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Hong Kong Team Stores 90GB of Data In 1g of Bacteria

Posted by timothy on from the feed-your-flashdrive dept.

Bananana writes "A research team out of the Chinese University of Hong Kong has found a way to do data encryption and storage with bacteria. The project is called 'Bioencryption,' and their presentation (as a PDF file) is here."

6 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Funny by Konsalik · · Score: 3, Informative

    I see no posts tagged other than funny in this story's future...

  2. I know it's pedantic, buuut... by mikaelwbergene · · Score: 2, Informative

    "The term bateria means “drum kit” in Portuguese and Spanish." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bateria

    Does that mean we have to samba every time we access data?

    Actually, that sounds kinda fun.

  3. They stored about 100 bytes. by Animats · · Score: 3, Informative

    What they actually did was to store about 100 bytes. This may be useful for putting copyright information into genetically engineered organisms. As a method of bulk data storage, though, it leaves much to be desired.

    DNA synthesis costs about $0.29 per base pair. Sequencing is a bit cheaper, but you currently get less than 1000 base pairs sequenced per run. Reading and writing takes a room of expensive wet lab gear, and hours to days.

  4. Re:Virus? by nomoreunusednickname · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, it doesn't.

  5. Re:Obligatory by kent_eh · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.

    That's not the star trek reference that jumped into my mind.
    I was thinking of these.

    --

    ---
    "I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
  6. 900,000 GB of Data In 1g of Bacteria by Wulfrunner · · Score: 2, Informative

    From the presentation they claim to be able to store 900,000 GB of data in 1g of Bacteria, not 90 GB as stated in the (current) story title.