New Technique to Use Bacterial Nanopores to Decode Digital Information
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In 2020, every individual in the world is generating around 1.7 MB of data each second and that data amounts to 418 zettabytes, or 418 billion one-terabyte hard drives, in just a single year.
Data is currently stored as 0s and 1s in optical or magnetic systems that do not last for 100 years. In the meantime, data centers use large amounts of energy and create colossal carbon footprints. In other words, the way people store their ever-growing amount of data is not sustainable.
DNA as Data Storage
However, there is an alternative method preserving data in biological molecules, like DNA. In nature, DNA typically encodes, preserves, and creates large, readable amounts of genetic data in minute spaces (viruses, bacteria, and cells) and it does so with a high level of reproducibility and safety.