DNA data storage

[Martin-O2]

Hi everyone, 

There was some fascinating technology news this week about using synthetic DNA as a storage medium for our data. We're storing more and more data every year, combine this with the rapidly approaching physical limits of existing storage systems (HDD's flash drives etc) it won't be long before we start running out of storage space!

Synthetic DNA offers an exciting solution to this problem due it's ability to store a massive amount of information in a tiny space. You could store all the information currently on the Internet in a shoe box! It also has a decent shelf life, lasting 1000 times longer than silicon. 

The technology works by converting binary code of 1's and 0's into a genetic code of A's C's G's and T's. This is then used to create a synthetic DNA strand which can then be put into cold storage. To read the data the DNA strand is sequenced and the genetic code is converted back into binary. 

There are still quite a few barriers to getting this technology to every day use, including the high costs that would need to come down and the slow speed of recording and retrieving data. If these can be overcome then DNA storage holds some real promise at solving our storage woes for good!  

More info

[Anonymous]

I'd imagine Seagate Technology and Western Digital are very interested but I somehow think Amazon or maybe Facebook will secure the services of this team before they even get a look in.

[Martin-O2]

I think you may have a point there @Anonymous, a lot of these smaller startups to tend to get swallowed up by the tech giants. We'll have to see how this one plays out!