A few years ago, even the researchers are reluctant to use DNA to store data, think too far ahead do not have any practical value. In the long ago, scientists claim to use the appropriate software modules to extend the biochemical and PostgreSQL, and SQL running on DNA, a time to talk about big data and life sciences rampant.
For most people, DNA is a very magical data storage technology. In nature, millions of years, is the use of a variety of biological DNA carries genetic information to ensure the species thrive. In fact, as early as the 1960s, scientists have put forward the idea of using DNA to store information.
And now, a large life sciences data for the entire topic has the fire for a long time, Xiao Bian also been concerned about the developments in this regard, was also announced earlier this year Wikipedia 16G of storage into a DNA molecule, not long ago it was said metabolic molecule can store data even been suggested using mass spectrometry and so on. Although the advance of science and technology requires imagination, but science must also face the reality of any and all influence and its consequences.
First, many people wonder why use DNA to store data such biomass?
It is actually quite simple, the storage capacity of traditional storage systems and update rate has been far behind, say many people may have no concept of, for example, about 30 years later, in 2040, the world will produce 3 × 10²⁴ the amount of data.
The data of how big, is approximately equal to 3 trillion 1TB hard drive, do not seem to say so specifically, if the hard drive to store all of five minutes one of mp3 music, then the world's seven billion people together, regardless of day and night to listen to these We need 100 billion years to music listening .
But according to the current pace of upgrading traditional storage system, 30 years after the data will have nowhere to go, and now has reached the traditional hard drive under overload state, we are glad that there are huge amounts of data can be stored in the cloud, then 30 years, 50 years from now ?
For this reason, many people gathered to look into the DNA of this biochemical substance, because it is stable enough, large enough, in the eyes of many people like the DNA of ancient gods, pristine land as mysterious and powerful as nature, books may disappear, the hard disk may disappear, the clouds may disappear, but not DNA, so choose healthy DNA as the carrier of data storage appears to be quite sensible and promising.
In addition, the DNA can be used as an information carrier, it is mainly based on a combination of the complexity of such polymers, at extreme temperatures, pressures and mechanical forces, the memory is more stable than the molecular electronic memory, it also allows people to molecular memory storage cloud farewell the offline store large amounts of data made possible, in order to protect data security, not free to attack by hackers.
Biological storage is difficult to do it? What difficulty is?
As mentioned earlier, many experiments have been successfully stored data into DNA, and even some people in this whole Quran stored in his body, we see this technology has achieved a breakthrough from 0-1, but it still faces a more difficult situation:
1, the cost problem. Restricting the development of science and technology and promote scientific and technological development is cost, at present, the cost of DNA storage technology is quite large, as much as it put so many institutions can not afford. Take 2002 for complete genome sequencing work was focused on the 20 experts of the Institute, using the infrastructure configured these studies, experience 13 years, he invested $ 3 billion received about 3 billion nucleotide sequence.
Gene Sequencing
But, after all, cost and technological maturity complement each other, as the amount of future researchers continue to develop methods to handle large data, speed and variability aspects of the problem will no longer be constrained by cost.
2, read and write speed. Now, whether it is stored or read and write rate is not the rate of DNA and plain old hard drive, say some people may surprise, only 4M per second, one might even say that this speed can not match the speed of my house, read and write rates if more Needless to say, this problem is now stored in DNA technology need to be resolved.
But there were reports that traditional DNA sequencing products have been sold in the biotech market, you can read the DNA data, this new technology with a sequence of cases will help to improve the speed, its authenticity is not known.
3, accurate rates. The accuracy of current data storage technology scientists say the DNA of about 99%, a figure in traditional storage systems may not matter, but if it is placed on the body's DNA in it is far from enough. Because people currently known inside the human DNA, genetic information and molecular metabolic problems such as tip of the iceberg, however, a difference of 1% of the data may lead to very serious consequences.
Whether data loss or data discrepancies, as long as there are loopholes once is enough to cause people to panic waves in general, not to mention the future of data hackers might use DNA technology to attack the body itself, it is already difficult to predict the consequences.
Back to the question, whether we can bring new life sciences data revolution?
The answer is yes, but not now, maybe 20 years, maybe 50 years, maybe 100 years, maybe never.
For example, DNA data has been used by researchers as molecular recognition, it is being used to greatly accelerate the pace of research in the field of chemical engineering, materials science and nanotechnology to help scientists study how to fight drug resistance and prevent cancer metastasis.
For example, the data might be possible to follow the DNA to the next generation inherited together, such as by artificial hippocampus completed a short-term memory to long-term storage in memory of the conversion, this technology can back up the human brain memory, and copied to other people's brains .
For example, the DNA Data Science Is it possible to achieve "immortalized" human ultimate goal? The original information was able to pass from generation to generation nerves, combined with the DNA can store huge amounts of data, I do not know if this is not another " eternal life " way of doing things?
There are many, many, leaving space for people to imagine is infinite, it is undeniable that the life sciences also brought new ideas and development space for the data, we can not stop this trend, the only thing we can do is look forward to their border and the bottom line will not trample human inviolable.