For the past few decades, our lives have changed in drastic ways. I think no other era has proven to be such a big departure from the one preceding it, than the one we live in today.
The advent of personal computers and the internet has been one of the major reasons for that as they snowballed the digitalisation of human life. The constant increase in computing power, internet speed, battery tech and data storage technology, have all acted as catalysts for the same.
Each of those individual technologies has seen some major breakthroughs over the years. For the purposes of this article, I am going to talk about data storage in particular.
Data storage technology allows us to virtually store our lives and the various aspects of it in the digital realm and serves as the backbone of this information age that we live in.
Storage Media Over The Years
There have been all sorts of storage media over the years but we are all aware of the mainstream ones that we have used at one or the other point in our lives.
Floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, hard drives, pen drives are the various terms we are all familiar with. While some of these have gone the way of the dodo, some have become the prevalent media of our times.
But these storage media that are cutting edge today, might become obsolete in the foreseeable future. You see, we generate more than 2.5 Exabyte (2.5 billion GB) of data per day and this is only going to keep increasing.
In a not so distant future, there might come a time where we might generate more data than we are capable of storing it. Therefore, we need to look into possible solutions and we might not have to look very far.
DNA Storage
DNA forms the building blocks of life itself as it literally contains the blueprint for life. Every single trait that we have is stored in our DNA and this information is passed on for generations to come. It is nature’s way of storing and transferring data.
If we are somehow able to replicate this and start storing our digital data onto DNA, it would be a major revolution in this field and one that will last for a long, long time.
A lot of research is going on to achieve just that with scattered success here and there. In fact, a few months back, researchers were able to store a whole computer operating system, an Amazon gift card and even a movie and some other files into DNA strands. They were also then able to retrieve this information without any errors.
So….why DNA? Well, let me first state a fact. A few kilograms of DNA is enough to store the entirety of data that we have. This alone should be reason enough. But wait, there’s more! The data stored in DNA will last for hundreds of years if stored properly. In my opinion, that makes up for the holy grail of data storage right there.
As with any new technology, storing and retrieving data into DNA is proving to be quite a challenge resulting in exorbitant prices, but that happens with almost any new technology and things are bound to get more efficient, easier and cheaper, as time progresses.
Future
Experts estimate that this technology should be in the hands of the common people in a little over ten years. If you ask me, that is not long at all. In fact, ten years is a relatively short time in the technological landscape.
When this technology finally arrives though, it is anybody’s guess in what form factor we will be using it. Maybe it will be a very tiny device that we will plug into computer systems or maybe one day, we might even carry our own data in our own DNA, using whatever methods imaginable to access it. That would make for a very private and efficient data storage for sure!
Reminds me of what my professor used to say all the time, "Nature is always the best designer". While our inventors have a few decades at best to come up with a design, Nature has had billions of years to experiment and come up with the best ones.
Yes, humanity has always looked up to nature for inspirations on so many innovations. It's the best designer without doubt.
interesting
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Thanks!!
If it's new it seems scary. Messing with DNA is scary. Of course they are already messing with DNA in other ways. I've heard the government in the US is 50 years ahead of what they are sharing with the public.
As far as genetic modification goes, I think we should be careful with how much we should change. But as far as storing information goes, I don't think it will mess up our DNA at all. Also, storing data within our own DNA is still way into the future.
I've seen papers about what is essentially DNA but with different base pairs. Same data storage possibilities, less likelihood of killing all life on earth with some super prion. Also, DNA mutates at a very regular rate. So regular that it must be built into the code. That would need to be removed for effective data storage that is not supposed to evolve. A large portion of our DNA is what is called "junk DNA," and was probably placed there by viruses. Some believe this viral DNA is where the mutations come from. In that case, maybe there would be no need for removing mutation code. I have no doubt that DNA will be used as storage sometime in the future, if we don't send ourselves back to some sort of dark ages where most technology is lost. It has happened more than once. Anyway, nice article.
Yeah, still a lot of mysteries there but I am sure in time we will be able to crack the code. I have no doubt in my mind that in the future this is going to be the main technology for storing data, be it on synthetic dna or our own.
I think the main bottleneck with DNA storage is reading and writing speed.
Yes, that's exactly right. But that was the case with magnetic storage when it was first introduced as well. With time, everything becomes better, faster, cheaper.
Wouldn't this theoretical data storage on DNA be prone to damage such as from radiation just like human DNA is mutated by certain out side factors?
From what I read, it is highly durable.
Yes, the DNA in all organisms gets damaged frequently, be it by radiation, chemical mutagens or copy errors. What keeps data integrity at acceptable levels in living organisms is the repair mechanisms all cells have. Keeping your data storage very clean, and shielded from UV will reduce the decay, but eliminating copy errors and cosmic radiation is near impossible.
With serious redundancy and storage for a limited time I could see this work in the future for some types of data storage needs, but the mutations are indeed are a severe liming factor.
From the first time I read about using DNA for data storage (or trying to engineer a solution that can replicate the amount of data DNA stores in such a small space), I was hooked. I can't wait to see what is done in this space!
yeah, me too. The potential is just unimaginable!!
Nothing can compare with DNA storage, so much capacity in a small space.
exactly!! A few kilograms can hold the entirety of our data. Imagine how much data our whole body alone can store!
Mind blowing! lol
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Thanks! :)
What if we accidentally store the data that turns DNA into a terrible human death virus?
haha I don't think it works that way. lol
We should be so lucky!
Dna contains structures passed on from many past lives people relatives and much much more. It is beyond what we can create or manage to comprehend in the near future.
Amazing post overall. Thank you for taking the time to write it. And I'd like to wish you all the best in your future steem adventures.
@goldie
Thank you for the kind words :)
Interesting Post. Interest in storage,analysis and processing of data is at an all time high. There is need for a technology like this when you consider the explosive amount of data that will be generated daily when IOT goes mainstream .
As they say, "Necessity is the mother of innovation" :)
The possibilities are endless ☺
they truly are :)
very interesting, I am just wondering how they transfer the data in and out of the DNA?
It's a process of encoding and decoding that is just beyond me, to be frank, lol. I will try to understand more about it though.
Very interesting!🖒
Yeah it is! :D
I've read many theories on DNA Computing. I think DNA Computing will revolutionize the medium of data storage. This will blaze a new trail in the world of computing. But how will they get across the need for DNA Sequencing?
Nice post. Upvoted and followed
Yeah, it will truly be a revolution for sure!! So much data can be stored in such little space that we wouldn't need to worry about our data storage needs for a long time :D
DNA is the super computers we seek to emulate. So awesome. Thank you. I'm Doctor Original Oatmeal, the One & Only Joey Arnold from Oregon. I'm the WOLBI Ghetto Joe, the Cool Kid of Hawaii Vietnam.
Hi there, WOLBI Ghetto Joe, the Cool Kid of Hawaii Vietnam!!
That's a fascinating story, and an incredible use of technology...the question is, if at some point in the future, data is stored in a person's own DNA, then perhaps the DNA of that person could be re-programmed, if so, then the future of that person could be decided by the programmer....
Yeah, the DNA can already be reprogrammed in a way thanks to genetic modification. The CRISPR technology opens up all sorts of possibilities in that field.
Do you see it as a good thing or a bad thing?
I saw the news recently about this DNA breakthrough. It is 'out there' as far as new frontiers go but there are some serious drawbacks.
Primarily the replication process can be affected by any number of external forces as mentioned by others here but also internal factors such as cancers.
Interesting technology. I saw the video clip (5 images) which is truly amazing.
Your comment:
"In fact, ten years is a relatively short time in the technological landscape."
I would disagree. 10 years in technology is an incredible long time.
Remember Moore's Law = Processors doubling in speed halving in costs ever 18 months. That yardstick has been left behind a long time ago.
The pace of innovation is growing exponentially. It is now impossible to keep up with the pace of change.
This DNA process could be with us much sooner if they figure out some kind of shielding mechanism from both external and internal threats.
Fascinating post and good food for thought.
The external and internal threats matter if they try to encode the data into our own DNA or some other living organisms' dna. From what I read, I think right now they are trying to encode it into synthetic ones. Not sure if they suffer from the same drawbacks.
Well it can be a really a good source of collecting and saving information.But it's not becoming reality anytime soon. may be after 20-30 years. Apart from that, I don't think people would choose to store their artifical data into their natural body. It could have side effects as it would disrupt the natural way of working of body @sauravrungta
As far as I know and have read, it wouldn't have side effects and I think 20-30 years is a really long time. We should have it before then.
downloading informations into our body is cool , but skills & talents? that's matrix shit
haha, maybe one day we will be able to do that as well! I wonder what that will do to our school system.
Truly interesting! I was absolutely fascinated by the title and the content is amazing! New advancement of the data storage...nice
Thank you :)
I've been to a few (grad school) seminars where some of the presenters were talking about statistical genetics.
Although I had very little clue what they were talking about but the main idea was that an increase in CPU power has now enabled certain statistical (and computational) techniques to be possible in extracting and analyzing very large datasets. These datasets deal with DNA data, chromosomes, genotypes, etc.
This sort of topic is related to biostatistics, computational biology and the like (I would presume).
they said that memories and experiences are stored in your DNA
If anyone needs a clear summary of what DNA is, check it out here https://steemit.com/science/@ovij/what-is-dna-why-do-we-need-it
DNA is a form of 3D storage. If we could store in 3D; what would take about 500 1TB HDDs could take just a grain of rice of storage! Great post as always :)