We Could Back Up The Entire Internet On A Gram Of DNA

Nature's code for life is stored in DNA, but what if we could code anything we wanted into DNA? Scientists are figuring out how.



Read More:

Gold 'DNA Nanowires' Could Power Genetic Computers
"A team of scientists in Germany, including Bezu Teschome and Artur Erbe of Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, are working toward that goal. They've found a way to coat DNA-based nanowires in gold and conduct electricity. Their tiny, proof-of-concept wires could lead to DNA circuits and genetic computers that self-assemble from the molecule up."

Soon you'll be backing up your hard drive using DNA
"Now, a team of Harvard and Johns Hopkins geneticists has developed a new method of DNA encoding that makes it possible to store more digital information than ever before. We spoke with lead researcher Sriram Kosuri to learn why the future of archival data storage is in genetic code, and why his team's novel encoding scheme represents such an important step toward harnessing DNA's vast storage potential."

Using Synthetic Biology to Engineer Membrane Proteins
"Synthetic DNA libraries have been used for many years to generate multiple versions of proteins to test. Researchers can order variant libraries containing many different sequence combinations to explore the possibility of improving the binding properties of antibodies or the catalytic activities of enzymes."

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Written By: Trace Dominguez

[TraceDominguez]

So in case you've also thought, "but isn't DNA harmed by UV and other radiation?" I asked that too, it just didn't make the final cut. Twist Bioscience's answer: "[DNA] is so small you can easily encapsulate huge amounts of data in small vessels like Tungsten. For example, you could take all the information for a mars colony on a spacecraft inside a small Tungsten thimble."

Essentially, the problem we have with *our* DNA is that it's stored in cells, which aren't great at keeping radiation out. If we wanted to store DNA data for thousands of years we could 1. make lots of copies and/or 2. store it in something that keeps out radiation! Very cool.

[xXblazingvortexXx]

That would bring a whole new meaning to computer viruses...

[revaddict]

Even if humanity makes DNA the goto storage option, Apple would still sell you a 16GB phone..

[EstevaoSlow]

Hey, I really loved this new format. I liked DNews, but something was wrong, and I never understood what (and I still don´t knowing). But now, its awesome! Congrats for the idea, and keep going with science divulgation!
Cheers from a brazilian science divulgation channel as well! o/

[masterofnova]

if they can turn binary data into dna, couldn't they reverse it and turn human dna into binary?

[LuanRNunes-zbpg]

My Steam library needs this kind of storage.

[Toastmaster_]

To me, this sounds very useful for archiving, much like what tape drives used to be. Tape drives were pretty slow if you wanted to grab 1 specific file from them, and almost uselessly slow if you wanted to boot from them, but for many years they stored far more data than any other drive.

[Folgrin]

Aside from life itself data is the most precious thing on the planet. How many times have we been set back from data lost from war disaster ect. It would be a huge accomplishment to store all known data from an educational standpoint in the event of a disaster. I'd love to be a part of a project like that. We should crowdfund this

[inus]

DNA is absolute proof of intelligent design.

[RMIXMODZ]

How long would it take to search through all of those files to find one specific tweet you made back in 2013?

[AlexPeace]

Hey everyone at Seeker. Love your content and I always get excited when my email pops up with a new video from you. But I was wondering if you guys could do a video about how THAD Missile defense systems work, it's a current topic with S.Korea and Japan wanting the US to install them, and I've been curious at what kind of programming goes into a system like that? Keep up the awesome videos!

[ryang]

Last time I was this early this channel was called DNews

[DNGR]

I like this guy's presentation style. Thanks team.

[Luke.Raistrick]

Okay I got a bit annoyed when u changed but you're still inspiring and bring us the best news. You're still great so thank u for this amazing news
You're still Dnews to me tho haah

[fireriffs]

If you encoded a cat video in DNA and then stuck it in the nucleus of a living cell, I wonder what the cell would produce when it tried to use the DNA.

[kristinepakule]

The only question - who was the brilliant processor that "programmed" us all...

[SoulStatement]

This idea of storing information on DNA was talk about in Orphan Black. Love that show.

[silversurfer]

Id love to add some frame shift mutations to alter the reading frames and perhaps some LINE1 with a weak poly(A) tale to induce some sequence shuffling to different regions to really scramble the information!

[richarddeese]

Thanks! I haven't analysed it yet, but it sounds to me as if there's at least the *_possibility_* that DNA could provide a *_hexadecimal_* code; not just a binary one. This would mean that a simple machine language algorithm could provide direct translation. That would simplify the process (unless I'm mistaken, of course!) Anyway, there's certainly a lot of potential there! Rikki Tikki.

[clusterstorm]

Something that came to mind in this video with making DNA storage is, could that mean that in the future that not only data could be saved on DNA, but could once living things that have now gone extinct be recreated or entirely new creatures be created?