Did you know that in one gram of DNA is it possible to store 1000000000 Terabyte data for 1000 years?
Η Microsoft φέρεται να έχει αγοράσει 10 εκατομμύρια κλώνους συνθετικού DNA, (ονομάζονται Oligonucleotides ή ολιγονουκλεοτίδια γνωστά και ως μόρια DNΑ), από τη startup Twist και συνεργάστηκε με ερευνητές από το University of Washington to explore the idea of using synthetic DNA in data storage.
Microsoft plans to drastically change the future of data storage technology, as we know it to date.
The volume and rate of data generated and stored every day is so fast that servers and hard discs must be replaced periodically, potentially increasing the risk of wear and tear and data loss.
According to statistics, the 5,4 zettabytes (4.400 billions of gigabytes) of digital data are now available in the world. This data was created up to 2015, and will increase vertically in 54 zettabytes (ZB) to 2020.
For this reason, Microsoft has begun collaborations with scientists from the University of Washington that aim to use DNA as a data storage medium.
DNA data density density is far higher than in conventional storage systems, as only 1 grams of DNA can store approximately 1 billion terabytes of data.
In addition, DNA is remarkably powerful, which means that the data stored in DNA can remain intact and read for a very long time (from 1000 to 10.000 years).
According to Twist, all existing digital data could be stored in less than 20 grams of DNA.
Although the technology is still too far from the shelves of the market (you will not see a DNA smartphone soon), the initial tests performed last autumn prove that the 100% of the digital data encoded in DNA could be recovered, as announced Doug Carmean of Microsoft Research in a press release.
Recently, the American Chemical Society reported that data storage in DNA could last up to 2.000 years without any risk of decay.
