Storing data in DNA brings nature into the digital universe
July 27, 2017
Updated: July 27, 2017 8:41pm
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
Over millennia, nature has evolved an incredible information storage medium – DNA. It evolved to store genetic information, blueprints for building proteins, but DNA can be used for many more purposes than just that. DNA is also much denser than modern storage media: The data on hundreds of thousands of DVDs could fit inside a matchbox-size package of DNA. DNA is also much more durable – lasting thousands of years – than today’s hard drives, which may last years or decades. And while hard drive formats and connection standards become obsolete, DNA never will, at least so long as there’s life.
The idea of storing digital data in DNA is several decades old, but recent work from Harvard and the European Bioinformatics Institute showed that progress in modern DNA manipulation methods could make it both possible and practical today. Many research groups,…