DNA Based Storage Can Prevent the Digital Dark Age

Robert Grass, Ph.D., and his team are planning to present significant information about the use of DNA as a method of archival data storage. The findings are set to be revealed today at the 250^th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society, according to hacked.com.

The team encoded DNA with 83 kilobytes of text, using the 1291 Swiss Federal Charter and the Method of Archimedes, from the 10^th century. The DNA was then stored in silica spheres and heated to 160 degrees Fahrenheit (70 C) for a week--the equivalent of 2,000 years at 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 C). When the data was extracted, it was intact and error-free.

The purpose of the study was to find a way to replace hard drives as the primary storage method. Modern-day external hard drives are limited in their life spans, and have memory capacities of up to five terabytes of data. DNA, on the other hand, could store up to 300,000 terabytes of data, and now it is realized that it can do so for significantly longer periods of time.

"If you go back to medieval times in Europe, we had monks writing in books to transmit information for the future, and some of those books still exist," Dr. Grass said. "Now, we save information on hard drives, which wear out in a few decades."

Archaeological findings have shown that DNA can hold up for hundreds of thousands of years, and can still be sequenced error-free today, proving its incredible longevity in the real world compared to hard drives.

Dr. Grass said in February that "we are nonchalantly throwing all of our data into what could become an information black hole without realizing it." He said this in response to Google's Vint Cerf's claims that we may eventually lose all data stored digitally, and enter a "Digital Dark Age."

However, there are still obstacles to overcome in the big picture of DNA storage. Indexing and searching for specific data within a strand of DNA is nearly impossible as of now. A drop of liquid DNA can contain floating molecules encoded with loads of information, but scientists still cannot locate specific information within that drop.

The cost of storage is also an issue thus far, as it would take thousands of dollars to encode and store only a few megabytes of data. However, the potential to one day see DNA-based storage in the world of the consumer is considered possible.

"This interest in preserving information is something we have lost, especially in a digital world," Dr. Grass said. "And that's what I'd like to help address and encourage people to do: Save information we have today for future times."

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