Just one gram of DNA can store the equivalent of 14,000 Blu-ray discs.
But
although the potential for DNA as an alternative to hard drives has
been known about for years, it is not the most reliable and secure way
to keep data safe.
The latest breakthrough could be about to change that, however.
Chemists
subjected spheres of DNA to extreme temperatures designed to mimic
chemical degradation and found the material - and the data stored on it -
could be successfully decoded.
The research was led by Robert Grass from ETH Zurich's Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences.
'DNA lends itself to this task as it can store large amounts of information in a compact manner,' said the researchers.
'Unfortunately,
the data is not always retrievable error-free: gaps and false
information in the encoded data arise through chemical degradation and
mistakes in DNA sequencing.
'[We]
have revealed how the long-term, error-free storage of information can
be achieved, potentially for more than a million years.'
In
2013, researchers demonstrated that data could be saved and read from
DNA, but during tests the time between 'writing' the information and
reading, or sequencing it, was relatively short.
Even during this short time, mistakes were spotted in the writing and reading of the data stored on the DNA.
Over
a longer term, DNA can change significantly as it reacts chemically
with the environment, and this is the biggest obstacle to using DNA as a
long-term storage option.
With this in mind, Professor Grass took inspiration from fossilised bones.
Despite being thousands of years old, it is possible to obtain genetic material found within the bones.
0 comments:
Post a Comment