We've seen floppy drives, Pen Drives, Zip Drives, SD Cards, Magnetic Tapes, Magnetic disks, Optical Storage and what not. All of them are different modes of permanent storage and all of them use different technologies and vary in the amount of data that they are capable of holding. But guess what, the future storage medium would be a living being ! Amazed ?
Yes, the future storage medium will very likely be a living being. First, scientists from Keio University ,Japan and later , a group of students from Chinese University Of Hong Kong(CUHK), have shown that how data can be stored in Bacterium. Actually, the data has been stored in the DNA of the bacterium. The more encouraging stride was made by CUHK . They were able to store the Einstein's famous equation E=MC2 in the DNA strand of the e.coli bacterium.
The logic is very simple, although the implementation is somewhat tedious. The DNA is made up of millions of pairs of Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine and Thiamine. These are the chemical bases that pair up to form the DNA. These nucleic acid bases pair up in different ways to give every individual his/her own unique genetic make-up. Its in this very property, where lies the secret of storing data in DNA. A mapping scheme is used to map the bits of data into these chemical bases that form the DNA. Different mappings can be done where one can assign different meanings to the nucleic acid bases of the DNA.And then a reverse mapping scheme is used to map the data back to normal form, for retrieval.
Now, the implementation is tedious because :
1. Mapping is time consuming and the equipment that will be used to do the mappings will be both costly and complicated.
2. DNA strands are humongoulsy large and hence look-up time may get very high.
3. Bacteria are very delicate, and if the bacterium culture gets infected,then the data may be lost forever.
4. Bacteria can infect human beings and hence the user should be very careful while working with such storage media.
5.Bacteria can mutate and hence change their DNA, resulting in the resident data becoming corrupt.
But the advantages of this scheme can very well outweigh the points mentioned above :
1.One can very easily make cheap copies of tonnes of data. This is because bacteria reproduce and make identical copies of themselves.So, if we had stored data in the DNA of a bacterium and that bacterium reproduces, then the new bacterium will also get the same DNA , and hence, we will get a new copy of the original data at a very minimal cost. Data copying is somewhat costly with the existing storage media.
2.A very invincible shuffling encryption scheme is possible with this method. This is because one can use multiple mappings that yield the same meaning. Hence, it is possible to use an encryption mechanism , where instead of storing the data according to the actual map scheme, it is stored with a different map scheme and the mapping equipment can help the user get the actual data by shuffling the encrypted data.
3. Data stored in bacterial DNA cannot be hacked very easily, because the data will not be directly accessible. The data is stored in DNA of bacteria that will reside in a culture. This culture will be connected to the equipment that holds the mappings and hence this mapping equipment can serve as a firewall.One can have a mechanism, where the user will have to assign a separate passkey for accessing the equipment. Hence the storage is much more secure than the existing storage media.
4. The main benefit with this storage is that the storage space is humongous. CUHK showed that they can store 90 GB of data in 1 gram of e.coli. The conventional secondary storage technologies are nowhere near Bio-Storage, as far as the memory density is concerned. In fact, the CUHK group believes that with proper implementation, one can store 900 TB of data in one gram of e.coli. Just imagine that !
Currently, this technology has been used to store copyright information in bacterium that are discovered. This is a very small information in comparison to what can be stored. But research in this field is moving very fast, primarily because of the fact that the conventional storage technologies are about to reach their limits of density. Some people believed that the bacteria are too delicate to store data in them and they can never be as reliable as magnetic disks or optical storage. But, some bacterium can be very very resistant. In fact, the Deinococcus Radiodurans bacterium can even survive a nuclear radiation. Hence, if we store data in this, the data may remain safe for thousands of years.
Although, its very difficult to predict the exact future of this technology, but it certainly has a lot of potential. And, if the scientists take this technology a little more seriously, then you never know what they can make of it.
Yes, the future storage medium will very likely be a living being. First, scientists from Keio University ,Japan and later , a group of students from Chinese University Of Hong Kong(CUHK), have shown that how data can be stored in Bacterium. Actually, the data has been stored in the DNA of the bacterium. The more encouraging stride was made by CUHK . They were able to store the Einstein's famous equation E=MC2 in the DNA strand of the e.coli bacterium.
The logic is very simple, although the implementation is somewhat tedious. The DNA is made up of millions of pairs of Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine and Thiamine. These are the chemical bases that pair up to form the DNA. These nucleic acid bases pair up in different ways to give every individual his/her own unique genetic make-up. Its in this very property, where lies the secret of storing data in DNA. A mapping scheme is used to map the bits of data into these chemical bases that form the DNA. Different mappings can be done where one can assign different meanings to the nucleic acid bases of the DNA.And then a reverse mapping scheme is used to map the data back to normal form, for retrieval.Now, the implementation is tedious because :
1. Mapping is time consuming and the equipment that will be used to do the mappings will be both costly and complicated.
2. DNA strands are humongoulsy large and hence look-up time may get very high.
3. Bacteria are very delicate, and if the bacterium culture gets infected,then the data may be lost forever.
4. Bacteria can infect human beings and hence the user should be very careful while working with such storage media.
5.Bacteria can mutate and hence change their DNA, resulting in the resident data becoming corrupt.
But the advantages of this scheme can very well outweigh the points mentioned above :
1.One can very easily make cheap copies of tonnes of data. This is because bacteria reproduce and make identical copies of themselves.So, if we had stored data in the DNA of a bacterium and that bacterium reproduces, then the new bacterium will also get the same DNA , and hence, we will get a new copy of the original data at a very minimal cost. Data copying is somewhat costly with the existing storage media.
2.A very invincible shuffling encryption scheme is possible with this method. This is because one can use multiple mappings that yield the same meaning. Hence, it is possible to use an encryption mechanism , where instead of storing the data according to the actual map scheme, it is stored with a different map scheme and the mapping equipment can help the user get the actual data by shuffling the encrypted data.
3. Data stored in bacterial DNA cannot be hacked very easily, because the data will not be directly accessible. The data is stored in DNA of bacteria that will reside in a culture. This culture will be connected to the equipment that holds the mappings and hence this mapping equipment can serve as a firewall.One can have a mechanism, where the user will have to assign a separate passkey for accessing the equipment. Hence the storage is much more secure than the existing storage media.
4. The main benefit with this storage is that the storage space is humongous. CUHK showed that they can store 90 GB of data in 1 gram of e.coli. The conventional secondary storage technologies are nowhere near Bio-Storage, as far as the memory density is concerned. In fact, the CUHK group believes that with proper implementation, one can store 900 TB of data in one gram of e.coli. Just imagine that !
Currently, this technology has been used to store copyright information in bacterium that are discovered. This is a very small information in comparison to what can be stored. But research in this field is moving very fast, primarily because of the fact that the conventional storage technologies are about to reach their limits of density. Some people believed that the bacteria are too delicate to store data in them and they can never be as reliable as magnetic disks or optical storage. But, some bacterium can be very very resistant. In fact, the Deinococcus Radiodurans bacterium can even survive a nuclear radiation. Hence, if we store data in this, the data may remain safe for thousands of years.
Although, its very difficult to predict the exact future of this technology, but it certainly has a lot of potential. And, if the scientists take this technology a little more seriously, then you never know what they can make of it.
Know something about this news, but here is very well developed. Thank you.
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