Microsoft today announced the purchase of 10 million DNA long oligonucleotide molecules from a biotech company in San Francisco. Just a few days ago, news from the technology website Computerworld showed that researchers from Microsoft and the University of Washington jointly demonstrated the technology of using synthetic DNA as a data storage medium.
This series of facts proves that Microsoft is working on DNA storage technology. Since the information on DNA can be stored for thousands to 10,000 years, DNA storage technology is superior to any existing storage technology.
So, what exactly is DNA storage technology? Compared with traditional storage technology, what advantages does it have and what are the disadvantages? Will future DNA storage technologies lead the new era of storage?
First, DNA storage technology has many advantages, better than current storage technology
DNA storage technology, which uses artificially synthesized deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as a storage medium. It has the advantages of high efficiency, large storage capacity, long storage time, easy access and maintenance-free.
DNA storage technology is a future-oriented and epoch-making storage technology. DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid, which is a combination of deoxyribonucleotides. This double helix has four chemical genes, a nucleobase. DNA stores the genetic information of the organism through different arrangements of four bases: guanine (C), thymine (T), adenine (A), and cytosine (G).
DNA is arranged in a specific order to form genetic information, so its primary role is to guide the growth and development of organisms. Researchers of DNA storage technology use these four bases to develop and code, which are completely different from the "language" used by organisms.
For example, when a computer file needs to be copied, DNA's digital storage system first translates the binary numbers in the hard disk information into custom code, and then uses the standard DNA synthesis machine to create the corresponding base sequence. The sequence at this time is not a long molecule, but a plurality of repeating fragments. Each fragment comes with some indexing details to clarify where it is in the overall sequence.
The advantage of this approach is that data is not lost even if some fragments are corrupted. Standard equipment used by molecular biology laboratories to read biological DNA can read information and present it on a computer screen.
With the development of the technology information era, people's demand for various numbers and data is expanding exponentially. Therefore, we need to find a data storage method with larger capacity and higher security. DNA data storage technology can fully meet the requirements for data storage capacity. According to Microsoft Research, 1 cubic millimeter of DNA can store an exabyte (billion bytes) of data.
As a storage medium for data, the biggest advantage of DNA storage technology is its huge capacity. It is reported that the storage capacity of 1 gram of DNA is about 2PB (beats), which is equivalent to 3 million CDs.
In addition, long retention time is another major advantage of DNA storage data technology. Synthetic DNA is extremely "longevity", and its half-life can exceed 500 years even in poor environments. In contrast, existing storage technologies are weaker. For example, tapes are stored for 10 to 30 years, and hard disks are stored for 3 to 5 years. In addition, DNA does not require frequent maintenance. DNA storage technology does not involve compatibility issues when reading.
To make DNA storage technology truly real, Microsoft needs a lot of money to support it. Insiders of the Microsoft application Twist said they have raised $131 million in investments for this, including funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
If DNA storage technology is implemented, it means we can use smartphones to store more text, images or videos. However, this technology also has many shortcomings.
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