DNA-Based 'Computer' Solves Sudoku and Can Store Millions of GB for Millennia
A fully functional DNA-based computer is one step closer to being realized, thanks to new technology that can store petabytes of data in DNA for thousands or even millions of years. The system can also process the data, as demonstrated by solving Sudoku puzzles.
Last December, I published an article about growing parts of the human brain separately on chips and using this as a basis, building a full-fledged neural network. Considering how our brain organizes backups in memory and how tightly organic matter is intertwined with cybernetics, we may well be waiting for full-fledged bionic computers.
What is interesting about a DNA-based computer?
You have more storage space on your little finger than the largest hard drive. And that’s not an exaggeration, it’s a literal comparison – each cell in your body can store about 800 MB of data, and the body is made up of trillions of cells. So, roughly speaking, each of us is a walking, talking, super-dense data center. Or a consciousness that exists on a carbon server, rather than a consciousness on a silicon one. So it’s no surprise that scientists are working to take advantage of nature’s efficient data storage system.
Problems in creating a DNA-based computer
DNA is quite fragile to work with, and it is very difficult to create conditions for reliable recording, reading, moving and processing of information on its basis. But new research claims to have developed a system that can solve these problems. The key is a soft polymer material that acts as a scaffold for DNA, which can be dehydrated for long-term storage and rehydrated for information processing.
Specifically, we created polymer structures called dendricolloids that are built at the microscale but branch out from each other in a hierarchical fashion, creating a network of nanofibers. This morphology creates a structure with a large surface area, allowing us to place DNA among the nanofibers without sacrificing data density, making DNA attractive for data storage.
Orlin Velev, co-author of the study.
This technology allows data to be stored at an incredibly high density of 10 PB per cm3. In other words, that’s 10 million GB in a space the size of a sugar cube. Dendricolloid can hold files better than naked DNA and can withstand over 170 dehydration/rehydration cycles compared to 60 cycles with naked DNA. What is it if not bionic dataism in its purest form?
Practical steps in working with a DNA-based computer
Like other methods of working with DNA, this method is great for long-term storage of information, at the level of the same archives. The researchers predict that the DNA stored on their polymer nanofibers will have a half-life of about 6,000 years at a temperature of 4 °C and an incredible 2 million years when frozen at -18 °C. The question for philosophers is whether after defrosting there will be state of consciousness the same as before freezing?
To write data to DNA, algorithms first convert it into nucleic acid sequences—the familiar ACGT letters of the DNA code. Specific pieces of information can be extracted using RNA molecules that copy the data from the DNA, and then the RNA is sequenced. This means that the DNA does not need to be destroyed to be read, unlike some existing methods for working with DNA data.
The new system also allows for the implementation of basic principles dataism: perform calculations directly in DNA using enzymes. This was demonstrated by solving simplified 3×3 chess problems and sudoku based on the system.
The ability to distinguish DNA with information from the nanofibers on which it is stored allows us to perform many of the same functions that we perform with electronic devices. We can copy DNA information directly from the surface of a material without damaging the DNA. We can also erase target fragments of DNA and then rewrite new structures onto the same surface, just as we can erase and rewrite information stored on a hard drive. In essence, this allows us to perform the full range of DNA data storage and computation functions.
Kevin Lin, first author of the study.
This opens the way not only to DNA-based data storage, but also to the creation of full-fledged DNA computers.
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