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     Luis Ceze, a professor at the University of Washington Computer Science Department, states that “a large part of building better computers is about finding better materials to build computers with”. As we reach the limits of what traditional silicon is able to handle, we are now looking in a very strange place to store all of our data: Our DNA.

     Ceze, along with many other researchers at the University of Washington are developing a complete system to store data in DNA. This idea isn’t necessarily new, in fact the first mention of DNA being used to store digital data was published all the way back in 1964 by Mikhail Neiman. However, technology took a very long time to catch up, and it wasn’t until 2012, when researches at Harvard University were able to encode DNA with an HTML copy of a book, a JavaScript program, and 11 JPG images, that DNA storage started to seem like a real possibility.

     By translating data from 1’s and 0’s to the four nucleotides DNA is made of (A, C, T, and G), we can store all of our data, which is expected to reach 16 zettabytes by 2017, into a much more compact, durable solution. To give an idea of how much space this can save, consider this. Facebook recently built a storage center that can store 1 exabyte, or 1 billion gigabytes of data, in a large warehouse. If we’re storing data in DNA, we can fit the same amount in a single cubic inch.

     But saving space isn’t the only benefit of DNA storage. In an article from ETH Zurich in 2015, the researches predicted that we will be able to recover information from DNA 1 million years from now if stored at -18 C or 2000 years at 10 C, without any degradation. This permanent archive of all digital data has been long sought after, and now that we are aware of how advantageous storing data in DNA can be, we’re starting to pay closer attention to this method.

     There are a few drawbacks to DNA storage, though. Even if it helps us create an archive of the entire internet, we still can’t expect to see DNA storage devices on the market anytime soon. Why? It’s simply too slow. DNA storage relies on moving molecules around physically, which is much slower than using electrons as we do today. But DNA storage isn’t about speed, it’s about longevity & stability. As long as it’s kept in a cold and dark place, DNA can last an incredibly long time.

Sources:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2016/04/08/dna-data-storage/#.VwvkGfkrKUk

https://sites.google.com/site/msneiman1905/eng

http://genomeinformatician.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/using-dna-as-digital-archive-media.html

https://www.rt.com/usa/338999-scientists-store-digital-date-dna/