Over the decades, storage technology has evolved and gotten better. It has moved from CDs and floppy disks to hard and solid-state drives. But still, we have a problem: the amount of storage available and being produced can't cope with the data we keep producing.
So, would DNA storage solve the problem? Can data be stored in DNA?
What Is DNA Data Storage?
DNA data storage is the process of using DNA molecules as a storage medium. Unlike the optical and magnetic forms of storage technologies present today, DNA data won't be stored in binary digits (i.e., 1s and 0s). Instead, they would be encoded into DNA nucleotide bases (A, C, G, T) and stored. These strands are then converted to binary digits when needed.
Right now, over 11 trillion gigabytes of data exist, with at least 2.5 million gigabytes more added each day. The data storage media available in the world cannot keep up with this massive increase. DNA storage is one solution to this problem of storage.
How Does DNA Data Storage Work?
DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. It is a complex organic molecule that carries the genetic information of a living thing. It is found in all humans and stores information like skin color, eye color, height, and other physical and biological traits.
A DNA spiral has multiple and alternating pairs of four unique bases. They are adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). These bases are attached to the DNA spiral in pairs, called base pairs. The two base pairs are adenine-thymine and guanine-cytosine.
Data is stored in binary digits (1s and 0s) in traditional computing. In DNA data storage, the four nucleotide bases (A, C, G, T) store and encode data. Information is stored in permutations of three nucleotides bases, called codons.
DNA storage comprises three processes: coding the data, synthesizing and storing it, and decoding it. Binary codes holding information are translated into DNA codes or codons using an algorithm. They are then deposited in a container in a cool and regulated environment. The DNA carrying information can be frozen in solution, stored as droplets, or stored on silicon chips.
Scientists are working on making the reading of DNA storage faster and less expensive. As of now, data stored in DNA has to be taken to the lab to be decoded into error-free binary information, and it takes a long time.
As such, it may take some time before DNA data storage devices become readily-available cheap devices the public will use.
More research is going into DNA storage technology, and it will not readily overthrow the existing storage methods yet. But in a few years, as more research and technological breakthroughs are made, data will be stored in DNA, solving the problems of space, security, and degradation.
What Is the Storage Capacity of DNA Data Storage?
DNA data storage is the preferred solution for the storage shortage problem because it can store large amounts of data in very little space. One gram of DNA can store 215 petabytes of data. A petabyte is 1,024 terabytes. So one gram of DNA can store approximately 220,160 terabytes.
Compare that with current technology: a one-terabyte hard disk drive weighs approximately 400 grams. So, to store the equivalent amount of data one gram of DNA keeps, you need more than 88 million grams of hard drives.
With this information, researchers say that all the data in the world right now can fit into a shoebox using DNA data storage.
What Are the Advantages of DNA Data Storage?
Using DNA storage as a storage medium comes with many benefits over digital storage. It provides high data storage capacity, a considerably longer lifespan than other forms of storage, compactness, low susceptibility to technical and electrical failures, and replicability.
Storage Density
The main advantage of DNA storage over other storage mediums is storage density. Even though you store your data remotely on the cloud or NAS, they are still stored in big servers and data centers. These data centers are as large as football stadiums and cost billions of dollars to build and maintain. It is not the same with DNA data storage.
DNA data storage allows you to store massive amounts of data in a very compact space. Hence, reducing the problems of space, maintenance expenses, and shortage of storage equipment.
Durability
The digital storage equipment available have today is far from durable. They are all prone to decay and degradation. Digital decay is the gradual decomposition of data stored on a computer, affecting millions of people every year.
The DNA has a half-life of 500 years. When stored in an optimum and regulated environment, data stored in DNA can be available for hundreds of years.
Replicability
Because of the degradation of data, data in data centers have to be copied and transferred onto other hardware after periods of time to preserve the information stored. This process is frequently cumbersome.
Data stored in DNA can easily be replicated. One method scientists have tested is to insert the DNA with stored information into a bacterium. This bacterium then reproduces—on its own—other generation of bacteria that possess the same information stored in the first DNA without any errors or loss.
Is DNA Data Storage the Future of Storage?
Quite frankly, yes. DNA data storage certainly ticks all the solution boxes for today's storage problems. It is already in use today by companies who want to preserve extensive archives of information that do not need to be accessed regularly.
Unfortunately, it will be quite some time before DNA storage is a commonplace and affordable storage option available to the public. In the meantime, we have to carefully pick out the best storage format for long-term data storage.