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Using Bacterial DNA For Data Storage

Posted by timothy on from the hard-to-repudiate dept.

NPV writes "January ACM Communications has an article on the use of DNA in genetically modified bacteria to store information. This is an attempt to achieve the ultimate in archival storage (one of the modified bacteria can tolerate 1000X more radiation than a human being). Now just suppose that the "junk DNA" in the human genome is the documentation package for the machine code. Who wrote that manual?" Here's the article abstract.

21 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Who wrote that manual? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who wrote that manual?

    I think the important question is... who has IP rights over it?

  2. Who wrote that manual? by zatz · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Raelians, duh! That's how come Clonaid is so far ahead of other human cloning efforts... they read the documentation.

    --

    Java: the COBOL of the new millenium.
  3. Great! by Travoltus · · Score: 5, Funny

    So when one of these engineered bacteria wipes out the human species, and some alien species comes along and ganders a look, the bacteria will be carrying a precise record of how we humans fscked ourselves.

    --
    --- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
  4. hmmm by zachusaf · · Score: 5, Funny

    so much for P2P networks, if anyone wants the new Apache release, I just sneezed.......

  5. Bad news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I suspect that this technology will be eagerly developed, at least until someone comes down with a bad case of Shakespeare's Macbeth in the lung.

  6. In other news... by pVoid · · Score: 5, Funny

    Scientist have discovered that humans and all life on earth was just a discarded bacterial disk drive from a geek with pimples living in his mother's basement 5 million light years from the solar system.

  7. So that's why by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think the back of my fridge has the Library of Congress.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  8. Re:Cheating possiblities by baryon351 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...and making backup organisms would be more pleasurable than waiting for a tape unit to finish whirring

  9. The Manual by E-Rock-23 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Who wrote that manual?

    And where the hell did they hide it? I've been trying to figure out the human race (more specifically, the female of the species) for years. Chicks are always telling me to RTFM, so hurry up and fork that thing over so I can get ahead (bad pun intended) in the world!

    --
    Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
  10. We wrote the manual! by SHEENmaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    Don't you people watch the outer limits?

    I'll probably write this code in sometime in the future. Human cloning is stealing and I will sue your ass for infringement.

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
  11. After much testing... by Rui+del-Negro · · Score: 3, Funny

    Scientists have concluded that they can use a bacteria's DNA to store the complete description of... a bacteria. Revolutionary.

    What I really want to know is, can the same be done with the DNA of a bug? Because if it can, I'm going to buy some MSFT shares...

    RMN
    ~~~

  12. No, you didn't steal someone's yogurt by kfg · · Score: 3, Funny

    You just ate the entire sum of human knowledge. Nice work Sparky. Now you might want to go looking for a Tums and start polishing up your resume.

    KFG

  13. The Matrix... by darekana · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...if only the machines had used the humans for data storage!
    Morpheus coulda pointed to a SAN/NAS box!

    Instead they make a duracell commercial and mumble about the "human body generating more bio-electricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTUs of body heat."

    Ok I'll quit ze bitching... it was spiffy anyway.

    --
    Interactive Visual Medical Dictionary
    1. Re:The Matrix... by isorox · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...if only the machines had used the humans for data storage!

      Just remember to feel sorry for the guy that gets slashdotted

    2. Re:The Matrix... by lameland · · Score: 2, Funny

      My complaint with it was, if all they needed was body heat and electrical impulses from our nervous system, why use humans? Why not use a large, stupid animal like cows?

      The matrix would have been easy as hell to code: a big field, lots of grass -- that's it. I don't think you'd have any bovine Keanu Reeves breaking out (although a cow that knows Kung-Fu would be pretty damn funny).

    3. Re:The Matrix... by Kaz+Riprock · · Score: 3, Funny

      . It does force an unreal feeling to the whole movie, makes you go, "OK, we're in comic book/fantasy land now".

      Right...the leaping from building to building, spider robots, and 'faster than 5 speeding bullets' were fine...it was the human battery plot that made it seem like fantasy...

      --
      Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
  14. Re:Cheating possiblities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, a French Kiss becomes file-sharing.. Omigosh! MPAA and RIAA are not going to like this...

  15. Re:Cheating possiblities by justzisguy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe not quite a storage bank...more like a computer. The greatest computer in the universe! Designed by Deep Thought for a few white mice to determine the Ultimate Question(TM) to the Ultimate Answer(TM) all so they could profit on some talk shows.

  16. Prankster-prone technology. by Anand_S · · Score: 4, Funny

    "All right. Which one of you bastards put the penicillin in my hard drive?"

  17. Documentation in junk DNA: by Brian+Stretch · · Score: 3, Funny

    /* I know, I know, I should write more unit tests, but I've only got six days until my long vacation on the 7th and I'm not taking homework with me. Oh well, if I missed anything, it'll evolve. */

  18. Great. by jafiwam · · Score: 3, Funny

    The perfect match between biological weapon and porn collection... puts a whole new meaning to the phrase "Infected by Anna Nicole Smith" don't ya think?

    Open Source software downloaded by a simple handshake or sneeze!

    Then, when Microsoft gets in on the new industry (2 years too late as usual) all life on earth will be wiped out by an unchecked buffer overflow in blank bacteria media as it is sequenced by default when accessed by any device.

    Seriously though, I wonder what the maximum storage capacity of something like that would be? How much data could be packed into a bacteria sequence? Would there be a really high read/write time to sequence the DNS? What about seek time? "Godammit come back here you bug!"