Why do I get a feeling I am living in a Matrix as a data storage device?
Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram
111–120 of 133 posts
Re: Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ribosomes seem to manage just fine. :) You just encode a big marker (making sure it's not a palindrome-paired version of itself!) as a header. If you see that, it's a correct order. If not, it's not.
This header idea is great because then you only need to keep one strand and can toss the other, potentially quadrupling the amount of data storage (I'm assuming you can keep single strands of DNA stable). [Left strand] A = 00 T = 01 C = 10 G = 11 [Right strand] T = 00 A = 01 G = 10 C = 11 Anyone know these guys at Harvard, b/c this might be a way to put, at most, 2800 terabytes in a gram? (I don't know how long the h…
I don't think you can simply toss one of the strands. DNA is so compact because of the way it coils, and you likely lose that if you only have one strand.
Re: Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram
#113Can we encode all of human knowledge into the DNA of some organism? How can organisms access data stored in their DNA? Imagine being born with knowledge of every Wikipedia article, or even every website. What would that be like?
Education would no longer be necessary or valued. Experience and creativity would be what everyone garners to get a job.
Your parent asks about simply storing data in DNA-form, and splicing it into an organism. Splicing computer data into your DNA does not immediately fill your head with knowledge.
If it did, why, you'd never have to study protein sequences- you'd already know how to make hemoglobin!
Re: Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
It says they stored 44 petabytes total (70 billion * 700 kilobytes), and 700 terabytes in a single gram (which is 5.5 petabits, not 4.4 petabytes).
in the paper, we say 1.5mg per petabyte at large scales. we only encode 650kB or so. this seems a little sensationalistic. we are far away from being able to do 1 petabyte of arbitrary information.
Wait, 1.5mg per petabyte at large scales? Wouldn't that mean a gram could hold (1000/1.5) 667 petabytes and presumably scalable to many grams (eventually)? I understand it's only 650kB right now, but the density is obviously still incredible.
Re: Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram
#115I don't understand how this density could be so much better than something like flash drives. Aren't they also on the same scale of nanometers?
They are both on the scale of nanometers, but DNA uses a couple molecules per bit. Transistors are not that small yet.
3D vs 2D is also a good point, made by another in this page.
Re: Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Snarky reply: You've sequences every single one of those cells and confirm that the DNA all matches? Non-snarky reply: There is a huge difference between phenotype stability and genotype stability. Take 100 cells from your body and you'll find hundreds if not thousands of genetic differences between them (single mutations).
There are 3 billion base pairs in each copy of human DNA. Looks like only ~60 of them change from one generation to the next. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/health/research/11gene.htm... Just making the 4 trillion cells in my body means that each would have to be copied an average of 41-42 times. Probably some cells get replaced more often and others have a shorter path, so I'm not sure how many times DNA is dupli…
The comment that spurred my comment concerned the stability of DNA.
You have to remember that offspring are only going to have the best DNA passed down to them, since many mutations would result in non-functioning gametes or non-viable offspring.
The best example I can think of spermatozoa production. DNA is copied in that process and a large % of spermatozoa are non-functional.
Re: Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram
#117>To store the same kind of data on hard drives — the densest storage medium in use today — you’d need 233 3TB drives, weighing a total of 151 kilos.
But hard drives aren't the densest storage medium in use today. A microSD card can hold up to 64 gigabytes and is 0.5 grams. 700 terabytes would be only 5.6 kilograms.
Re: Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram
#118I'm an author of the paper. The title of this article is misleading; first, we encoded 650kB and made 70 billion copies... second, those 70 billion copies weigh 1 milligram... third, it's really only meant for archival purposes as it's immutable and not random access... fourth, it's expensive right now (at least this might be a solvable problem).
Nice work, and thanks for replying to all the questions here. I didn't read the paper, maybe it is addressed in there, but how much did it cost to synthesize that much DNA? Also, it could be random access if you PCR amplified the fragments you need based on the barcodes - you could even make a FAT (file allocation TUBE) which has all the file names and their barcodes.
approximately a couple of thousand dollars.
while that's true (re: scalability), it's not what we did, and would be hard to scale.
Re: Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
in the paper, we say 1.5mg per petabyte at large scales. we only encode 650kB or so. this seems a little sensationalistic. we are far away from being able to do 1 petabyte of arbitrary information.
Wait, 1.5mg per petabyte at large scales? Wouldn't that mean a gram could hold (1000/1.5) 667 petabytes and presumably scalable to many grams (eventually)? I understand it's only 650kB right now, but the density is obviously still incredible.
yes. density is astounding. that's why it's in science i presume. mostly because people forget how dense dna information really is.
Re: Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram
#120Article says they made 70billion copies of 500KB, which is quite different. Can they encode 700TB of unique data in this system?