DNA used for storage of data

Apologises if this has been previously posted, I saw it on the news today.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/aug/16/book-written-dna-code

http://www.channel4.com/news/thumb-drives-is-dna-the-future-of-digital-storage

On the news programme I watched (channel 4) they showed a single gram of DNA and stated that it was able to hold 455 billion gigabytes of data, which is the equivalent of around 100 billion DVD's, that is more DVD's that people on earth, stored in a single gram of DNA.

 

Well yeah, cuz each pair of molecules can be one of 4 combinations (cg, gc, ta, at) each pair could be either a 00, 01, 10 or 11. Human DNA has about 3.2 billion of these pairs, which could hold about 1.5 gigabytes of information.

6.22*10^23 base pairs weigh 618 grams, so you'll have 1.006*10^21 base pairs in 1 gram of DNA. Knowing each base pair can hold 4 combinations of 1's and 0's:

1.006*10^21*4/8/1024^6=436 of some form of byte. The "1024^6" defines which bite. 1 is kilo, 2 is mega, 3 is giga, 4 is tera, 5 is peta and 6 is eta. So that one gram of DNA holds 436 etabytes of data. Knowing that a dvd can hold around 5 gigabytes; (436*1024^6)/(5*1024^3)=9.36*10^9, or 96.3 billion dvd's per gram of DNA.

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I know that the articles already said that, but maybe seeing it spelled out like this helps you understand how it's possible. (I was actually quite surprised to see that my numbers matched up LOL) I can further explain it if anyone is curious and didn't follow my quick math/explanation.

EDIT: I might add that this information actually surprised me too, but once I read it, it made perfect sense and I felt like checking out exactly how it played out

 

I just bough new HDD, don't make me change it to HdnaDD...

Yes, why not. You just need technology to read/write to it.

 

Well they already encoded a book in DNA, so they can write to it. And we can analyze DNA so we can read it too. It's not very fast tho 'and may only be useful for long term storage." They said that the DNA degrades much slower and is less suseptable to errors over time than traditional storage devices.

PS: My 100th post roflolmaomgrats

 

I have a hard time understand what information is.
Can you break it down for me?
As a lark, I'd say a gt cg, 10,01,11 etc. is... I have no freakin idea how this enables anything to do anything.
Can you please show me how/why these things work?
I mean, if I have a 11, or a GC, or an AT, or a 01, or 00, so what do I have and what are these abstractions going to do? Make the something thing turn left at the next stop sign?

Totally un-understanding small-head, hoping some understanding big head condescends instead of being condescending
Thnanks.

 

How do the letters A through Z enable anything to do anything? You can write a book with them, and the book can tell readers how to do anything. Any form of code can do the same thing.

You could, for example, group the base pairs in groups of three. So, for example, CG-CG-CG could be A, CG-CG-GC could be B, CG-CG-TA could be C, etc, until GC-AT-GC is Z. Now, you can write a book with it.

 

But how does a 1 or a 0 or a CT-AT-Gc,etc get a molecule to move?
What's behind the impetus to a directed, purposeful action?
If I stick a 1 or 0 or a couple of letters onto a molecule, how does that get it to turn left at the next virus/stop-light,etc.
I think 1 is on and 0 is off, right?
But what does on or off mean to getting things done?
I assume that 10001 would mean on off off off on.
So what has been accomplished?
Byt the way, what is an "on"?- an energy packet? What kind of energy? A photon?
I just am at a total loss. I can only visualize a shock gun where someone stands next to me and shocks me with a bolt of electricity to get me to go- so I will! But I may go backwards, defeating his purpose. How does that bolt(or two bolts with a space between and then 3 more) get me(the reader?) to turn left, or right. I am just as likely to turn(read it) right as left. He would have to shock me and then channelize my subsequent movement, which opens up whole new dimensions/complexities of information/reading problems.
Maybe you could uncoil the word you used: "reader". Remember. I don't even know how a computer works with its 1's and 0's.
If I could understand a bio-molecule by understanding a computer with its 1' and 0's, I would appreciate that.

 

1 is electrical impulse 0 is no impulse

 

You need to read up on some introductory computer science. Your computer communicates with 1s and 0s all the time. It can do things with them: show you stuff on the screen, print documents. I have mine control my telescope. Getting 1s and 0s to do things is the easy part. We have had the technology for decades.

The hard parts are (1) building the DNA molecule with the right information stored on it, and (2) reading the stored information and translating it into electrical impulses. The latter would require manipulating the DNA-RNA-protein transcription process in a cell-like environment. The manipulation would be done with enzymes.

 

I looked and couldn't find any simple explanation of how 1's and 0's enable a computer to do the "impossible"* things it does.
Can you spoon feed me an explanation?- an explanation that may enable me to extrapolate to dna/srf's/bio-molecules and their information storage/retrieval/manipulation?
I ask only because I am on a forum and- therefore- I desire that my questions could be answered here.

* by "impossible" I mean that I have the same sense of "how in the heck does/can that happen" with- for instance- Google googling for me something in 1 second as I have with srf's/bio-molecules running around and doing what they do by their 1 and 0 equivalents. So maybe if I can understand the "impossibility" behind something man created, I figuire I can move towards an understanding of something man didn't create(srf's). That's assuming their is a correspondence between srf's and computers (and their language)

 

A "1" is current flowing in a transistor. A "0" is lack of current in a transistor. It is fairly easy to design an electronic circuit that detects patterns of corrent-flowing and current-not-flowing in say 16 transistors and activate another transistor when it detects a particular pattern. In fact, since there are 256 combinations of 16 bits, you can have a circuit detect all 256 possible patterns and have it activate one of 256 different output transistors, depending on what pattern it sees.

The output transistors can do stuff: turn on lights or motors or whatever.

I have no idea what you mean by an "srf".

 

LAGoff, I just spent the last 2-3 hours reading up on exactly your question and learned a lot. These pages should get you understanding it pretty fast.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/boolean1.htm
computer.howstuffworks.com/bytes1.htm

And if you don't understand a word of concept, just look it up. They give you the most basic thing first, so you can understand that, before they continue on.

 

logic gates are simple... it's the name

1 means on and 0 means off

so if an 'and' gate is present

input x and y would need be 1 and 1

if either were 0 - it wouldn't be on

and the name 'and' clearly states it needs x 'and' y.

logic gates are used in breadboard design

different patterns would perform different functions.

above is just an example of one gate with simple inputs.

 

So, our DNA is capable of holding a ton of information.
I've also heard that scientists have located sections of our DNA that don't seem to have any biological function (or at least none that they can figure out).
Is it possible that there are "messages" encoded in our DNA? If so, who put them there, and what might they say?

 

I put them there. They say that you are spending way too much time on HipForums. :biggrinjester: