Data Storage on DNA - New Evolving Technology | Amazing Facts

DNA DIGITAL DATA STORING:

A New technique developed by University of Washington and Microsoft researchers could shrink the space needed to store digital data. They have detailed one of the first complete systems to encode, store and retrieve digital data using DNA molecules, which can store information millions of times more compactly than current archival technologies.

In one of their experiments, the team successfully encoded digital data from four image files into the nucleotide sequences of synthetic DNA snippets. More significantly, they were also able to reverse that process - retrieving the correct sequences from a larger pool of DNA and reconstructing the images without losing a single byte of information.

We will be facing a major issue for compressing and finding means to store and handle the digital universe - all the data contained in our computer files, historic archives, movies, photo collections and the exploding volume of digital information collected by businesses and devices worldwide - is expected to hit 44 trillion gigabytes by 2020. 

"Life has produced this fantastic molecule called DNA that efficiently stores all kinds of information about your genes and how a living system works - it's very, very compact and very durable," said co-author Luis Ceze, UW associate professor of computer science and engineering."We're essentially re-purposing it to store digital data - pictures, videos, documents - in a manageable way for hundreds or thousands of years."

Storage Capacity of DNA:

DNA molecules can store information many millions of times more densely than existing technologies for digital storage - flash drives, hard drives, magnetic and optical media. Those systems also degrade after a few years or decades, while DNA can reliably preserve information for centuries. DNA is best suited for archival applications, rather than instances where files need to be accessed immediately.

Storage Capacity of DNA

First, the researchers developed an approach to convert the long strings of ones and zeroes in digital data into the four basic building blocks of DNA sequences - adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine.The digital data is chopped into pieces and stored by synthesizing a massive number of tiny DNA molecules, which can be dehydrated or otherwise preserved for long-term storage.

The UW and Microsoft researchers are one of two teams nationwide that have also demonstrated the ability to perform "random access" - to identify and retrieve the correct sequences from this large pool of random DNA molecules, which is a task similar to reassembling one chapter of a story from a library of torn books.

To access the stored data later, the researchers also encode the equivalent of zip codes and street addresses into the DNA sequences. Using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) techniques - commonly used in molecular biology - helps them more easily identify the zip codes they are looking for. Using DNA sequencing techniques, the researchers can then "read" the data and convert them back to a video, image or document file by using the street addresses to reorder the data.

Currently, the largest barrier to viable DNA storage is the cost and efficiency with which DNA can be synthesized and sequenced (or read) on a large scale. But researchers say there's no technical barrier to achieving those gains if the right incentives are in place. 

Spreading Light in the Darkness | Bionic Eye

Bionic eyes - A look into the future:

The field of bionics has transformed medicine for centuries, as far back as the ancient Egyptians who created bespoke toes from wood and leather. During the 20th century mechanical and electronic advances made heart pacemakers and more sophisticated prosthetic limbs which had a tendency to feel were also developed.

In 1958 a USF  colonel who was also a doctor coined the term "Bionics". In the same year a 43 year old engineer in Sweden got the first heart pacemaker which was still under testing. He kept felling unconscious and had to be revived 20 to 30 times a day. He lived to the age of 86 years and had 23 pacemakers replaced in his life time.

In 60's, a bionic eye was developed but due to primal tech as compared to modern tech it could not flourish. But now we have miniature wireless and electronic components and tech which can be used easily and in a better way.

Now, researchers are creating bionic eyes to help blind people see again. Neurosurgeon Jeffrey Rosenfeld, director of the Monash institute of medical engineering in Australia, hopes to implant tiny “ceramic micro-electrode tiles” into the brain’s visual cortex of blind volunteers this year – bypassing the normal visual pathway

You don’t even need eyeballs. A digital camera mounted on a pair of glasses captures images which are then processed in a device about the size of a mobile phone. The resulting image is then transferred wirelessly to the tiles in the brain – the more tiles, the more detailed the image.

When we talk about the detail of image, primitive tech involved pictures with like 60 to 80 pixels but now the pixel quantity has improved to 500 to 600 pixels. Naturally our eyes can generate more than a million pixels but 500 to 600 pixels are enough. Trust me, ask blind people if they could just see a vague image, they would do anything, just to even have a glimpse.

Such techniques designed to help people with disabilities could also be adopted by others wanting to enhance their own senses or performance. Though it is difficult to promise that the blind people could see the faces of their loved ones but they can help a blind person understand the dimensions of objects around him and he can easily find his way.

The problems holding back the application of bionic eyes is that the electrodes we have can cause inflammation or some reaction if kept embedded in the brain for a long time as they are normally made of iridium and such metals. And also that it needs more testing on humans though it is being tested on sheep, just to understand how their brain precepts those electric signals.

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