As for the rate As humans create exponentially more data due to the rise of AI, scientists are interested in DNA as a way to store digital information. After all, DNA is nature’s way of storing data. It encodes genetic information and determines the blueprint for every living thing on Earth.
DNA is also at least 1,000 times more compact than solid-state hard drives. To demonstrate just how compact it is, researchers previously encoded all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets, 52 pages of Mozart’s music, and an episode of the Netflix show “Biohacker” into tiny amounts of DNA.
But these were research projects or media stunts. DNA data storage is not yet mainstream, but it may be getting closer. You can now purchase what was probably the first commercially available book written about DNA. Today, Asimov Press announced an anthology of biotechnology essays and science fiction novels encoded in DNA strands. For $60, you can get a physical copy of the book and the nucleic acid version, which is a metal capsule filled with dried DNA.
To encode the book in DNA, Asimov Press partnered with Boston-based Catalog to create approximately 500,000 unique DNA molecules to encode 240 pages of the book, representing 481,280 bytes of data. I did.
Traditional DNA data storage works by converting the binary code of 0s and 1s in a digital file into the building blocks of DNA: As, Cs, Gs, and Ts. Custom DNA strands are chemically synthesized letter by letter to match the desired sequence.
Instead, the catalog uses a technique called “combinatorial assembly,” which the company likens to the Gutenberg printing press. Similar to how moveable letters are arranged to form words, the catalog created an alphabet of DNA pieces that could be assembled to represent bits. The company manufactures these DNA snippets in bulk and uses enzymes to encode the information. David Turek, Catalog’s chief technology officer, said it would cost in the low thousands of dollars to make 1,000 DNA-encoded copies of the book.
“This is a case where you can encode something once in DNA and use the tools of molecular biology to create as many replicas as you like,” he says. “It’s pretty easy to do this in bulk.”
In 2023, French company Biomemory began offering a $1,000 DNA storage card that can store about 1 kilobyte of data (equivalent to a text message) of the customer’s choice. At the time, CEO Erfan Alwani told WIRED that the service was an experiment to gauge consumer interest in DNA data storage. “We wanted to demonstrate that our process is ready for the world to see,” he said.
However, the cards were expensive because DNA synthesis is still a fairly time-consuming and expensive process. Catalog claims that the combined approach is more efficient. By producing identical copies of the same book, prices were also lowered.
After Catalog encoded it, the DNA molecules were dried, turned into a powder, and shipped to France. So the biological storage company Imagene packed the molecules into stainless steel capsules with an inert internal atmosphere, meaning no oxygen or moisture inside. In this state, the DNA inside is preserved for thousands of years.
(Tag Translation) Science
