# Harvard Cracks DNA Storage



## Gahars (Aug 18, 2012)

So, DNA (or Deoxyribonucleic Acid for the ladies). Like any storage device, its main job is to hold data. However, instead of storing porn pirated software completely legitimate documents like your hard drive, DNA contains the genetic material that determines how you develop.

Now let's say you're a mad scientist (who happens to be employed by Harvard University) and you wanted to use DNA like an organic hard drive. How much information could you really store in there anyway?

Buckle in, kids, because we're diving into some real science-type shenanigans now...



> *A bioengineer and geneticist at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have successfully stored 5.5 petabits of data — around 700 terabytes — in a single gram of DNA*, smashing the previous DNA data density record by a thousand times.
> 
> To read the data stored in DNA, you simply sequence it — just as if you were sequencing the human genome — and convert each of the TGAC bases back into binary. To aid with sequencing, each strand of DNA has a 19-bit address block at the start (the red bits in the image below) — so a whole vat of DNA can be sequenced out of order, and then sorted into usable data using the addresses.
> 
> ...







Extreme Tech

It's a bit mind bending when you think about it: This is a *1 TB* hard drive. (Going by the shipping weight for the sake of the example) It weighs 1.6 pounds, which is roughly 726 grams. With DNA, you could hold *193,200 TB* of information for the same weight.

That's a whole lot of porn pirated software completely legitimate documents.

Now, it'll be some time before we can even dream of making the leap to DNA, and it's not all that fast at the moment. Still, once the kinks get ironed out and improved upon, we could be looking at the very future of data storage... and it was with us the whole time.

Huh. Science is kind of funny like that.


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## emigre (Aug 18, 2012)

Could DNA storage provide a possible respite for Onlive?


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## loco365 (Aug 18, 2012)

Hm. Where's a link to download the whole internet? Pretty sure I'll have the room for that now.


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## Bladexdsl (Aug 18, 2012)

coming in the near future: nintendo revolution complete with DNA drive!


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## RupeeClock (Aug 18, 2012)

Suddenly the crazy twist of Megaman Battle Network seems feasible.


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## KingVamp (Aug 18, 2012)

While it sounds nice, it also sounds kind of weird operating on DNA. Next will be DNA computers or pretty much DNA everything.

Who's DNA are they using?

With DNA Storage, you would be set for life.


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## triassic911 (Aug 18, 2012)

Huh. Fascinating.


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## Rydian (Aug 18, 2012)

Gotta' love those 3-minute seek times, though!


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## Gahars (Aug 18, 2012)

emigre said:


> Could DNA storage provide a possible respite for Onlive?



They're renovating the old servers as we speak.


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## nando (Aug 18, 2012)

that is very interesting.


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## KingVamp (Aug 18, 2012)

Imagine 700 terabytes+ memery cards or 


Gahars said:


> emigre said:
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> 
> > Could DNA storage provide a possible respite for Onlive?
> ...



Mass storage devices we can stream from our own home/place.


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## Maxternal (Aug 18, 2012)

Rydian said:


> Gotta' love those 3-minute seek times, though!


And you gotta keep your drive away from radiation and anything carcinogenic. I'd hate to have your information mutate corrupt on you.


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## Bladexdsl (Aug 18, 2012)

Gahars said:


> emigre said:
> 
> 
> > Could DNA storage provide a possible respite for Onlive?
> ...


no no no their batteries not storage devices!


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## Gahars (Aug 18, 2012)

Bladexdsl said:


> Gahars said:
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> > emigre said:
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The renovations are quite extensive.


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## OJClock (Aug 18, 2012)

This is a completely useless feat
Although DNA sequencing is becoming cheaper and faster every year this will never have any sort of utility


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## KingVamp (Aug 18, 2012)

Maxternal said:


> Rydian said:
> 
> 
> > Gotta' love those 3-minute seek times, though!
> ...


Yeah, you don't want it to grow into some kind of new creation. 



OJClock said:


> This is a completely useless feat
> Although DNA sequencing is becoming cheaper and faster every year this will never have any sort of utility


Why?


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## Bladexdsl (Aug 18, 2012)

i wonder what would happen when you clone your hard drive? and can you find out if it's a boy or girl before you buy it?


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## Fear Zoa (Aug 18, 2012)

I wonder if we'll ever reach a point where we have too much storage. So much room for information but not enough relevant information to store. 

Also I can't wait for 5TB microsd's


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## Maxternal (Aug 18, 2012)

LOL, that's funny but I didn't mean it like that.
Even though DNA can't grow by itself (it tells the cell how to grow) mutations are when the DNA changes on it's own completely randomly or because of cancer-causing substances or radiation or whatever. That's something you don't want to happen to your hard drive but I'm sure you can have the drive have a lot of redundancy and hash checks to make sure you catch it if it happens. When it's that small it's not like you're gonna miss the extra space.

Even with modern hard drives, you have to be careful not to get a magnet too close. Same concept.


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## Gahars (Aug 18, 2012)

OJClock said:


> This is a completely useless feat
> Although DNA sequencing is becoming cheaper and faster every year this will never have any sort of utility



If it becomes cheaprt and faster every year, then that seems to suggest that it's only becoming more and more practical.


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## DiscostewSM (Aug 18, 2012)

Maxternal said:


> LOL, that's funny but I didn't mean it like that.
> Even though DNA can't grow by itself (it tells the cell how to grow) mutations are when the DNA changes on it's own completely randomly or because of cancer-causing substances or radiation or whatever. That's something you don't want to happen to your hard drive but I'm sure you can have the drive have a lot of redundancy and hash checks to make sure you catch it if it happens. When it's that small it's not like you're gonna miss the extra space.
> 
> Even with modern hard drives, you have to be careful not to get a magnet too close. Same concept.



"Vacation photos one day. Porn the next. That's the power of mutating DNA drives."

I claim this slogan.


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## Tom Bombadildo (Aug 18, 2012)

Cool. Do want lots of yottabytes.


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## EZ-Megaman (Aug 18, 2012)

This got me thinking about installing programs and other stuff into your DNA and what would happen if you format someone's genetic information.
Aside from my minor brain fart, this would be a cool idea. I have to wonder if people would just use it for storage regardless of understanding it, though.


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## Hyro-Sama (Aug 18, 2012)

So are we talking about potential cyborgs here or just copying this model for computer sciences?


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## Gahars (Aug 18, 2012)

Hyro-Sama said:


> So are we talking about potential cyborgs here or just copying this model for computer sciences?



The latter seems more likely now. The potential is endless, though, as scientists continue to refine and improve upon this.

Just one example of what else DNA storage could be used for:


> It’s also worth noting that it’s possible to store data in the DNA of living cells — though only for a short time. Storing data in your skin would be a fantastic way of transferring data securely…


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## ST75 (Aug 18, 2012)

I can't wait for the wiiflow rev with DNA support.


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## Hyro-Sama (Aug 18, 2012)

Gahars said:


> Hyro-Sama said:
> 
> 
> > So are we talking about potential cyborgs here or just copying this model for computer sciences?
> ...



That sounds great but wouldn't it backfire on on people executing espionage and counterintelligence? Unless you had never had your blood taken the information could be traced back to you if I'm understanding this correctly.


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## Thesolcity (Aug 18, 2012)

Hyro-Sama said:


> Gahars said:
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inb4 Truecrypt for cells.


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## Kiaku (Aug 18, 2012)

So much space!! 

Before:


Spoiler









After:


Spoiler


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## Another World (Aug 18, 2012)

i caught one of those new DNA viruses and forgot who i was as it was all stored in my genetic makeup.

-another world


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## lokomelo (Aug 18, 2012)

My dog has DNA, can I softmod it? Can I play snes roms? Can you guys give a link to a rom site that has DNAmulators?


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## gamefan5 (Aug 18, 2012)

Gahars said:


> Now, it'll be some time before we can even dream of making the leap to DNA, and it's not all that fast at the moment. Still, once the kinks get ironed out and improved upon, we could be looking at the very future of data storage... and it was with us the whole time.
> 
> Huh. Science is kind of funny like that.


It's like.... using *our own body *to store data. OMG!!!!
Hmm, Before long imagine being able to hack a human LOL!!!



Gahars said:


> Hyro-Sama said:
> 
> 
> > So are we talking about potential cyborgs here or just copying this model for computer sciences?
> ...


....
Like how? Touching something. If that could be true, how could we select a certain type of data to transfer?

EDIT: Am I the only one who thought of shitting as an act of tranferring data securely? XD


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## Vulpes Abnocto (Aug 18, 2012)

This is just awesome to think about, 
but my question is if this is the new data medium, 
will the next iteration of the internet literally be a series of tubes?


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## Deleted-236924 (Aug 18, 2012)

lokomelo said:


> My dog has DNA, can I softmod it? Can I play snes roms? Can you guys give a link to a rom site that has DNAmulators?



DNAmulators?
We have The Sims.


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## Vulpes Abnocto (Aug 18, 2012)

lokomelo said:


> My dog has DNA, can I softmod it? Can I play snes roms? Can you guys give a link to a rom site that has DNAmulators?




Somewhat related:
Installing Linux on a Dead Badger


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## LightyKD (Aug 18, 2012)

Human flash drives here we come! Screw Google Drive, I'm going to be walking around with all my episodes of My Little Pony in my DNA


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## KingVamp (Aug 18, 2012)

I'm not putting that in my body. That like 100x worse of the thoughts of putting computer chips in my body.

The DNA would most likely be in cased in something, so it would look like regular technology.


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## macmanhigh (Aug 18, 2012)

LightyKD said:


> Human flash drives here we come! Screw Google Drive, I'm going to be walking around with all my episodes on My Little Pony in my DNA




Finally Fathers can have sumthing to look forward to.....No longer will Kids be disappointments they F' up and u can format them for Pron storage


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## Vulpes Abnocto (Aug 18, 2012)

macmanhigh said:


> Finally Fathers can have sumthing to look forward to.....No longer will Kids be disappointments they F' up and u can format them for Pron storage



Well that raises a question of morality.
Is it pedophilia if you store your porn in your pre-teen child's DNA?


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## BORTZ (Aug 18, 2012)

This causes so many more problems than it solves.


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## macmanhigh (Aug 18, 2012)

Vulpes Abnocto said:


> macmanhigh said:
> 
> 
> > Finally Fathers can have sumthing to look forward to.....No longer will Kids be disappointments they F' up and u can format them for Pron storage
> ...




 Whoa nah Budd i means as teenagers........meaning they dont amount to productive members of society (Whutever that means)......


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## jalaneme (Aug 18, 2012)

it's fascinating and yet at the same time scary, just imagine what would happen if this kind of technology goes into the wrong hands, like bio terrorism, terrorists can use viruses to infect peoples dna like how viruses attack windows but imagine windows being your body, also there is a high possibility that scientists could build androids from this technology, they could create artificial life and make it look biologic, who knows soon you won't be able to tell who is a android and who is human.

just some deep thought, heh 

but the possibilities of storing everything you have on your pc in 1 small flash drive would be out of this world, look at how small flash drives have got and you can store up to 40gb of data on them, back in the early 90s you could only store like 56kb maximum, technology has moved so fast.


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## mrtofu (Aug 18, 2012)

deleted


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## Maxternal (Aug 18, 2012)

It's a medical miracle, Avast and Symantec start producing antivirus pills.


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## Hanafuda (Aug 18, 2012)

This thread has me thinking of this horrible old Keanu Reeves sci-fi movie (had Ice-T in it too) called Johnny Mnemonic.

What I'm not understanding though about the significance of this ... is the storage medium some sort of synthetic substance containing synthetic (non-bio) DNA? Otherwise how could it last "for hundreds of thousands of years in a box in your garage?" If the answer is yes, then I guess I'm more impressed by the idea that we can make synthetic DNA than by the amount of data it can store.


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## KingVamp (Aug 18, 2012)

Vulpes Abnocto said:


> Well that raises a question of morality.
> Is it pedophilia if you store your porn in your pre-teen child's DNA?


For a minute there I thought you where going to miss the heart of the problem by mention if it morality
right to even use living things as storage, but you didn't beat around the bush.


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## FireGrey (Aug 18, 2012)

Will it be faster than a HDD though?


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## Narayan (Aug 18, 2012)

soooo...how do i transfer data to a friend?


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## Nebz (Aug 18, 2012)

All of my pr0nz on one drive... a man can only dream :-|


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## Searinox (Aug 18, 2012)

I'm not surprised. A WHOLE GRAM of DNA?! That's a lot. DNA is so small that you can almost see the molecules that make it up so it's quite close to atomic scale. To put so much stuff at that scale that it actually manages to weigh a whole gram means there's quite a lot of DNA in there, waaaaaaaaaaay more than any living thing has. Consider that extremely few cells(DNA, nucleus, and everything in it) weigh as much as a gram in the first place. Stable huh? I wonder in what fluid, cause in the open DNA decays within days after the death of its cell.


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## macmanhigh (Aug 18, 2012)

Narayan said:


> soooo...how do i transfer data to a friend?




By becoming Blood Brothers maybe   ???


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## nando (Aug 18, 2012)

macmanhigh said:


> Narayan said:
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> 
> > soooo...how do i transfer data to a friend?
> ...




good thing you responded first. i had something else in mind, i would of totally embarrassed myself


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## Psionic Roshambo (Aug 18, 2012)

Narayan said:


> soooo...how do i transfer data to a friend?



That movie "There's Something About Mary" has a proof of concept... lol


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## macmanhigh (Aug 18, 2012)

nando said:


> macmanhigh said:
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Either that or get ready to share sum Tongue for that new TF2 Update


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## Narayan (Aug 18, 2012)

PsionicRoshambo said:


> That movie "There's Something About Mary" has a proof of concept... lol


sorry i didn't watch that. 



macmanhigh said:


> nando said:
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## FAST6191 (Aug 18, 2012)

Fear Zoa said:


> I wonder if we'll ever reach a point where we have too much storage. So much room for information but not enough relevant information to store.
> 
> Also I can't wait for 5TB microsd's



As it stands there is already a push in science education towards teaching people to analyse data "properly"* rather than just create it. As for too much space... I will take a full clock by clock trace of some RAM in a multi GHz machine rather than mess around and hope my storage oscilloscope can handle it. Likewise some of the stuff being done for materials and pharmacology with supercomputers (I have mentioned it in other threads but http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/02/material_science_on_petaflops_2d_to_3d/ and http://www.compaq.com/alphaserver/news/casp.html - computers modelling potential interactions as opposed to "well I mixed this with this, what happens if I tweak it slightly so?" model that science worked on for most of history) has something of a tendency to generate huge volumes of data for the microseconds it models and more storage would certainly help there.

*science has always been about analysing data but this is more about the internet/commerce style properly linked tables and other things you start dealing with in proper databases.



> Storing data in your skin would be a fantastic way of transferring data securely…


Would have made Johnny Mnemonic about 30 times shorter.
Edit- damn it Hanafuda....



KingVamp said:


> I'm not putting that in my body. That like 100x worse of the thoughts of putting computer chips in my body.
> 
> The DNA would most likely be in cased in something, so it would look like regular technology.



Psst when you eat meat, vegetables, fungus aka stuff that is largely good to nibble on you are like eating DNA.



jalaneme said:


> [hypothetically] terrorists [could] use viruses to infect peoples dna like how viruses attack windows but imagine windows being your body



Surely that would require such people to be you know... competent 


Getting back on topic what I would be interested in is kicking this up a notch and using DNA for computation itself but storage is well worth it in the short term as well.


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## KingVamp (Aug 18, 2012)

FAST6191 said:


> KingVamp said:
> 
> 
> > I'm not putting that in my body. That like 100x worse of the thoughts of putting computer chips in my body.
> ...




Not only are they meant to be eaten,unlike a DNA Storage , they normally/hopefully not as modified.


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## ZAFDeltaForce (Aug 18, 2012)

I wonder what the read and write speeds for DNA storage is like?


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## triassic911 (Aug 18, 2012)

Narayan said:


> soooo...how do i transfer data to a friend?


Penetration.


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## Bladexdsl (Aug 18, 2012)

will you have to feed the hard drive? dna is alive afterall


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## Ace Overclocked (Aug 18, 2012)

Next up: A bioterrorist organization using DNAviruses to turn people into zombies.


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## Dann Woolf (Aug 18, 2012)

You could replace your sperm's DNA with illegally downloaded software, and commit a felony every time you jerk off.

It gives a whole new meaning to seeding a torrent.


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## Vulpes Abnocto (Aug 18, 2012)

aminemaster said:


> Next up: A bioterrorist organization using DNAviruses to turn people into zombies.



Have you considered a career with Umbrella Corporation?


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## WiiUBricker (Aug 18, 2012)

The thought of storing porn and pirated software in DNA makes me sick.


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## Guild McCommunist (Aug 18, 2012)

Maxternal said:


> Rydian said:
> 
> 
> > Gotta' love those 3-minute seek times, though!
> ...



Dammit, I just so happen to be a heavy chain smoker who is also The Incredible Hulk.

Shouldn't be an issue for most people who keep a microwave away from the computer and who don't smoke.


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## Ace Overclocked (Aug 18, 2012)

Vulpes Abnocto said:


> aminemaster said:
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> > Next up: A bioterrorist organization using DNAviruses to turn people into zombies.
> ...


Haha, yeah.
Neo umbrella?


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## MelodieOctavia (Aug 18, 2012)

Guild McCommunist said:


> Maxternal said:
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Microwaves are non-ionizing radiation, so anything less than placing it in the microwave and turning it on wouldn't do anything.


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## pasc (Aug 18, 2012)

Now we just have to wonder how the read/write speed is


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## Scott-105 (Aug 18, 2012)

That's really freaking cool. This pretty much tells us why each human being is so different, since there's so much data stored, there can be so many changes.


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## Janthran (Aug 18, 2012)

"MY hard drive is human flesh! HAH!"


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## Janthran (Aug 18, 2012)

Gahars said:


> Huh. Science is kind of funny like that.


Again, science is knowledge, not an entity.
Science isn't "like" anything. It just is.


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## Deleted_171835 (Aug 18, 2012)

Janthran said:


> Gahars said:
> 
> 
> > Huh. Science is kind of funny like that.
> ...


You've always struck me as the angry "get off my lawn" guy.


Now I know why.


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## Bladexdsl (Aug 18, 2012)

triassic911 said:


> Narayan said:
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> > soooo...how do i transfer data to a friend?
> ...


how does that work with your male friends though?


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## Zetta_x (Aug 18, 2012)

Maxternal said:


> Rydian said:
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> > Gotta' love those 3-minute seek times, though!
> ...



"Why is their porn on your computer?"

"Mom I swear the microwave did it!"


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## triassic911 (Aug 18, 2012)

Bladexdsl said:


> triassic911 said:
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> > Narayan said:
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....penetration.


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## Bladexdsl (Aug 18, 2012)

triassic911 said:


> Bladexdsl said:
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ew the future is gonna be GAY


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## Zetta_x (Aug 18, 2012)

Time to get freaky with my female USB ports...

Men have attached USB cables


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## Guild McCommunist (Aug 18, 2012)

Zetta_x said:


> Time to get freaky with my female USB ports...
> 
> Men have attached USB cables



There's a reason why cables have "male" and "female" ends.


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## Janthran (Aug 18, 2012)

soulx said:


> Janthran said:
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> > Gahars said:
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Because I don't believe science is a god?


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## Narayan (Aug 18, 2012)

Bladexdsl said:


> triassic911 said:
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male to male won't fit. it has to be male female then male.



Guild McCommunist said:


> Zetta_x said:
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> > Time to get freaky with my female USB ports...
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thanks guild


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## Gahars (Aug 18, 2012)

Janthran said:


> soulx said:
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And anyone here does?


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## Bladexdsl (Aug 18, 2012)

Gahars said:


> Janthran said:
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tom cruise does


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## jalaneme (Aug 18, 2012)

Hanafuda said:


> This thread has me thinking of this horrible old Keanu Reeves sci-fi movie (had Ice-T in it too) called Johnny Mnemonic.
> 
> What I'm not understanding though about the significance of this ... is the storage medium some sort of synthetic substance containing synthetic (non-bio) DNA? Otherwise how could it last "for hundreds of thousands of years in a box in your garage?" If the answer is yes, then I guess I'm more impressed by the idea that we can make synthetic DNA than by the amount of data it can store.



i love that movie, it's a classic, we wouldn't even think that this teleology can exist now, i like the internet is used in the movie too.


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## SifJar (Aug 18, 2012)

One thing I don't get is why when there are 4 bases in DNA, each base only represents 1 binary digit. The way I see it, with 4 bases, there is the potential for each base representing 2 binary digits. e.g. Adenine = 00; Thymine = 01; Cytosine = 10; Guanine = 11. As it is, it appears that both Adenine and Cytosine (a and c) represent 0 and Thymine and Guanine (T and G) both represent 1. In my mind, using each base to represent two binary digits should double the storage potential of DNA. Of course, there is probably a good reason for them not doing it this way; better minds than mine have clearly been working on this, they would no doubt have considered it. Perhaps it is as a protection against DNA mutation? (less chance of a mutation actually mattering; e.g. if an a base is mutated, there is a 1 in 3 chance it will still have the same value (by becoming a c base instead); if each base represented two digits, if any base is mutated, there is a 100% chance the value represented will be changed).

Also, seeing as only one strand actually matters (the other is just complimentary to it i.e. all 1s become 0s and all 0s become 1s) , and DNA is double stranded, it strikes me that it could be more efficient to use RNA, which is single stranded. Would (in my mind) half the mass of the storage medium. Again, I am sure there are numerous valid reasons for them not doing it this way.

Anyway, regardless of what I mentioned above, this is a rather interesting development. Although the responses in this thread make me doubt somewhat that people fully understand what this means; it's not a case of storing data inside a human beings DNA (although the article does mention that that is possible on a short term scale), it's about synthesising a substance that is essentially the same as DNA and using it as a storage medium, reading it with DNA sequencing hardware. As has probably been said, it's quite slow compared to hard drives, especially solid state and flash drives. It'd not be a case of storing movies or whatever on it, the read times would be far too slow. It'd be more useful as an archiving mechanism, allowing storage of an immense amount of data in a physically minute space, and for a very long time. Stuff that doesn't need accessed on a daily basis, but could potentially need referenced some day.

EDIT: As a side note, the OP mentions that the human genome (3 billion base pairs) can, with modern technology, be sequenced in a few hours. As a reference point, you should know that the amount of data stored by the Harvard scientists was about 2064150 times more. Now I guess you shouldn't have to sequence the entire DNA sample to find the data you need (the first 16 bases should give the "address" of that strand, letting you know if it's the right strand or not, and then you can move onto the next instead of doing all the subsequent bases), but it could still take a while I think. Although perhaps I have made some error in my calculations/thought process.

_"Do a science"_


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## DiscostewSM (Aug 18, 2012)

And so, Jedi Mind Tricks will become reality when wireless transmitters to DNA are made.


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## shakirmoledina (Aug 18, 2012)

The mysteries of the body. Simply amazing.


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## Sterling (Aug 18, 2012)

Vulpes Abnocto said:


> lokomelo said:
> 
> 
> > My dog has DNA, can I softmod it? Can I play snes roms? Can you guys give a link to a rom site that has DNAmulators?
> ...



Oh my God, that was funny as fucking hell. Bookmarked and shared.


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## The Milkman (Aug 18, 2012)

Sounds cool, Organic storage. Imagine, a slight drop of something as simple as slava or dead skin. Maybe even the oil from your fingers could hold roughly the entire internet and still be smaller then a hair.


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## Fishaman P (Aug 18, 2012)

Hold on, storing porn in my **** as we speak.


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## Rayder (Aug 18, 2012)

Cool!  Get this working and make that mole on my ass useful.


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## Duckthom (Aug 18, 2012)

Soooo, in the future we get Human Flesh Drives?


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## Vulpes Abnocto (Aug 18, 2012)

Fishaman P said:


> Hold on, storing porn in my **** as we speak.



It's okay, you can say 'anus' here without repercussions.


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## triassic911 (Aug 18, 2012)

Narayan said:


> Bladexdsl said:
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> 
> > triassic911 said:
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... I like it! It will be known as the DP adapter.


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## 431unknown (Aug 18, 2012)

We'll all have USB ports in our heads and shit!


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## Vulpes Abnocto (Aug 18, 2012)

431unknown said:


> We'll all have USB ports in our heads *and shit*!







Well there's the problem; Your USB port is upside down.
Did you have Mexican food for lunch?​


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## 431unknown (Aug 18, 2012)

I kinda get that at work already so I'm used to it.


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## Jan1tor (Aug 18, 2012)

This would be fantastic for storing and cloneing a lifetime of memories into retrievable DNA data. WOW just think in the future we could actually start pirating memories and storing them as our own if we want. Or build a collective mind with multiple DNA storage devices.


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## Bladexdsl (Aug 19, 2012)

431unknown said:


> We'll all have USB ports in our heads and shit!


more like this


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## Psionic Roshambo (Aug 19, 2012)

Genetically engineered cables ring the earth, bio computers help mankind into a new golden age. Now the leader of the terrorist organization plots to inject his own evil DNA program into the DNA computer known as Linda enabling him to gain control of the synthetic police force as the first step towards world domination!

Could be the start of a cool sci fi movie or some other type of movie.... lol


Edit: "I'm about to upload..... Aahhh!!!" lol


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## DarkJDL (Aug 19, 2012)

aminemaster said:


> Next up: A bioterrorist organization using DNAviruses to turn people into zombies.



You mean cellphones?


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## flo (Aug 19, 2012)

I wish that the news was about decrypting the entire human DNA , maybe lots of diseases would be curable then


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## Maxternal (Aug 20, 2012)

Yeah, it's a fun idea to joke around with but it would be nice if there was some correlation between the information stored by us this way and the information actually stored in cells but there's a big difference so the fact that our hard drive uses the same storage medium as cells has about as much correlation as the fact that both houses and trees use wood to build. There's a big difference in how they do it. You can neither necessarily nail a broken branch back on a tree and hope it will grow nor can you water your house every day and hope a new room will grow on.

Hard Drive:
G-C = 1 ... T-A = 0 ... binary information ... Done.

Cells:
different series of the above 4 options (G,C,A, or T) represent different amino acids only if both that sequence and the amino acid itself line up correctly with another section of DNA in a different part of the strand that has been converted into RNA (and I understand that's the simple version) ... proteins ... Done.


Maybe they use the whole pairs (G-C and T-A) because there's no way of telling which side of the DNA strand you're running down or maybe they can't control very well which direction it's facing when they tack it on and maybe RNA isn't as stable long term as DNA, Who knows. (I certainly don't have a degree in anything related to this).

I can see this technology bearing great similarity to a tape drive which (in their day) had large storage capacities but horrible seek times. I'd hate to have to defragment one but I'd hate to have it fragmented in the first place. Also, This would be like having a removable medium in a little bottle of DNA and then having to put it into the huge DNA sequencer to read it like having a tiny floppy disk with a HUGE disk drive.

At least making a copy of the whole disk should be fast since DNA's kinda made to copy itself. Terabytes and terabytes in a couple of seconds. Checking the integrity of the copies against mutation afterward might be a pain, though, unless their's some sort of internal hash and redundancy system like having multiple RAID chains. Even then, the more times you duplicate the disk the more likely you'd be to have errors and EVENTUALLY go through the tedious, drawn out process of checking and correcting the disk by resequencing the whole thing. Maybe it could have a tag representing how many times it's gone through such a process ... or maybe that's how they would create the redundancy in the first place, by making it split itself multiple times.

And although you could probably store some information in your cells, it would probably kill the cells you use which you're body would probably then get rid of ...

I kinda feel like I'm just rambling now but basically, very interesting achievement. Lots of potential. Long way to go, though.


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