Data Storing Bacteria Could Last Millennia 252
PetManimal writes "Computerworld has a story about a new technology developed by Keio University researchers that creates artificial bacterial DNA that can carry more than 100 bits of data within the genome sequence. The researchers claimed that they encoded "e= mc2 1905!" on the common soil bacteria, Bacillius subtilis. The bacteria-based data storage method has backup and long-term archival functionality." The researchers say "While the technology would most likely first be used to track medication, it could also be used to store text and images for many millennia, thwarting the longevity issues associated with today's disk and tape storage systems ... The artificial DNA that carries the data to be preserved makes multiple copies of the DNA and inserts the original as well as identical copies into the bacterial genome sequence. The multiple copies work as backup files to counteract natural degradation of the preserved data, according to the newswire. Bacteria have particularly compact DNA, which is passed down from generation to generation. The information stored in that DNA can also be passed on for long-term preservation of large data files."
Bacteria? Are you kidding me? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Longevity Issues (Score:5, Informative)
Old news (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Overwriting? (Score:3, Informative)
Harder to erase than you might think (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A Must (Score:1, Informative)
Sony has an incredibly thin and small USB drive (Micro Vault), a simple knife cut in a tennis shoe or removing the insole in your loafers give you the spot to put it. smuggle in, copy, smuggle out easily. Incredibly effective against the $8.00 an hour security these companies hire. (CEO get's $1,000 an hour and really does nothing, Security gets $8.00 and is the frontline defense for the company... the management is stupid.)
Dont need bacteria I can smuggle easily and undetected.
Problem is when you have a bacteria storage system and find that nobody has fed the storage system for a few months. DAMMIT IT DIED!
joe davis & dnagraphy (Score:2, Informative)
dont wanna click: here is some nice info about him:
* Expelled from three high schools and two colleges: for writing about atheism, refusing a haircut, making a still (which exploded), being elected student body president on a "free marijuana" platform and working on an underground anti-war newspaper.
* Walked into the M.I.T. Center for Advanced Visual Studies uninvited in 1982. Secretary called the cops. Forty-five minutes later, Davis walked out with an appointment as a research fellow. (TRUE)
* Latest project is to build a biomechanical ornithopter powered by electrically stimulated frogs legs and to fly it across the Charles river. (it worked and he ate the frogs legs.)
* Uses hollow steel peg leg to open beer bottles, to accompany the band (bugle-style) at his local bar, and to charm curious women at parties. (TRUE, but he can do more...)