by Poyo
DNA, the future of data storage
Most of the data in the world is kept in data storage centers. Data includes texts, photos and audios from electronic devices. At home you can store data in hard drives but it can become very messy and inconvenient. Recent studies have revealed that we could start storing data in tiny DNA molecules, in fact it was made possible in 2013, but how is it possible and why would it be more convenient?
Why should we be storing data in DNA?
It takes a lot of resources to keep a data center going. A single data center can have a carbon footprint equivalent to the one of an entire city.
Whereas storing data in hard drives can become a battle against space. There are about 10 trillion gigabytes of data in the whole wide world, keeping them in hard drives would take about 1 billion hard drives with a 10 terabyte capacity.
Storing data in microscopic DNA molecules would mean optimizing space and contributing to the fight against climate change.
Another factor is its stability over time: if DNA is stored properly it can last thousands, maybe millions of years.
How can we store data in DNA?
To answer this question we need to understand what DNA is.
Data is kept in devices, hard drives, data centers using another code called the binary code which is composed using two numbers: 0 and 1. Therefore, by converting 1s and 0s into As, Ts, Cs and Gs we can put data in DNA. Advanced technologies have been able to produce microscopic artificial DNA molecules.
Everything seems to be set and ready to take over but, as much as it's convenient, storing data in DNA can still offer some disadvantages.
What are the disadvantages?
It can be a very slow process copying data into DNA and converting the DNA back to text, audios and images when reading a file. It is also necessary to keep multiple copies of the same DNA strand for they could contain errors. Another issue is the price: storing data in DNA can get very expensive.
Anyhow, prices may go down over time and this technology is still progressing, so perhaps in the near future DNA will replace hard drives data centers, all favoring the safeguarding of our planet.