Futurology

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Researchers develop a method to use DNA to store data, and demo its use by storing 11 MB in 3 micrograms of stable DNA dust. If scaled up this could mean 3.7 TB/gram of dust. (www.tju.edu.cn)

submitted 1 month ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

In the future, you swab the inside of your cheek and then insert the swab into a port on your computer, which squeezes the swab to recover the cheek cells and then processes them. Congratulations, you have added 10TB of storage to your computer.

Further thought: downside - your data can be directly linked to you because it is encoded on your own DNA.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

you have added 10TB of storage to your computer.

Wouldn't that be more like "you have filled up 3 GB of storage on your computer". In order to create new storage space, your computer would have to be able to print new DNA, not just read existing DNA.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No no, the DNA is the storage media. You're not putting it in to collect your own DNA pattern, you're adding more DNA molecules that the computer can edit to encode data on.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

you're adding more DNA molecules that the computer can edit

Can the computer edit existing sequences on the fly? From what the article described, the DNA storage process sounded more akin to burning a CD or DVD which could be read later, but not modified.