Nature has its very own information storage technology: DNA. For millions of years, the double helix has been the primary code for all living things. But could DNA also become the ultimate storage solution for our digital information? We take a closer look in this edition of Down to Earth.
Too much data, limited space to store it
Whether it's sending emails, binge-watching our favourite shows on Netflix or scrolling on Instagram, our digital lives are the source of an ever-growing amount of data. Power-hungry data centers are popping up across the globe to store it all. They're already responsible for 4 percent of global greenhouse emissions – more than the aviation industry – and represent 10 percent of the world's electricity needs.
Are we on the brink of a digital storage crisis? For Hugues Ferreboeuf – researcher at The Shift Project, a Paris-based think-tank – it's not a far-fetched scenario.
"We have become used to storing so much data, as if our storing capabilities were infinite when in fact there are limits," he tells us.
The world's data in the size of a chocolate bar
Scientists may have found the miracle solution. Stéphane Lemaire is one of them. He's a biologist at the Laboratory of Computational and Quantitative Biology, which is supported by Paris's Sorbonne Université and the French National Centre for Scientific Research. He's also one of the co-founders of Biomemory, a start-up specialised in DNA storage.
Digital storage systems encode information, photos or text as a series of 0s and 1s. Biomemory has developed technology to translate this information from the binary language into the DNA language, with a combination of letters: A, T, C and G. The resulting DNA sequence will then be multiplied using bacteria in a lab, before it is stored in a molecule.
The company has already encoded the French Declaration of Human Rights into DNA format. While microscopic in size, the potential offered by the nascent technology is massive. According to scientists, all the data in the world could fit in just 100g of DNA: the size of a chocolate bar!
"DNA is the best option we have to replace traditional storage methods with an eco-friendly alternative, as DNA remains stable for thousands of years," Lemaire explains.
That doesn't mean DNA storage is ready to take over. It's expensive and, for now, not suitable for data that needs to be easily accessible. But that hasn't stopped internet giants like Microsoft from developing their own R&D programs.
"We need a few more years before we can consider storing massive amounts of data on DNA,'' Lemaire concludes.
