Researchers store images in DNA, search for and perfectly retrieve them - CNET

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A team at the University of Washington has just moved DNA data storage forward a significant step by making the data stored therein both searchable and directly accessible. They encoded four digital images in DNA, and then retrieved them perfectly. You can read the full paper here.

The past few years have seen some very important strides in using DNA to store digital data. In 2012, Harvard researchers demonstrated that 5.5 petabits (5,500 terabits) of data can be stored in a single cubic millimetre of DNA. In 2013, researchers from the European Bioinformatics Institute demonstrated that the data could then be retrieved by sequencing the DNA.

"Life has produced this fantastic molecule called DNA that efficiently stores all kinds of information about your genes and how a living system works -- it's very, very compact and very durable," said co-author Luis Ceze, associate professor of computer science and engineering, in a statement.

"We're essentially repurposing it to store digital data -- pictures, videos, documents -- in a manageable way for hundreds or thousands of years."

To store data as DNA, the binary code needs to be converted into the four nucleotides that make up DNA. DNA is then synthesised with the data encoded. Replicating this DNA is a relatively easy process, which is how Technicolor stored one million copies of the same film in a small vial of DNA.

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