Researchers from John Hopkins University and North Carolina University propose a DNA computer that would be able to store petabytes of data in helical structures for thousands or even millions of years. It can also be used to process data, as demonstrated by solving Sudoku puzzles.
DNA is typically very fragile to work with, but a newly developed soft polymer material can act like scaffolding for the structure. This allows the researchers to dehydrate it for long term storage and then re-hydrate for retrieval. The polymer structures are called dendricolloids, as they start at the microscale, but branch off from each other in a hierarchical way to create a network of nanoscale fibers. This breakthrough allows data to be stored at incredibly high density, or 10PB per cm³.
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In conventional computing technologies, we take for granted that the ways data are stored and the way data are processed are compatible with each other. But in reality, data storage and data processing are done in separate parts of the computer, and modern computers are a network of complex technologies,” said Albert Keung, project leader and co-corresponding author of a paper on the work.
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