DNA Hard Drive?

S

Sunbliminabubble

Registered Member
Lately I've been hearing rumors that IBM or some other huge electronics manufacturer has been developing plans for a DNA storage system capable of storing around 3 terabytes on a chromosome... I dont know about the legitimacy of these rumors, but they seem technically feasible. Anybody want to shed some light on this?

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If everything is possible, what if the impossible happens?
 
I've read something about BioWare, but I don't recall the source. I did perform an online search but didn't find much. Post any links you might find. I'm curious.

[This message has been edited by Bowser (edited November 19, 2000).]
 
I have heard a lot of speculation about biological information storage mediums.

It is possible that somewhere in the rumor mill, someone replaced the word "feasible" with "existing". I'm sure there is research being done into the possibilities of this but I'm not sure of how far along this has progressed.
 
I read an article or two about this several years ago. It seems (and I don't by any means pretends to understand all the technical terms like poly....something-or-others), that DNA manipulation has actually been used to complete an algorithm. Somehow, by amplifying the many possible result-strings of DNA, and then removing wrong answers (strings of DNA that didn't fit right) over and over, scientists were eventually left with the one right answer. Supposedly, it was a problem that would take alot of computer time, but is simple and straight-forward (but very costly and time-consuming with our primitive DNA manipulation techniques) to do in DNA.

As for using it as a hard drive, I haven't heard quite as much, though I've often thought of it as a possibility (I did find an article on it once though).
 
The problem you refer to, Caleb, is the <A HREF="http://www.bio.warwick.ac.uk/hodgson/dnacomp/np/">travelling salesperson</A>.
 
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