your DNA?

Jan. 23, 2013 10:00pm
Study: Digital information can be stored in DNA

In an undated photo provided by European Molecular Biology Laboratory via Nature magazine, Dr. Nick Goldman of EMBL-EBI examines synthesized DNA in an Eppendorf vial. Credit: AP

NEW YORK (AP) — It can store the information from a million CDs in a space no bigger than your little finger, and could keep it safe for centuries.

Is this some new electronic gadget? Nope. It’s DNA.

The genetic material has long held all the information needed to make plants and animals, and now some scientists are saying it could help handle the growing storage needs of today’s information society.

Researchers reported Wednesday that they had stored all 154 Shakespeare sonnets, a photo, a scientific paper, and a 26-second sound clip from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. That all fit in a barely visible bit of DNA in a test tube.

The process involved converting the ones and zeroes of digital information into the four-letter alphabet of DNA code. That code was used to create strands of synthetic DNA. Then machines “read” the DNA molecules and recovered the encoded information. That reading process took two weeks, but technological advances are driving that time down, said Ewan Birney of the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, England. He’s an author of a report published online by the journal Nature.

DNA could be useful for keeping huge amounts of information that must be kept for a long time but not retrieved very often, the researchers said. Storing the DNA would be relatively simple, they said: Just put it in a cold, dry and dark place and leave it alone.

The technology might work in the near term for large archives that have to be kept safe for centuries, like national historical records or huge library holdings, said study co-author Nick Goldman of the institute. Maybe in a decade it could become feasible for consumers to store information they want to have around in 50 years, like wedding photos or videos for future grandchildren, Goldman said in an email.

The researchers said they have no intention of putting storage DNA into a living thing, and that it couldn’t accidentally become part of the genetic machinery of a living thing because of its coding scheme.

Sriram Kosuri, a Harvard researcher who co-authored a similar report last September, said both papers show advantages of DNA for long-term storage. But because of its technical limitations, “it’s not going to replace your hard drive,” he said.

Kosuri’s co-author, Harvard DNA expert George Church, said the technology could let a person store all of Wikipedia on a fingertip, and all the world’s information now stored on disk drives could fit in the palm of the hand.

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Comments (29)

  • DZ-015
    Posted on January 24, 2013 at 7:52am

    Maybe we could do without schools. Just take DNA pills with skill sets encoded in them. Sort of like how you could learn how to fly a helicopter in “The Matrix.”

    Report this comment

    DZ-015  
  • Mr.buff1959
    Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:16am

    HiMonk to good.

    Report this comment

    Mr.buff1959  
  • Ghandi was a Republican
    Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:30am

    DNA processors (CPU) were tested in the 90s. Supercomputer speeds but .1/1,000,000,000 th error rates making them useless in their current state.

    Report this comment

    Ghandi was a Republican  
    • TRUTHandFREEDOM
      Posted on January 24, 2013 at 5:56am

      By the time this is all over, mankind will find out where little green space people came from …. our own neighborhoods!

      Report this comment

      TRUTHandFREEDOM  
  • Acena
    Posted on January 24, 2013 at 1:31am

    What happens when the DNA mutates?
    Considering scientists can’t even figure out what most of our DNA is for why would anyone think this is a good idea ?

    Report this comment

    Acena  
    • Melika
      Posted on January 24, 2013 at 5:44am

      Mutating DNA would require a whole host of other DNA related materials to participate in the process. The only thing that could happen is disintegration of the bonds between the chemicals and a subsequent loss of material.

      Report this comment

      Melika  
    • Stoic one
      Posted on January 24, 2013 at 7:11am

      In the 1960′s third shift scientists worked on a Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation device that used most of the electricity available on the regional grid. The article I read at the time asked them what this could be used for. They were clueless as to any practical use. This was pure research.

      They produced coherent light – LASERs they are in your computer,video equipment, toys. Where this DNA research will lead,,,,I hope I am alive long enough to see it – in a free America

      Report this comment

      Stoic one  
  • media-bias-steals-elections
    Posted on January 24, 2013 at 12:58am

    Information is useless unless it is able to be copied and used, I hope none of this is government funded. If the stated object of this goal is to store government records, why not think of all the uses for it? No thank you, I’m not excited by technology anymore?

    They are hinting around that there are devices that would give you instant access to the internet directly into your mind, which I debate would amount to loss of free will, and you want to encourage DNA storage devices, so what, your grand children will not figure it out and get suckered into it?

    We are doing fine without resorting to bio-mechanical integration, leave it alone? Once we are virtual clones, we stop existing? They can figure out DNA storage, but they can’t stop Alzheimers? Can you re-arrange your priorities please?

    Report this comment

    media-bias-steals-elections  
  • Captain Crunch
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 11:35pm

    In the year 2525…..
    we will never make it.

    Report this comment

    Captain Crunch  
  • title_of_liberty
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 11:12pm

    I had been thinking about this before, but I had no clue that we were already developing it! This is absolutely remarkable! Bravo for synthetic biology!

    Report this comment

    title_of_liberty  
  • GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 11:09pm

    Ahh yes, and the DNA is, of course, the result of a chain of unrelated and random events…there is no such thing as divine design, this is pure coincidence….

    Report this comment

    GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas  
  • RationalMan
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 10:33pm

    Unthinkable Amounts of Digital Information Can Be Stored in…Your DNA?
    ———————————————————————————————————————-

    Good! Let us find out what country O.B. is from?????

    Report this comment

    RationalMan  
    • CatB
      Posted on January 23, 2013 at 11:09pm

      We could also find out who’s the daddy … ;-)

      Report this comment

      CatB  
    • Stoic one
      Posted on January 24, 2013 at 4:04am

      It is in his autobiography – barry huesin obama Sr; a Kenyan born subject of the BRITISH EMPIRE. Never an American citizen.

      I do indeed believe bathhouse barry was born in Hawaii; his pedigree is the problem.

      Report this comment

      Stoic one  
  • semihardrock
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 10:27pm

    it seems The Matrix was more close to reality than expected……YET there are so many still sleeping in Pods and have no idea between Reality and the Illusion of Reality which is fed to the general public on a daily basis since birth via electronically and DOE.

    Beck is Morhpeus……..But who will be Neo?

    Report this comment

    semihardrock  
  • grickm
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 10:21pm

    If they injected that DNA with the sonnets into a cell and cloned a human being with it, would Shakespeare be the result?

    Report this comment

    grickm  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on January 23, 2013 at 10:26pm

      As long as that DNA didn’t belong to an alcoholic.

      Then you’d get “Shakes”peare…..

      Report this comment

      The-Monk  
    • Call2Action
      Posted on January 24, 2013 at 11:13am

      I don’t think Shakespeare would be the result, but it might give new meaning the Ray Bradbury’s “Book People” from Fahrenheit 451.

      Report this comment

      Call2Action  
  • justangry
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 10:11pm

    Does this mean I’m going to have a buy a DNA player?

    Report this comment

    justangry  
  • TotallyNotATroll
    Posted on January 23, 2013 at 10:10pm

    Ironic just how much porn could fit in the palm of your hand…

    Report this comment

    TotallyNotATroll  

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