
DNA may soon be used to store computer data - jkuria
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2018/10/20/dna-may-soon-be-used-to-store-computer-data
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pronoiac
"Massive Attack’s Mezzanine “remastered” in aerosol spray can format," as DNA

> The complex encoding process is explained in detail in by Dr Robert Grass of
> Zurich-based company TurboBeads. “This digital bitstream of the album (0s
> and 1s) was first translated to 901’065 DNA sequences (A, C, T and Gs), each
> 105 characters long”, says Grass. “The 901’065 individual sequences were
> then chemically synthesised resulting in a synthetic DNA sample, which fully
> represents the digital bitstream of the album.”

> Then, in order to “guarantee information stability”, the DNA sequences were
> encapsulated in “synthetic glass fossils”, which were added directly to the
> spray can. According to Dr Grass, each can “contains at least 0.1 micrograms
> of the synthetic DNA, which is equivalent to 1 million copies of the album.”

 _Playback is left as an exercise for the listener_

[http://www.factmag.com/2018/10/19/massive-attacks-
mezzanine-...](http://www.factmag.com/2018/10/19/massive-attacks-mezzanine-
remastered-spray-can/)

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deepnotderp
Last I looked into this (I think micron was looking into it also?) these were
the major problems:

1\. Orders of magnitude slower than normal memory.

2\. Could be easily damaged relative to current technology.

3\. Requires orders of magnitude more energy than standard storage media.

3\. Is currently far more expensive than standard storage media as well.

And unfortunately, due to the fundamental nature of the storage media, I don't
know if the orders of magnitudes jumps that we're used to with conventional
storage/ memory technology will be possible here.

So the only real advantage is density, but if it's going to be used as cold
storage anyways, does anyone really care compared to tape?

And is this ultimately more promising than atoms on a surface (e.g. like IBM
millipede)?

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pcrh
It also has the potential to be introduced into a living organism. In this
manner it could well last for millennia by being transmitted to the organism's
descendants. Assuming there is no disadvantage of carrying this DNA it could
perdure over geological periods of time.

~~~
colejohnson66
Until mutations happen. But redundancy should help with that

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calgoo
"Someone creates a virus to delete or encode all your data that's stored in
DNA secure storage. This then spreads and starts to encrypt the DNA sequence
in a humans body. A new step in computer malware happens where malware writers
start modifying people and unless you pay the 100 bitcoin to unlock your DNA
in 24 hours you are dead."

Its an interesting time to live in. On the one hand i love the push for all
the new tech we are creating. However, at the same time, the old problems dont
go away because we create new tools.

~~~
mr_toad
This makes about as much sense as a computer virus that destroyed the entire
OS of a machine it infected. It would never be able to propagate.

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staplers
Unless it propagates before the trigger is pulled

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thomasfedb
Lots of examples of this in extant biology - kill genes and mechanisms for
destroying cells and DNA that are vital to the survival of multicellular
organisms such as humans.

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onychomys
It's super slow, hard to read, easily corruptible, and expensive. Literally
the only advantage is storage density. But we live in a world where giant
companies build immense data centers in places nobody cares about, like
Nevada. So I'm not sure if anybody is actually worried about storage density.

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i_am_nomad
Can we maybe cut the coastal snobbery just a bit? Plenty of people care about
Nevada, specifically, Nevadans. (Not sure that’s the correct demonym.)

~~~
choward
Thanks. It is the correct demonym. Just because there is a lot of unused land
doesn't mean nobody cares.

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Real_S
Also consider that cryptography can be applied directly to DNA molecules.

Cryptography for genetic material:

[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/30/157685](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/30/157685)

~~~
p1mrx
Why would a new storage medium require a new method of cryptography? These
problems seem orthogonal.

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emmelaich
All algorithms have engineering trade-offs to for practical application. e.g.
available memory, cpu, time.

DNA is very slow but very dense.

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ImaCake
What often seems to be overlooked when talking about using DNA for storage is
that microorganisms want to eat it for their own uses. DNA in the environment
isn't just ignored, it is quickly degraded by excreted enzymes and then taken
up by cells. Trying to keep the area sterile by typical biology techniques
would also compromise your storage DNA.

Oh, and also if you put it into an organism, you better pick a plant. Many
organisms (particularly microbes) are under strong selective pressure to
excise DNA that isn't essential or very useful. Even in plants, your sequence
is going to get corrupted over time by mutations down the generations (or even
just in the one generation if your plant lives a very long time).

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rocky1138
This reminds me of "The Chase" from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Its plot
centred around data stored in the DNA of different species across the galaxy.

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nicolashahn
Hold on. So we now have the ability to create DNA with arbitrary code, and we
also have the ability to sequence a genome. Does this mean we're able to clone
a human from just their DNA encoding stored digitally? Like, I could swab some
DNA, store it on some format that will persist, and my descendents can
download and print their great great grandfather in 100 years?

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Apocryphon
If we're going to talk about alternative computing media, how's optical
circuitry doing these days?

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presscast
Isn't DNA orders of magnitude slower than current storage media?

~~~
jfarlow
Yes. Many orders of magnitude. However, if you're just doing cold storage, the
data-density of DNA is many orders of magnitude greater. With essentially sub-
nanometer 3D atomic data-density you can pack a staggering amount of data in a
very very small package.

And though we're not quite there yet in read/write speeds at the ends of the
route, the old saying rings true about the fastest way to transfer large
amounts of data between the coasts - in a station-wagon full of hard drives.

~~~
Real_S
Also, consider that read-speed is rapidly improving. So for long-term storage,
reading the data at a reasonable rate in the future is almost guaranteed.
Hopefully write-speed will reach a similar rate of improvement.

Importantly, expected corruption of the data stored in DNA is less than what
one expects using other forms of data storage. So if stability of the data is
a concern, DNA has unique advantages.

~~~
drvdevd
I wonder what effect the introduction of artificial nucleotides and engineered
proteins will have on “DNA” storage speeds as well...

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technobabble
Does anybody recommend specific research papers on how this is done?

~~~
jfarlow
\- High level article [1]

\- A "Roadmap" from the semiconductor/data side, looking at DNA from its first
principles [2]

\- Review combining the tech side with the bio side [3]

[1] [http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/dna-could-store-
all-w...](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/dna-could-store-all-worlds-
data-one-room)

[2]
[https://www.src.org/program/grc/semisynbio/](https://www.src.org/program/grc/semisynbio/)
[see PDF on right side of page]

[3]
[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2017/03/07/114...](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2017/03/07/114553.full.pdf)

