Researchers Achieve Storage Density of 2.2 Petabytes Per Gram of DNA

SternisheFan sends news of researchers who encoded an MP3, a PDF, a JPG, and a TXT file into DNA, along with another file that explains the encoding. The researchers estimate the storage density of this technique at 2.2 petabytes per gram (abstract). "We knew we needed to make a code using only short strings of DNA, and to do it in such a way that creating a run of the same letter would be impossible. So we figured, let's break up the code into lots of overlapping fragments going in both directions, with indexing information showing where each fragment belongs in the overall code, and make a coding scheme that doesn't allow repeats. That way, you would have to have the same error on four different fragments for it to fail – and that would be very rare," said one of the study's authors. "We've created a code that's error tolerant using a molecular form we know will last in the right conditions for 10 000 years, or possibly longer," said another.

Comments

Memory upgrade of the future

[DougOtto]

Memory upgrade kits of the future could just be a razor blade and a plastic bag. Bleed your own upgrade!

Re:Memory upgrade of the future

[Anonymous Coward]

So my "thumb drive" will really be my thumb?

Where's the important information?

[Bobfrankly1]

How fast does it spin? Whats the iops on something like that? How fast will Windows 7 boot on it?

Call me when they can encode video...

[ddxexex]

I can't wait to see what happens when a video stored on DNA goes viral...

*ducks*

Re:Please use a real unit of measure

[shaitand]

We should redefine the gram to match the amount of DNA it takes to store a LOC. Then people would have an easier time switching to metric.