DNA breakthrough for years of data storage

Published Aug 19, 2015

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Scientists have developed a way of storing vast quantities of information for up to a million years in a single molecule of DNA.

The breakthrough could lead to digital archives of everything from ancient texts to Wikipedia being stored in the form of DNA that could, in theory, survive for hundreds of thousands of years without any loss of data.

Dr Robert Grass and colleagues of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich said they had pioneered a process of encapsulating DNA in glass that is equivalent to creating a fossilised form of data storage.

They have also developed a mathematical algorithm normally used in long-distance radio transmissions to eliminate any errors when deciphering the data written in the digital genetic code of DNA.

“A little after the discovery of the double helix architecture of DNA, people figured out that the coding language of nature is very similar to the binary language we use in computers,” said Grass.

Information archivists have warned that modern forms of data storage, such as magnetic disk drives, are not expected to last more than a few decades.

In contrast, just 28g of DNA could fit on a penny, store 300 000 terabytes of memory, and palaeontologists have shown the information stored in DNA recovered from fossils can survive for up to a million years. – The Independent

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