A petabyte (1000 TerraBytes) of data stored on one gram of bacteria

I read this article and had a jaw dropping experience. So, I thought I'd share it with other computer geeks.

Researchers in Hong Kong have made some serious progress in the technique called biostorage. Basically storing data on a bio organism's DNA.

They don't alter the DNA, just tag on a bit of excess data. In 2007, they tagged M=MC2 on the DNA of a common soil bacterium. That doesn't sound like much,but as the bacterium reproduce, the tag is copied from generation to generation. With a fail safe to prevent in case of corrupted data.

The fact that the tag or data is copied from generation to generation means that data can be theoretically stored for 1000's of years.

The group has developed a method of compressing data, splitting it into chunks and distributing it between different bacterial cells, which helps to overcome limits on storage capacity. They are also able to "map" the DNA so information can be easily located.

This opens up the way to storing not only text, but images, music, and even video within cells.

Just how much is a Petabyte of video? There is a MILLION Gigabytes in one Petabyte. Over 13 years of High Definition video content.

Or 20 Million, 4 drawer file cabinets filled with text.

Google is estimated at one time to handle 20 Petabytes of data in ONE day.

Someone calculated that the ENTIRE written works of mankind from the beginning of recorded history. (In all languages) would equal about 50 Petabytes.

So... sounds like we will have some pretty awesome storage technology in 10 or 20 years. Heck, I remember the 8" floppy diskette I had on my TRS-80....

Anyway, they won't be storing petri dish in your computer any day soon, but who knows what is in store (pun intended) 20 years from now.

Anyway here is the full story. Hope you enjoy.

Source: www.physorg.com

Nice find, that is unreal. I know they won't but the first thing I would do would be to look for preexisting tags. If we used it as a time capsule and are washed away from war/plague or other disaster and it takes 6000 years to restore mankind to this level of science -- wouldn't we hope they'd look?

They use coli bacteria even. In the the future you just go to toilet if you run out of storage

"Just how much is a Petabyte of video? There is a MILLION Gigabytes in one Petabyte. Over 13 years of High Definition video content.

Or 20 Million, 4 drawer file cabinets filled with text.

Google is estimated at one time to handle 20 Petabytes of data in ONE day.

Someone calculated that the ENTIRE written works of mankind from the beginning of recorded history. (In all languages) would equal about 50 Petabytes."

Wow, that is insane. All I need is some bacteria in my X-box 360 and I can have all of the space in the world. No need to spend extra money on a bigger hard drive, no more having to delete stuff to make room for other things. Unlimited amounts of music on iPods and computers, unlimited movie selections from the Netflix instant queue. I wouldn't be surprised if this got swept under the rug and we never hear of it again.

Holy rusted metal Batman!

This is actually a great find...
I know storage space is limited for civilians but this brings it to another light!

Storing data on bacteria?
Unbelievable...


Great find!

Gives new light to "Your computer has a virus."
In the future, that might be a good thing.

The future is about to get alot more interesting boys and girls.

Pretty soon you'll be able to carry around every single thing ever created by man in your pocket.
Or maybe even in the future. You'll just have everything you need to learn just encoded into your dna already from birth. And everytime you need to know something. You just access that information.
Need to fly a plane. Just access the data and experiences from a pilot with years of experience.

crazy.

very interesting.. sounds like we're getting closer to using h20 liquid hard drives. welcome to the future.

Originally posted by grey580
The future is about to get alot more interesting boys and girls.

Pretty soon you'll be able to carry around every single thing ever created by man in your pocket.
Or maybe even in the future. You'll just have everything you need to learn just encoded into your dna already from birth. And everytime you need to know something. You just access that information.
Need to fly a plane. Just access the data and experiences from a pilot with years of experience.

crazy.

Genetically altered humans with an unlimited potential for knowledge? Reminds me of the matrix, that scene where Trinity is like "Tank, I need the schematics to fly a helicopter", four seconds later she's like "Alright, let's go".

Sometimes I wonder if we don't have something encrypted in our DNA... Wasn't there a movie about that? Divinci's Code or something...

Although it is nice to see our storage capabilities rise. I think a weekly virus scan on multiple petabytes of data would become very tiresome. Just a guess, but it would probably take over a month to complete.

But yeah, you might not ever have to delete anything again because of storage restraints.

It would be a gold mine for forensics or data miners...

reply to post by ByteChanger


Puts the fact that a very large percentage of our DNA is considered "junk DNA" (i.e - not "used" for anything) in a whole new light.

Maybe we're all nothing more than giant data storage units for some advanced intelligence....

reply to post by ByteChanger


We have the technology... We can rebuild him.. make him better, stronger faster....

/que nanananana sounds

Wow.. This is cool and goes along with theories about our DNA containing information that we are not supposed to know about until we advanced far enough to understand it (if you subscribne to some of the conspiracy theories on DNA and junk DNA).

Pretty cool advance though..

Does this mean we will have to eventually start feeding our computers....

Originally posted by ByteChanger
Sometimes I wonder if we don't have something encrypted in our DNA... Wasn't there a movie about that? Divinci's Code or something...

Star Trek did something like that. the original aliens (I forget their names) decided to seed the galaxy with intelligent life to make it more diverse, or something. they left different clues to their origins in each of the species DNA. It was quite fascinating.

Originally posted by Redajin

Originally posted by ByteChanger
Sometimes I wonder if we don't have something encrypted in our DNA... Wasn't there a movie about that? Divinci's Code or something...

Star Trek did something like that. the original aliens (I forget their names) decided to seed the galaxy with intelligent life to make it more diverse, or something. they left different clues to their origins in each of the species DNA. It was quite fascinating.

That was a good episode. The premise behind the episode was the information could only be unlocked when the species worked together to solve the problem.

StarTrek TNG - The Chase

Unnoticed, they feed the sample into their tricorder. The mysterious program is activated, and a humanoid hologram recorded billions of years ago appears before them. The hologram tells the surprised group that her race found itself alone in their travels of the galaxy. The genetic puzzle was created in hopes that those races would come together in cooperation and fellowship in order to activate the message. The humanoid tells the group that they all come from this common seed, and implores them to remember this bond.

I know this theory has been suggested by some scientists that our DNA is not naturally occuring, and is instead a "program" that was put in place waaay back in the day. Another recent off the shelf theory suggested that the human race has evolved faster than the rest of the species, suggesting that somewhere we received a jump start and accelerated assistance.

If we could only find the decryption key to unlock the other 95% of our brain, I entertain the thought that that key is in our dna.

just looked it up average adult brain weighs 1300-1400 grams that is a lot of information storage. Yet we do so little with it. It can't all possibly be used to function the body.

Originally posted by ByteChanger
Someone calculated that the ENTIRE written works of mankind from the beginning of recorded history. (In all languages) would equal about 50 Petabytes.

That sounds about right, but how large would all the movies ever made be, digitized to something like blu-Ray type resolution? Those puppies take up a lot of space.

I can't wait to buy my first 50 petabyte drive but I guess I'll have to.

Interesting article, that's a lot of storage in a tiny space!

Originally posted by illuminateme
just looked it up average adult brain weighs 1300-1400 grams that is a lot of information storage. Yet we do so little with it. It can't all possibly be used to function the body.

I'd suggest you actually take the time to research the brain, its structure, and the various functions involved in it. We don't do "so little with it", a mere "5%" as you put it. In fact, we use all of our brain.

The entire brain isn't just one data storage device, a hard drive if you will, but rather a computing organ. Areas of the brain like the hippocampus, amygdala, striatum, cerebellum, and many others all control various pieces of memory, so that should suggest on it's own storing memories isn't as easy a task as simply Saving data to data storage.

That alone is just one function with many sub functions, while there is still autonomous functions, and conscious control. You seem to underestimate your own brain, it's fascinatingly complex.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
That sounds about right, but how large would all the movies ever made be, digitized to something like blu-Ray type resolution? Those puppies take up a lot of space.

I can't wait to buy my first 50 petabyte drive but I guess I'll have to.

Interesting article, that's a lot of storage in a tiny space!

Probably something around 15-20 Petabytes (million gigabytes) with an average of about 10gb per high res BluRay. And that's not even counting the vast majority of pornos!

So if you're counting the pornos, you might be pushing it with that 50 pB drive haha.

reply to post by Stuffed


Thank you, I did look it up and can't believe I fell prey to a myth for so long. As for the hard drive comment I was speaking metaphoricaly. I have read and watched documentaries where savants and some persons with autism can perform seemingly inhuman mental tasks, but that most people can barely multiply two two digit numbers in our heads (and some not evern on paper). You take the Da Vinci's, Newton's, and Edison's who delved into so many mysteries looking for answers and then asking new questions, whereas today most people only want to keep up with the latest game, cell phone or their favorite famous personality. While the 5-10% brain usage maybe a myth in actuality I still believe it is generally true. Most of the members of this site seem like they at least try to expxand their minds and ways of thinking. Being able to pick others brains so to speak is why I joined ATS. Being able to go to one site and discuss such a wide array of topics is great.

If humanity is capable of doing this, maybe a lot of the ancient alien theories may be correct. Extraterrestrials possibly millions of years ahead of us would have no problem modifying life forms they encounter. We are just beginners in the field. As humanity gets more advanced technologically, we start making less than moral decisions on how we use our technology. ET might intervene when we start to lose control, or they might just watch their experiment and see what happens. Things are starting to happen in the world suggesting there is a major unbalance. Birds and fish dying with increasing frequency. We all know why but fail to take responsibility.

I've often wondered if there is an intergalactic community out there who oversees developing worlds possibly guiding them to civilization...but recording the process and having their very own and interesting reality TV broadcast to the masses across the galaxy. I wonder how they record it but it must be very subtle or we would have noticed it. Possibly ET nanomachines tapped into our nervous systems and downloaded when we sleep..kinda far out there but I try not to limit the realms of possibility. Maybe someone else smarter than I will figure it out. Think outside the box. LOL just imagine if there are ET females out there who love a juicy soap opera. What better place to tune into than right here! Maybe that is why the governments don't want to disclose the truth. The TV show would be ruined..the jig would be up so to speak.

Star Trek did something like that. the original aliens (I forget their names) decided to seed the galaxy with intelligent life to make it more diverse, or something. they left different clues to their origins in each of the species DNA. It was quite fascinating.

Thanks. I didn't know that. Just watched it. It was a great episode.