A research team based out of Europe had developed a process for storing massive amounts of digital data in microscopic DNA strands, a few years ago. According to them, the process could store data up to 300,000 terabytes in DNA (a fraction of an ounce) and could last for thousands of years.
This week, the researchers moved their theory a few steps closer to practical application. At the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the team demonstrated DNA-encapsulated information had endured the equivalent of 2,000 years with no errors upon decoding. The passage of time was approximated by embedding the DNA is silica spheres and heating it up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit for one week. That equates to about 2,000 years at 50 degrees. When the DNA has unpacked and decoded, the information was preserved intact and error-free. The encoded DNA contained only a small amount of data — about 80 kilobytes of text from the work of Archimedes and Swiss National Charter. Besides the radical miniaturization involved, the big advantage of using DNA over traditional hard drives is durability. DNA storage does not require a constant supply of electricity, but other no-power archiving materials — magnetic tape, say — tends to degrade within a decade.
Next up, the researchers hope to develop a kind of labeling system for searching for particular information or files within data encoded in DNA molecules…….
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