American Scientists have Learned to Store Information Directly in the DNA
OREANDA-NEWS. American scientists from Columbia University in New York have developed a technology, that allows to copy information from any digital medium directly into DNA, in fact, turning the cells of living organisms into miniature devices for recording and storing data. If you download a computer code into the DNA of an colon bacillus, it will not affect it's ability to reproduce. This means that such «revived programs» can most naturally endlessly stamp their own copies in a Petri dish, continuously updating the code encrypted in them.
So far, the new technology is much inferior to other, usual methods of data storage — both in terms of speed and volume of recording devices. However, according to scientists, it is reliably protected from errors, because the system of recording genetic information — without any exaggeration — is as old as life itself.
«We were able to teach the cells to talk to the computer through electronic signals and thus download information from any electronic medium», says the lead author of the research, Professor of systems biology Harris Wang. According to the scientist, the binary code of a computer program is translated into electrical impulses that are sent to the cell. On it's surface there are receptors, that perceive these signals and translate them into the language of DNA, automatically building the desired genome sequence.
As a result, an additional fragment is added to the main DNA chain — a kind of «information trailer». Unlike digital computer information, it is a set of letters of the genetic code (that is, an analog cipher), so the scientist compares this segment with a magnetic tape. The information sewn into the bacterium's DNA becomes part of it's genome and is automatically copied every time the cell divides.