DNA: The ultimate way to store data

http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/17197.html "> Beijing time August 18 news, according to foreign media reports, when it comes to information storage, hard disk can not be compared with DNA. In the human genome, 1 grams of weight can contain billions of GB of data, and 1 mg molecule information storage space can contain all the books of the Library of Congress, and there are surplus. In the past, these were just theoretical concepts. Now, a new study suggests that researchers can store the content of a genetic textbook in 1 pico (Picogram, One-zero grams) of DNA, a technological breakthrough that is likely to revolutionize the ability of humans to store information.

DNA four nucleotides (a,g,c,t) can be used to encode data

In the past, some research teams have been trying to write data to genomes in living cells, but there are some deficiencies in this approach. First, the cells die, which is not a good way to store your term paper. In addition, the cells will divide and replicate, which will constantly mutate, changing the content of the data.

To address these problems, a team of researchers led by George Church, a synthetic biologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, invented a DNA information archiving system that does not require the use of cells at all. Instead, an inkjet printer is used to embed a small piece of DNA that is chemically synthesized into the surface of a miniature glass chip. To encode digital files, the researchers divided the files into tiny chunks of data, which were expressed as a combination of letters A, C, G, T (four nucleotides of DNA), abandoning the 1 and 0 coding methods used on the computer. Each DNA fragment also contains a number "barcode", which is used to record the location of the data in the original file. In reading the information, the DNA sequencing apparatus and the computer are required to regroup all fragments in sequence and convert them to the format of numbers. Computers also need to handle error messages because each block of data can be duplicated thousands of times, and any minor errors can be detected and corrected.

To confirm the system's ability in practical applications, the team used the DNA chip to encode a genetic book co-authored by Church and others. They succeeded. After converting the contents of the book to DNA and translating it into a digital storage mode, the system shows an error rate of two errors per million bits, which is equivalent to some minor spelling mistakes. This is similar to the performance of the DVD, far better than the perfect disk. In Friday, the team reported in the journal Science that, given the size of the DNA chip, it became the world's densest information storage medium.

However, you'd better not rush to copy the data from the flash memory onto the gene store. Daniel Gibson, a synthetic biologist at the Craig-Venter Institute in Rockwell, Maryland, said the cost of DNA sequencing instruments and other equipment is quite high and is not yet suitable for promotion, but this area is growing rapidly and the technology will become cheaper, faster and lighter. Gibson's former team of researchers synthesized the world's first most complete genome and added some additional information to the DNA as a "watermark". However, the researchers used three-letter coding systems that were less efficient than church teams, but managed to block the duplication of living cells and thus not convert the DNA into protein. "If the DNA is to be used to store information and the environment is not in the lab, then you need the help of the DNA sequencing instrument, which is unrealistic," Gibson said. Church disagreed. Unless someone consciously "destroys" his DNA data storage system, he says, information will be very safe.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)