Data storage breakthru - Synthetic DNA!!!!

Discussion in 'Science' started by Jonsa, Jun 29, 2019.

  1. Jonsa

    Jonsa Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    This has been the subject of "blue sky" ideas and lots of sci fi, but for the first time it seems, a start up company has created DNA based data storage and retrieval. The size of a teardrop, it can store ALL of wikipedia's text.

    Incredible advance that will make archiving (in particular) incredibly more efficient and compact.

    https://www.cnet.com/news/startup-p...trate-new-storage-tech/?utm_source=reddit.com
     
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  2. Moi621

    Moi621 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Imagine what those :flagcanada: scientists are going to do with DNA and electricity.




    And what of some oopsy mixing all that DNA and electricity.
    No Thanks


    Moi
    :oldman:




    Canada.jpg
     
  3. Jonsa

    Jonsa Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Moi, this is using synthetic DNA. Totally down the wrong path to frankenstein.

    Now if you are concerned about the direct artificial intervention by gene editing, then for damn sure there is an enormous potential for far worse than frankenstein, despite the massive benefit of eliminating congenital diseases.
     
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  4. Moi621

    Moi621 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    DNA mutates.

    How does electricity effect the rate of mutation
    in this situation?

    And what ungodly creations might arise from such events augmented by electricity.
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2019
  5. Jonsa

    Jonsa Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    It doesnt.
     
  6. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    A new form of storage medium, wow!
     
  7. Jonsa

    Jonsa Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    the first concrete step in biological computing.

    As a sci fi fan of some 55 years, I am amazed at the continuous stream of truly way out there speculation that are being manifest in my lifetime. Way cool.
     
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  8. Badaboom

    Badaboom Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    DNA based data storage... Gives a whole new meaning to "a virus wiped my data".

    I wonder what the life cycle of such medium will be.
     
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  9. Jonsa

    Jonsa Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    DNA is chemically stable. We have samples of DNA that are thousands of years old. So as long as it doesn't get a dose of cosmic rays it should last at least that long.
     
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  10. Badaboom

    Badaboom Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Yes, but we aren't using those dynamicaly. For a write once, read many application it'll be fine, but for a dynamicaly used medium I'm not so sure.

    There are also many other tech in the pipeline. They released a 1TB micro SD card a few month ago, and that is still using plain old silicium. New material are being studied which will bring the density even beyond what silicium is able to provide.

    Maybe one day we'll be using the equivalent of Babylon-5 data crystals as our backup solution.
     
  11. Monash

    Monash Well-Known Member

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    Not sure its that practical as a storage medium - outside of the laboratory. Great as an 'in principal' demonstration yes but the problem is DNA degrades fairly rapidly at room temperature and/or when not contained within a cellular environment or otherwise in some kind of aqueous environment like a test tube or petri dish.

    The article mentions one potential client that wants to store information 'off planet' in deep space. This is no problem for DNA given the intense cold - assuming you can also shield your 'DNA memory drive' from solar radiation damage as well.

    What it does do is show that molecular storage can work, you just need to come up with a format that is more robust than DNA and can therefore cope with being left on a shelf in your closet for years at a time without loosing integrity.
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2019

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