You can keep your SSD...I'm getting a DNA

[jmacavali]

DNA used as storage. Sounds awesome, if not really expensive.

Researchers at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, U.K., have demonstrated a new method for reliably encoding several common computer file formats this way. As the price of sequencing and synthesizing DNA continues to drop, the researchers estimate, this biological storage medium will be competitive within the next few decades.

The U.K. researchers encoded DNA with an MP3 of Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech, a PDF of a scientific paper, an ASCII text file of Shakespeare's sonnets, and a JPEG color photograph. The storage density of the DNA files is about 2.2 petabytes per gram.

Goldman's group estimates that encoding data in DNA currently costs $12,400 per megabyte, plus $220 per megabyte to read that data back. If the price of DNA synthesis comes down by two orders of magnitude, as it is expected to do in the next decade, says Goldman, DNA data storage will soon cost less than archiving data on magnetic tapes.

http://mashable.com/2013/01/23/dna-replace-hard-drive/

 

[strollin]

OK, you wait 20 year for DNA storage to hit the marketplace, I'll keep using ssds in the meantime.

 

[ssc456]

OK i'm a little puzzled, so what does this actually mean?

What would a "DNA" drive look like?

If i'm completely honest i'm not quite sure what DNA is, I mean of course I know the basics, but what would "a pouch or a box" of DNA look like.

I know DNA is in our bloody, our hair and bodily fluids and all sorts, but from a practical point of view how would they have a DNA drive?

Puzzled???

In a really futuristic way, does this mean tat "some day" we could have a small "USB" port in our body somewhere and plug it into a computer and we could be ourselves portable hard drives?

I know some of you will think that installing a "USB" port in a hum body is ridiculous BUT I see a documentary a couple of months ago about a blind woman given "web cam" eyes and it all "plugs" into her brain through some kinda computer port.
(it didn't really make her see much but she did go from complete blindness to seeing very very vague shapes and flashes of light?)

 

[jmacavali]

I don't think they work out the details of what it would look like, only that they were able to store and retreive data from DNA. There wasn't anything else in the article about the specifics.

Just an interesting concept that could be the future of storage, or could always be a wild fantasy.

There are plenty of examples of hands/arms/etc being attached to the nervous system of the human body and being operated by the brain so I don't think we'll ever have a USB port on our bodies considering our DNA is already full of other important info that I'm not going to overwrite with the newest music or movie... but I don't think it's that far fetched that this could lead to some other breakthough in how we are capable of attaching limbs and replacing organs.

 

[ssc456]

so I don't think we'll ever have a USB port on our bodies considering our DNA is already full of other important info that I'm not going to overwrite with the newest music or movie...QUOTE]

Hmmmm can't you get your DNA from a tiny drop of blood or a single human hair???

So you could sacrifice the DNA in say 1 Gram of blood, in the form of "a blood blister" type thing, to try and stop it moving round the body so you didn't lose which DNA had the latest album on it

but let's be honest we are talking very wishful thinking now, but definitely an interesting concept.

 

[strollin]

Unless I missed it, the article only talks of the density of DNA storage, not the read/write speed. I'm not sure that the transfer speed would be fast enough to replace something like an ssd. That's why the article mostly talks about replacing magnetic tape for archival storage purposes.

 

[setishock]

Star Trek 2nd gen the main computer used neural gel packs. Brain cells bred to use in a computer.
Johnny Mnemonic had some of his memories erased so he could upload data for transport in their place.
Einstein the data dog from Cowboy Bebop had some serious data encrypted on her DNA.

People have thought of many different ways to use biology for data storage in these films and anime. Technology is starting to catch up with the fantasy. Just give it time...

 

[berry120]

Unless I missed it, the article only talks of the density of DNA storage, not the read/write speed. I'm not sure that the transfer speed would be fast enough to replace something like an ssd. That's why the article mostly talks about replacing magnetic tape for archival storage purposes.

This. Even if it becomes feasible in a couple of decades to store data this way, I'd imagine the random access speeds would truly suck (since DNA is after all a sequence) and it wouldn't be useful as an everyday hard drive, only as a magnetic tape replacement.

 

[*= WildCat =*]

First thought (would sex transfer data) ?

 

[berry120]

First thought (would sex transfer data) ?

It does already - that's how babies come into the world