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[Raistlin]

I look forward to Sony DNA Ray for 8K and 16K movies

 

[Buddha Beam]

Just think... I wiped up around 3,500TB of of potential data onto a tissue and threw it in the trash this morning. That would contain, like all of Wikipedia and the library of congress several times over. The entirety of human knowledge!

 

[Lesath]

A gram of DNA seems like a hell of a lot of DNA.

What does a gram of DNA even look like? If somebody could answer this question without porn, it would be appreciated.

Good question; I wonder that myself, though I suppose it does depend on how tightly packed it all is.

https://flic.kr/p/8j9GLz

So taking the leftmost image and using that as a reference, if 10 ug of DNA occupies ~1 uL of space, then 1 g can occupy...~100 mL?

 

[Lesath]

Eh, you can easily get almost gram or 2 of plasmid DNA out of a MaxiPrep. It doesn't look like much, just a white pellet at the bottom of a tube, or translucent, thread-like stuff if suspended.

Out of curiosity, how big is that pellet?

 

[a Master Ninja]

It's comforting to know that Man of Steel Superman carries all of Krypton's cat videos, mp3s, and pornography with him.

 

[The Lone Courier]

So are we now a step closer to building an animus?

 

[BobLoblaw]

Damn I can't wait for something like this to become commercially available (and cheap).

 

[hitme]

Soon.

 

[Delta Assault]

Lemme know when I can buy the Western Digital fingernail. I keep losing my Seagate hair follicle.

 

[Aselith]

Seriously, though, science is fucking awesome. Imagine explaining to someone one hundred years ago that we are now able to store data in DNA. You'd be laughed at and labeled a madman. It would be incomprehensible.

First you'd need to explain DNA

 

[Blastoise]

Didn't even know this was possible and I'm a science man...

 

[collige]

I can't wait to buy low quality Seagate DNA.

 

[The Lamp]

I had no idea DNA had a weight.

Everything with mass has a weight

 

[vwnut13]

fuck, and then theyre going to put it in our foods

Injectable knowledge!

 

[frontovik]

I didn't know that this was even possible ....

 

[ItIsOkBro]

what happens if i eat it

 

[The Lamp]

what happens if i eat it

Your body will digest it like any other time you eat DNA

 

[Aquamarine]

Never mind.

 

[R10Neymarfan]

Don't our thoughts and memories take up a lot of theoretical digital space anyways?

 

[Delta Assault]

I can't wait to buy low quality Seagate DNA.

Instead of dying, it'll get cancer.

 

[Not]

Saving stuff to a DNA drive will be so weird. It'll be like having a little pet cyborg.

Everything with mass has a weight

On planets, sure

 

[crazygambit]

I have some bad news for you. All food has DNA in it.

thatsthejoke.gif

 

[Not]

Just think... I wiped up around 3,500TB of of potential data onto a tissue and threw it in the trash this morning. That would contain, like all of Wikipedia and the library of congress several times over. The entirety of human knowledge!

Why, you could make a whole human with that kind of data

 

[Amory]

I don't even know what that really means. How are they putting data "into" DNA

 

[Napoleonthechimp]

First you'd need to explain DNA

It is pretty astonishing that in 100 years we've gone from knowing nothing about DNA to being able to use it as a storage medium for immense amounts of digital data.

 

[Clydefrog]

hehe, can't wait to take a data dump

 

[ntropy]

so how much storage for my thumb drive

 

[Kieli]

I'm not a biologist so can someone explain why DNA is incredibly stable that it could last hundereds of years in a garage, according to the article? Something to do with the strong hydrogen bonds?

Also, how exactly would the DNA interact with electrical equipment to synthesise and decode the DNA?

I actually find this really cool, but what's next? Biological logic gates? lol

DNA is double stranded. Each strand is bound to the other by hydrogen bonds. Hydrogen bonds are fairly weak. They can be broken by heat.

Each strand, however, is stabilized by phosphodiester bonds (essentially, a type of covalent bond where one phosphorus atom is bound to two oxygens). The bonds link the nucleotides (building blocks of DNA) together in a fairly stable manner. As well, the sugars that make up the nucleotides (nucleotides are composed of 3 parts: sugar, phosphate, and nitrogenous bases) lack an oxgen at the 2' (pronounced 2-prime) position. This prevents auto-cleavage (which is incidentally why RNA is not very stable) by a process that involves organic chemistry and nucleophiles and stuff.

As a result, the only real ways to degrade DNA would be to use enyzmes (like nucleases) to cut the bonds or subject them to mutagens (things that promote mutation of DNA).

 

[The Bookerman]

Hmmmm...

maybe Keanu should ask for a refund. he could only carry 80 gb of data and he had to loose his childhood memories.

 

[Frog-fu]

OK, but how does this do me any good in the way of super powers?

 

[John Kowalski]

seven hundred terabytes in dna but still no reason to live? scientists are wack

 

[Omni]

Instead of dying, it'll get cancer.

I laughed far too hard at this

 

[PinkCrayon]

Animus, here we come.

 

[Rush_Khan]

DNA is double stranded. Each strand is bound to the other by hydrogen bonds. Hydrogen bonds are fairly weak. They can be broken by heat.

Each strand, however, is stabilized by phosphodiester bonds (essentially, a type of covalent bond where one phosphorus atom is bound to two oxygens). The bonds link the nucleotides (building blocks of DNA) together in a fairly stable manner. As well, the sugars that make up the nucleotides (nucleotides are composed of 3 parts: sugar, phosphate, and nitrogenous bases) lack an oxgen at the 2' (pronounced 2-prime) position. This prevents auto-cleavage (which is incidentally why RNA is not very stable) by a process that involves organic chemistry and nucleophiles and stuff.

As a result, the only real ways to degrade DNA would be to use enyzmes (like nucleases) to cut the bonds or subject them to mutagens (things that promote mutation of DNA).

Thanks! So would the process of destroying the DNA strands of the storage device (i.e. deleting the data) be done with enzymes? I can't see any other way unless they plan on turning hard drives into carcinogens by using mutagens (lol) so it seems sort of... impractical. But maybe they just point to the storage space as no longer being used with pointers, just like a normal hard drive.

 

[Rest]

fuck, and then theyre going to put it in our foods

Brilliant.

 

[Kieli]

Thanks! So would the process of destroying the DNA strands of the storage device (i.e. deleting the data) be done with enzymes? I can't see any other way unless they plan on turning hard drives into carcinogens by using mutagens (lol) so it seems sort of... impractical. But maybe they just point to the storage space as no longer being used with pointers, just like a normal hard drive.

If you wanted to delete DNA data, you can definitely use enzymes like nucleases. Nucleases are not very specific, so they'll cut everywhere and essentially break down your entire hard drive.

There are other enzymes that cut at very specific places (e.g. restriction endonucleases). I imagine these will be a lot more useful.

 

[Booshka]

I'll wait for the SSDNA model.

 

[Barkley's Justice]

 

[Ether_Snake]

So the NSA is stupid for spending so much money in their giant data centers.

Also; how cool would it be if some alien civilization had secretly coded the secrets of the universe in our DNA! Page Giorgio A. Tsoukalos!

 

[Winterfang]

so when are they going to release a reasonably-priced dna external hard drive?

a 100 years give or take.

 

[Xcellere]

Your body will digest it like any other time you eat DNA

I wish there was a way to quantify how many petabytes of information are ingested during the average bukkake.

 

[televator]

In science, hard drive is you.

 

[Easy_D]

I can't wait to buy low quality Seagate DNA.

Shit would straight up mutate and try to eat you alive I tell ya

 

[Log4Girlz]

I use my dna to write fan fiction porn.

 

[Brazil]

I'm feeling like Jesse Pinkman reading that article.

 

[squidyj]

I don't know anything about this technology.... would it be possible to rewrite data with this? what's the theoretical maximum speed of reading and writing this information? I realize now it's quite slow and only suitable for archival purposes but if we assume the technology advances, how far can it go?

 

[Facism]

I wish there was a way to quantify how many petabytes of information are ingested during the average bukkake.

my kind of member, right here.

 

[grap3fruitman]

I can finally back up all of my porn.

 

[Anion]

so how much storage for my thumb drive

Your thumb would have a jigaton amount of dna.

 

[toxicgonzo]

There's a joke to be made about DDOSing somebody's mom, but anyways...