Recording information in your DNA is no longer a conspiracy theory
Source:
https://bit.ly/3TYihhn
Seagate has kicked off a collaboration with DNA storage pioneer
Catalog Technologies Inc to shrink the start-up's technology for
encoding data into the stuff of life itself from room size to chip
size.
With humans creating, processing, and storing ever more data,
there's always a nagging worry that current technologies based on
rust or silicon are going to run out of road in the near future.
A number of firms are researching how to store data DNA - the
organic chemical that encodes the genetic instructions that underpin
all known forms of "life".
Catalog says DNA has an informational density a million times that
of SSDs, equating to 200PB per gram of DNA, a shelf life of 1000s
of years, and is always readable - though the equipment required
may evolve. The trick is how to get the data into DNA.
Catalog's take is to use chunks of synthetically produced DNA
molecules, rather than biological, cellular DNA, create combinations
of those molecules, and develop an encoding scheme where the
combined molecules represent the information to be stored.
It has developed a technology that uses what CTO David Turek likens
to an inkjet printer to deposit and combine the liquid media
containing the DNA onto a substrate. The combined DNA is collected
in a pool of liquid, which is then reduced. However, this proof
of concept platform, dubbed Shannon, is described as "the size
of an average family kitchen". And, presumably, we're talking about
an American family here.
Turek says the firms will look to shrink the technology a thousand
times to create a "lab on a chip", containing dozens of reservoirs
of DNA molecules, which can be mixed to produce chemical
reactions that will represent computing functions.
Catalog's ambitions for DNA reach beyond just storage, and into
forms of compute. Hyunjun Park, founding CEO of CATALOG, said
in a canned statement that "In addition to DNA storage, CATALOG
has already discovered the means to incorporate DNA into algorithms
and applications with potential widespread cases including artificial
intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, and secure
computing."
For its part, Seagate, like its fellow disk makers, is well versed
in working at infinitesimally small scale - whether it's working out
the aerodynamics of spinning platters moving at thousands of RPM
or how to shingle blobs of rust to squeeze ever more data into the
tracks on those platters.
The partnership with Seagate is essential to "eventually lowering
costs and reducing the complexity of storage systems,"
Park continued.
