Scientists Store Data in DNA

May 18, 2007: A team of researches at Japan’s Keio University claim to have found a new method of storing data that doesn’t rely on magnetism, electronic storage, but on microscopic bacteria.

According to The Associated Press , the team recognised a correlation between the genetic coding found in the DNA of bacteria and the method that is used to store digital data. Similar to the building blocks of digital data, DNA is made up of four characters that come together in different combinations.

The team found that these can be manipulated to store data without changing the overall appearance of a gene, and store it for extended periods of time.

Extended periods is a bit of an understatement though, as the time believes that if mutations can be avoided, data could be successfully stored in the DNA of a bacteria for up to one million years. Now that’s long term disaster recovery.

To test the theory, the team succeeded in imprinting Einstein’s “E equals MC squared” and the year he won the Nobel Prize for the theory of relativity into a bacterium.

“Many people never even thought about storing data for thousands of years," Professor Masaru Tomita, head of the research team, told AP. “This may sound like a dream. But we're thinking hundreds of millions of years.”

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