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Salmon DNA Used In Data Storage Device

Posted by Soulskill on from the also-tastes-great-on-the-grill dept.

Zothecula writes "Scientists from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany have created a 'write-once-read-many-times' (WORM) memory device that combines electrodes, silver nanoparticles, and salmon DNA. While the current device is simply a proof-of-concept model, the researchers have stated that DNA could turn out to be a less expensive alternative to traditional inorganic materials such as silicon."

7 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds fishy!

    1. Re:Um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      (Incidentally, lazy bald eagles rely on this phenomenon to feed - they "catch" the salmon after they've spawned and eat the carcass. Saves them having to hunt and grab live ones.)

      Would that qualify as spawn camping?

  2. cheaper, but more stable? by mineral2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Might be cheaper, but I bet its more prone to mutation and degradation. Will this lead to data evolution?

  3. fish and WORMs by adavies42 · · Score: 4, Funny

    well of course you'd use WORMs with fish....

    --
    Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
    -kfg
  4. Price of salmon by vlm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    combines electrodes, silver nanoparticles, and salmon DNA. ... DNA could turn out to be a less expensive alternative to traditional inorganic materials such as silicon.

    could turn out = Weasel words. After I arrive at home, it could turn out that space aliens have swapped my wife out for a supermodel as part of an alien sociology research study regarding recreational human reproductive activities, but I'm thinking its unlikely.

    Have you seen the price of salmon? I had a nice grilled slab last night wrapped in some herb leaves and lemon juice. I could buy quite the stack of I2C flash memory chips for that price. I'm not thinking that the salmon-flashdrive equivalent of the HHGTTG babel-fish is necessarily going to be profitable. And carrying around a dead fish with firefox installed on it sounds like some Stross Laundry series plot.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  5. Re:Shame. by idontgno · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nonsense.

    Computers with tuna-based storage can't be overclocked.

    Everyone knows you can tuna fish, but you can't tuna computer.

    On the other hand, there are rumors of the unreliability of salmon-based information storage.

    --
    Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  6. But does it scale well? by Slicebo · · Score: 4, Funny

    nt