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Bacterial DVD Holds 50TB
CAMags writes to tell us that a Harvard Professor is claiming to have developed a new variant of a protein called bacteriorhodopsin (bR) that, when layered on a DVD, can store up to 50TB of data. From the article: "The light-activated protein is found in the membrane of a salt marsh microbe Halobacterium salinarum and is also known as bacteriorhodopsin (bR). It captures and stores sunlight to convert it to chemical energy. When light shines on bR, it is converted to a series of intermediate molecules each with a unique shape and color before returning to its 'ground state.'"
It's alive!
bacteria, not a virus. Your data's safe.
....or is it? MWAHAHAHA!!!
I heard they're buggy.
My apartment isn't messy -- it's just data backup.
Disclaimer: I'm Indian as well.
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
Now I want to program in RNA so that it generates the DNA automatically for me. And then, watch the ____ out!
- Kal`Goblez
Just a bottle of Lysol.
In Soviet Russia, asses suck this joke.
It's probably gonna be extremely impractical and mega expensive. We'll have forgotten about it in 36 hours anyway.
I remember this stuff from the mid 90's. They were layering it on WORMs back then.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Any time you use an organic compound for storage, you need to worry about the organic half life of the device. Writable optical media uses organic dye, and will only last several years in storage. I didn't see anything in the article that indicated this technology would be any better...
Now I wonder what caveats are there to overcome.
Normal CDs are actually "damaged" by the laser during recording. Here it's about photochemical effect. Much lower power may be needed which may allow for more data but also for really fast erasing the DVDs by simply exposing them to light. More, how to return it to base state? Seems not to be rewritable. The data lasts a few years. Would there be some "refreshing process" needed?
And last but not least: Is there anyone interested in manufacturing it, or will the harddrive makers buy the patent, then bury it to prevent competition?
There were quite a few such "revelations" like TESA-ROM (1TB on a roll of transparent adhesive tape) but they all vanish without trace... why?
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Imagine the datarate if I were to hop into my car, drive across the country, and load this disk into a computer in California.
Even if the trip takes me 48 hours, that is still 303 MB/s!
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
I wonder why these numbers are so greatly exaggerated. Why can't scientists leave the theoretical figures behind and talk about realistic numbers?
Anyway, once we actually reach data storage of that magnitude on a disk, we'll have to face the problem of seek time and transfers. It would be ridiculous to post so much data on a disk, so when this technology is mature, I'm sure disks will be obsolete.
Scientists should spend more time on figuring out how to leave the world of milliseconds and approach the nanoseconds. Remember, the only thing that's running on milliseconds in a computer is based on platters. I'd rather move on from that and get my 50 TB later.
Full Tilt
Why don't we just store all our data in strands of DNA and be done with it.
;)
Then we could carry arround our entire porn collection in a small cancerous lump on our neck.
PFY to BOFH "The database is growing too fast!" BOFH "Stop feeding it."
I think I'm too perfectionnist
Good thing it wasn't a written interview.
I remember reading about this compound or something very similar back in ~1995, in one of the popular science or computing magazines. It claimed there would be organic 3d memory cubes in 8 years.
FTA:
Since the intermediates generally only last for hours or days, Prof Renugopalakrishnan and his colleagues modified the DNA that produces bR protein to produce an intermediate that lasts for more than several years.
Straight from the horses mouth: not really. Honestly, I don't really need archival quality retention of 50+ years, I'd be fine if my removable media lasted reliably for 10+ years. As it is, I'm not convinced that database backups my company makes on CDs will last more than 5. Arguably we don't need data that's older than five years, but for accountability purposes I'd rather it be a gauranteed shelf life of 10 years, or at least as far back as the IRS would look in case of an audit.
><));>
It would evolve DRM?
In a related story, MPAA requests an injunction against a harvard professor in attempt to block production of a 50TB storage device for consumer PCs. When asked for the basis for such action, an MPAA spokesperson stated "There is absolutely no legitimate use for such large amounts of storage, the only use we can ascertain is hosting of illegal movie downloads for re-sharing on P2P networks."
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
of someone buying a patent to "bury" a good technology. Just about every elementary economics textbook clearly demonstrates how that if the technology truly has a benefit, the company would make MORE money by using the new technology than hiding it.
That depends, is he a Little Indian or a Big Indian?
How about another application--- ;)
Discs that "auto expire" if not kept in the fridge
No, seriously.
That's not a very good answer - it reveals a bunch of negatives that are likely deal-breakers:
1) You're a perfectionist, which means you may find it difficult to handle mistakes made by co-workers.
2) You're a perfectionist, which means you may find it difficult working on a team with people who are not perfectionists.
3) You're an admitted perfectionist, which makes it likely that you will attempt to cover up any mistakes you do make, rather than admit them.
4) You're a perfectionist and you take extra time to try to accomplish a task, rather than doing it as well as it needs to be done and having it in on time. Most employers don't expect or actually want perfection - they know it isn't attainable.
5) You're full of shit and just told the interviewer what you thought they'd want to hear, meaning that you're much less likely to be candid in other areas as well.
The best answer, of course, would have been "FUCK YOU YOU CUNT I have Tourette's Syndrome ASSLICKER!" It would allow you to scream anything you like with impunity, and they'd be worried about getting sued if they didn't hire you.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
Does this mean my stack will grow uncontrollably? What about garbage collection? Will this storage medium be under threat from BASIC instincts? Sic 'em, Friskit!
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
WOW.... 50TB of porn on a single disc. That's a lot of hot XXX action. You could put an entire internet's worth of porn on one disc. hmmmmm.... 1) Get hold of 'bacteria-ray' discs. 2) Download all internet (Or just get Slashdotter to bittorrent their stashes-same thing) 3) ?????? 4) Profit!!
The truth shall always be free: Boris Floricic is Tron.
His claim of terabyte storage shows an extreme naivety (or one could argue ignorance) of fundamental physical principles the good doctor should be aware of. It is true that there must be some medium capable of handling data storage on such a small scale, but the real hang-up, at least in terms of commercial viability, is the light source which reads the medium. Any dolt who knows next to nothing about high definition dvd's at least knows the major technological innovation involved is a commercially available blue light source (blue puts the Blu in Blu-Ray), not any groundbreaking technology involving the discs (though to save myself from flamebait, there have been advances here). Now, traditional dvd's/cd's are in the 700nm range, high def systems are around 400nm, and the industrial systems used to make microchips (yeah, these are expensive and not at all portable) can only burn chips 45nm thick. A light source of a couple nanometers (the quantity he uses for his predicted size) puts us into the soft x-ray range. Big deal if we have a storage medium. We won't be able to read or write to it (cheaply enough for consumers, that is) for decades. If I were this guy's employer, I'd investigate whether he ever completed a bachelor's degree in science, much less a PhD. This is a fundamental oversight on his part.
For the love of Pete, its Halobacterium salinarum. Can we please use latin binomials properly.
Exxon has huge infrastructure of refineries, tankers, oil fields. This all would go worthless the moment they start selling these cars.
Junk all the tankers. Sell worthless oil fields. Shut down the useless refineries. Build infrastructure for the new cars. And explain to your competition that they should shift from mining oil to growing corn instead of uniting and performing a hostile takeover. Exxon might start making more money per unit sold, but their current property becomes worthless. Would you rather have $1mln in your pocket and earn $30k/year or have just debts, earning $40k/year?
The new technology would kill current oil industry. An independent startup selling such cars is just as dangerous as a rogue oil company in the lobby making use of such a patent. One profits, all lose. They won't remain inactive. And even if none of the competitors stepped in, Exxon, would take years to pay back for shutting down oil operations and starting the ecological ones.
Seems the textbooks assume zero investment, zero value drop in related market segments, and perfectly honest competition.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Does anyone else find it ironic that
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
So what if it degrades? I'd still love to have 50TB discs that last for 2-3 years instead of a few GB that lasts a few years. This is a new technology designed to give higher capacity, not longer shelf life.
A dirty DVD that really *can* give you VD!
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Finally, a disc with some culture on it!
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
I don't think it will. It may fail for a lot of other reasons, but "a lot of information can get stolen" won't be one of them.
That whole line in TFA reeks of a journalist trying to find some 'flip side' to write about, just so he doesn't come off like he's plugging a vaporware product. Rather than actually do any research, he asks the inventor a dumb question about the downsides and prints the guy's underwhelming response.
This sort of cheesy manufactured controversy is pretty popular, and it's a sign of poor journalism.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Must rewrite the data after reading it every time. sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow !
How about another application--- ;)
Discs that "auto expire" if not kept in the fridge
I thought we already decided with the original DivX that this was not such a good idea.
CONSUMERS decided it wasn't a good idea.
The **AA would probably LOVE it.
Imagine:digital data that degrades...
Your 3 day rental from Blockbuster wouldn't ever have to go back...
Rhodopsin is a very interesting protein.
It was a favourite model of protein scientists in the 80-es because it is one of the very few proteins that will easily form crystals. It is also extremely stable (for a protein) in its non-excited form. So if any photosensitive protein is ever used for storage it is possibly the best candidate.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Manufacturers have moved to inorganic materials only, e.g. silicon-copper alloys, which seem to offer much better stability than organic dyes, for the first generation of the new 30-50 GB disks at least.
Here's an article on a disk that stacks several different types, each of them inorganic:
TDK develops 200GB recordable Blu-Ray disc with six layers
It's considered to be more time stable than hard drives, conventional mass-produced CD's and DVD's, flash-RAM, and others.
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?