Forget About Flash Memory DNA Could Be The Future Of Data Storage

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INTRODUCTION

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Mother Nature has her own version of several technological advancements we have developed. In my own opinion, there is this part of us that is aware that Mother Nature has solved all the problems we encounter in several aspects of our life in her own way.

We have made various artificial lakes, copying Mother Nature's natural lakes. We looked at the birds present in nature and sought to travel through the skies. To fulfill these desire, we have made the aeroplanes, helicopters, etc. For the fishes with the ability to breath underwater, we made our own scuba tanks. For the arsenal of mass destruction she possesses, we have our own nuclear bombs.

In storing digital information, we have made use of CDs, hard drives, flash drives, memory card, etc. Mother Nature on the other hand has employed the use of DNA. However now we are getting bolder in our quests. We are beginning to do things the way she is doing her things. Humans are now able to store data on DNA. Yeah, you heard me right. Your favourite movies such Game Of Thrones, Black Panther, Avengers, etc can now be stored on DNA strands by a means known as "DNA digital data storage".

WHAT IS DNA DIGITAL DATA STORAGE?

DNA digital storage refers to any process by which digital data can be stored in the base sequence of DNA by employing the use of oligonucleotide synthesis which can be obtained commercially available for storing such data and the use of DNA sequencing machines for retrieval.

While computers run on binary code with 1 and 0, living things make use of nucleotides known as Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine and Guanine in running their own "binary code".

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HOW IS INFORMATION STORED ON DNA STRANDS?

In storing data on conventional storage media such as memory cards, hard drives, CDs, etc have their electrical, optical or magnetic properties altered to store is and 0s. It is almost the same means of storing data on DNA but sequences of Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine and Guanine are created instead of the creation of 1s and 0s in electronic media.

The major means of achieving this is by assigning digital data patterns to the various DNA nucleotides. For example, 11 could be equal to adenine, 01 could be equal to thymine, 10 could be equal to cytosine with 00 being equal to guanine. Assuming the first eight bits on the file which is to be encoded into the DNA are "00100111", that will imply that the order by which the nucleotides would be linked together to form a DNA strand would be "Guanine-Cytosine-Thymine-Adenine".

If you'll want to store your "Game Of Thrones" which is a large file, you'll need to break down the data into smaller units as building DNA becomes more cumbersome as the strand becomes longer. An indicator of where each unit falls will be added to signify it's location in the sequence.

After the order in which the nucleotides are arranged has been determined, chemical reactions are employed in the synthesis of the DNA sequence. Rather than synthesize a copy of each strand, several homogeneous copies are synthesized simultaneously before proceeding to make several copies of the next DNA strand in the series, thereby providing back up copies. After this, the DNA is dehydrated and shielded from heat so as to prevent denaturation.

To retrieve the data, a sequencing machine is employed as it is capable of identifying the sequences, generating a letter sequence per molecule which is then deciphered into an ordered binary sequence of 1s and 0s. While reading the DNA, the process can result in destruction of the DNA but the availability of multiple copies of the sequences alays one's fears of losing the entire data.

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MERITS OF DNA DIGITAL DATA STORAGE

• Unlike information which is stored in silicon drives which can only last for some years or a few decades, when stored under the right conditions, informaton stored in DNA can last for up to several of thousands of years.
• DNA has a high storage capacity. For example, DNA the size of the room can be used in storing all the information humanity currently possesses.
• When stored properly, it can withstand extreme environmental conditions.

DEMERITS OF DNA DIGITAL DATA STORAGE

• DNA is unstable and can be easily denatured if not stored properly. This can easily result in the loss of information stored on it.
• The process of storing digital data on DNA is quite cumbersome and takes a longer period of time than conventional data storage methods.
• The process of storing data on DNA is expensive to carry out as it can cost something in the region of $7000 to create and reading it will cost an extra $2000 dollars.

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Conclusion

While the cost of production as well as the time taken to encode Data on DNA might be much, technology is improving daily and new means of encoding which are cheaper and faster would be developed. There are estimations that by 2030, the projected supply of silicon which is the material we make use of in storing flash memory presently would not be able to meet up with the demand, hence the need for an alternative means of storing data. With its high storage capacity, I think that DNA would be a very strong candidate for the replacement of flash memory.

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IMAGE SOURCE

First Image: Pixabay
Second Image: Wikipedia Public Domains Licensed

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