ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

Home → Research → Inventions

Using DNA as a storage device – 100 million hours of HD video in every cup

Mihai AndreibyMihai Andrei
January 24, 2013 - Updated on July 28, 2023
in Inventions, Technology
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSubmit to Reddit

I remember years ago, when I got my first computer – it had a storage capacity of 40 MB. A few years after that, I got a 1 GB hard drive, and nowadays, 1 TB is quite the standard – that’s a growth by a factor of about 250.000. However, data storage capacity has slowed down its tumultous develpoment in the last couple of years, but researchers are still working, trying to find the next big thing; as a matter of fact, the next big thing could actually be biological (our DNA, to be more precise). Researchers have shown that a single cup of DNA can store 100 million hours of HD video – and this is just the first results.

DNA strand with code

Biological systems have been using DNA as an information storage molecule for billions of years – after all, it holds the information that makes you human, as opposed to, say, a badger. Vast amounts of data can be stored even in microscopic environments, so it’s only natural to start looking here. So could this actually be the ultimate solution ?

However, it’s very hard to “make” DNA carry the information you want, as researchers from the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) found out. In this week’s edition of Nature, they describe a new technique that stores, reads and writes data using DNA. The research was led by Nick Goldman and Ewan Birney.

dna2

“We already know that DNA is a robust way to store information because we can extract it from wooly mammoth bones, which date back tens of thousands of years, and make sense of it. It’s also incredibly small, dense and does not need any power for storage, so shipping and keeping it is easy,” Goldman said in a statement.

The method is complex, and to accomplish their goals, they emplyed the help of bio-analytics instrument maker Agilent Technologies, a former lab of Hewlett-Packard, to help synthesize DNA from encoded digital information—in this case, an MP3 of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech – quite a suitable tune.

“We knew we needed to make a code using only short strings of DNA, and to do it in such a way that creating a run of the same letter would be impossible,” Goldman explained. “So we figured, let’s break up the code into lots of overlapping fragments going in both directions, with indexing information showing where each fragment belongs in the overall code, and make a coding scheme that doesn’t allow repeats. That way, you would have to have the same error on four different fragments for it to fail—and that would be very rare.”

Another good sign was the sturdiness of the DNA storage system. According to Agilent’s Emily Leproust, who helped synthesize the data into DNA, the DNA, which looked “like a tiny piece of dust”, can last for at least 10.000 years.

RelatedPosts

Almost 40% of at-home DNA tests are inaccurate, scientists warn
Researchers make chicken cells resist bird flu by snipping out a tiny bit of their DNA
Research identifies a gene that makes our brains (and those of primates) unique
Origin of life a fluke? Study suggests more’s at play than just randomness

120819-dna

“We’ve created a code that’s error tolerant using a molecular form we know will last in the right conditions for 10,000 years, or possibly longer. As long as someone knows what the code is, you will be able to read it back if you have a machine that can read DNA,” Goldman said.

Though technically speaking, the study involved less than a megabyte of data in total, this is already a scalable result, a few orders of magnitude better than previous studies – and the advantages of DNA over both printed text and traditional hard drives are numerous – it is stable for very long periods of time, it requires no power, which makes it easy to transport and maintain, and most of all, it can cary larger amounts of data than the alternative.

Via The Conversation

Tags: dnageneticsstorage

ShareTweetShare
Mihai Andrei

Mihai Andrei

Dr. Andrei Mihai is a geophysicist and founder of ZME Science. He has a Ph.D. in geophysics and archaeology and has completed courses from prestigious universities (with programs ranging from climate and astronomy to chemistry and geology). He is passionate about making research more accessible to everyone and communicating news and features to a broad audience.

Related Posts

Health

Herpes Virus Hijacks Human DNA Within Just an Hour of Infection

byTudor Tarita
5 days ago
Genetics

Scientists uncover anti-aging “glue” that naturally repairs damaged DNA

byMihai Andrei
2 weeks ago
Genetics

Artificial selection — when humans take what they want genetically

byShiella Olimpos
1 month ago
Genetics

Scientists Gave a Mouse a Stretch of Human DNA and Its Brain Grew 6% Bigger

byTudor Tarita
1 month ago

Recent news

Wild Orcas Are Offering Fish to Humans and Scientists Say They May Be Trying to Bond with Us

July 1, 2025
Clumps of gold recovered from a mine placed on a wooden table.

No Mercury, No Cyanide: This is the Safest and Greenest Way to Recover Gold from E-waste

July 1, 2025

This $10 Hack Can Transform Old Smartphones Into a Tiny Data Center

July 1, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Editorial Policy
  • Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
  • How we review products
  • Contact

© 2007-2025 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Science News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Space
  • Future
  • Features
    • Natural Sciences
    • Physics
      • Matter and Energy
      • Quantum Mechanics
      • Thermodynamics
    • Chemistry
      • Periodic Table
      • Applied Chemistry
      • Materials
      • Physical Chemistry
    • Biology
      • Anatomy
      • Biochemistry
      • Ecology
      • Genetics
      • Microbiology
      • Plants and Fungi
    • Geology and Paleontology
      • Planet Earth
      • Earth Dynamics
      • Rocks and Minerals
      • Volcanoes
      • Dinosaurs
      • Fossils
    • Animals
      • Mammals
      • Birds
      • Fish
      • Amphibians
      • Reptiles
      • Invertebrates
      • Pets
      • Conservation
      • Animal facts
    • Climate and Weather
      • Climate change
      • Weather and atmosphere
    • Health
      • Drugs
      • Diseases and Conditions
      • Human Body
      • Mind and Brain
      • Food and Nutrition
      • Wellness
    • History and Humanities
      • Anthropology
      • Archaeology
      • History
      • Economics
      • People
      • Sociology
    • Space & Astronomy
      • The Solar System
      • Sun
      • The Moon
      • Planets
      • Asteroids, meteors & comets
      • Astronomy
      • Astrophysics
      • Cosmology
      • Exoplanets & Alien Life
      • Spaceflight and Exploration
    • Technology
      • Computer Science & IT
      • Engineering
      • Inventions
      • Sustainability
      • Renewable Energy
      • Green Living
    • Culture
    • Resources
  • Videos
  • Reviews
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Editorial policy
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2025 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.