
Encoding of a digital movie into the genomes of a population of living bacteria - skosuri
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature23017.html
======
gene-h
There are number of problems with this, the big one being the difficulty of
reading and writing DNA. In addition, while storage may be very dense, it is
somewhat environmentally sensitive. IE a single cosmic ray can cause DNA
breaks. This principle has been proposed to make a dark matter detector using
sheets of synthetic DNA on gold[0]. It's also been determined that DNA has a
half life of about 521 years[1]. Of course DNA's overlap does help with this
in addition to the fact we can massively replicate DNA. Being able to
massively replicate DNA can let us copy the same data an inconceivably huge
amount of times so that we have a huge amount of redundancy. In addition, this
ability has let us sequence DNA from neanderthal bones from ~50,000 years ago.

But we might be able to do better using more stable molecules than DNA.
Peptide nucleic acid or PNA is an interesting option for this. It binds
together stronger than DNA while maintaining a lot of the benefits of DNA. Now
if we're willing to throw away complementarity we could potentially store
information with peptide sequences(proteins). We have recovered peptide
sequences, albeit short fragments that were repeated numerous times, from
dinosaur bones[3](although there are some worries with contamination here).
Peptide sequences might get tangled up and will almost certainly be more
difficult to read.

We could potentially use a similar chemistry to that used in plastics for even
more stability, although synthesis of large amounts of long sequences will be
extremely difficult.

[0][https://www.technologyreview.com/s/428391/revolutionary-
dna-...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/428391/revolutionary-dna-tracking-
chamber-could-detect-dark-matter/) [1][http://www.nature.com/news/dna-
has-a-521-year-half-life-1.11...](http://www.nature.com/news/dna-
has-a-521-year-half-life-1.11555)
[2][http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7481/full/nature1...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7481/full/nature12886.html)
[3][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptide_nucleic_acid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptide_nucleic_acid)
[4][http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070409/full/news070409-11.ht...](http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070409/full/news070409-11.html)

------
sharemywin
So, the Matrix was wrong we won't be batteries. We'll be data storage.

~~~
sushid
Interestingly enough, humans were never supposed to be used for batteries in
the original script of the Matrix. Humans were supposed to be CPUs for the
machines.

[https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/19817/was-
executiv...](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/19817/was-executive-
meddling-the-cause-of-humans-as-batteries-in-the-matrix)

~~~
jamra
Most of that idea comes straight out of the book Neuromancer.

~~~
badosu
I don't recall any reference on using brains as CPUs on the book.

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wizardforhire
On a side tangent but loosely related to the mutation subject, does anyone
remember songs that were deliberately designed to destroy music players? I ask
because this would be an interesting attack vector. You could deliberately
design a file that when compressed and stored in DNA would code for anything
in the biosphere. Just an initial thought.

~~~
awild
[http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/ryoji_ikeda](http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/ryoji_ikeda)

He iirc has made music that is intentionally damaged.

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jimhefferon
So if I encode Metallica into my dog's cells will the RIAA come after me?

~~~
thinkingemote
Only if you let your dog breed?

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nonbel
I still can't get the paper:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14754321](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14754321)

~~~
joshgel
always try sci-hub: [http://sci-hub.cc/10.1038/nature23017](http://sci-
hub.cc/10.1038/nature23017)

~~~
nonbel
Does sci-hub give you the supplements? Most of the info is in the supplements
for papers like this. That link is to the supplement.

~~~
toufka
Most publishers dont put supplements behind thier paywall. Scroll down for the
supplement.

~~~
nonbel
Yes, I go here:
[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature23017.html#supplementary-
information)

The I click on "Supplementary Information (324 KB)", which leads here (which
is dead for me):
[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/extref/na...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/extref/nature23017-s1.pdf)

So it is impossible to see the real methods for this paper.

------
skosuri
Free to Read Albeit Horrible Interface Version:
[http://rdcu.be/t9oS](http://rdcu.be/t9oS)

------
basicplus2
Oops honey, by screwing with these genomes I've accidentally created a
unstoppable flesh eating bacterium.

------
Tossrock
Obligatory Dresden Codak: [http://dresdencodak.com/2009/07/12/fabulous-
prizes/](http://dresdencodak.com/2009/07/12/fabulous-prizes/)

edit: Sheesh, tough crowd.

~~~
johnchristopher
I love Dresden Codak and this one is spot-on. I don't get the downvotes.

~~~
gue5t
The site hijacks scroll which is pretty upsetting.

~~~
bpchaps
Does that warrant downvotes, though?

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dekhn
That you can store large amounts of data in DNA, and recover it, should be
surprising to nobody. It should also be surprising that no matter how well it
works, it won't ever become a viable product.

~~~
tehlike
why not? what if it is programmed to replicate itself to provide redundancy?

~~~
gallerdude
Mutations would occur, yeah? Mutant files, lol.

~~~
gue5t
Every medium decays; if you don't estimate longevity and perform error
correction/migration/etc. accordingly, you won't be immune to data loss, just
blindsided by it.

~~~
dekhn
People who do this use erasure codes.

Also, DNA kept in a dry, cold environment has an effectively infinite
lifespan. Now, the interesting question becomes "what fraction of the the
lifespan of the universe can I maintain my data with arbitrary accuracy?"

