DNA-Drives - The computers of the future?

[Terralventhe]

DNA-Drives - The computers of the future?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...ed-accurately-on-DNA-in-new-breakthrough.html

So bear with me here.. let's say that this catches on.. that'd mean that somewhere in the still-fairly-distant (or maybe not, given the leaps we've made in just two decades) future.. that computer hard-drives would thus be replaced by much smaller, easily transported 'DNA-Drives'.. effectively containing entire masses of recorded data on a singular strand of DNA. Information exchange, storage, and more would be revolutionized in a way that we wouldn't even be able to fathom. Not to mention the implications of implanting data on a genetic level.

 

[kilravok]

Interesting, but as the report says, it is not really meant for repeated access...you can back up your computer on DNA and store it for fifty generations if you don't read it too often...rewriting or altering will not be possible...would have to scrap and completely re-sequence a new string. Then there is the storage...they say DNA does not need any energy to keep the data....but the freezer that conserves it needs energy, without it , you have data decay on a genetic level.

 

[GuyNwah]

Drying is a well-known method for storing DNA without refrigeration. It's more exacting than storing in liquid nitrogen or ethanol or frozen buffer, but it could serve for archival storage (you do need to keep it scrupulously dry, but there are places that stay bone-dry for very long times).

That's where we are today. But, ultimately, why store the DNA in isolation? We have a nearly unlimited variety of wetware that exists just so its DNA can create carefully protected, self-replicating containers for itself. Implanting, and using translation and transcription to read out, is the way to go.