The whole 16GB of English Wikipedia is stored on DNA, which is in this test tube

As long as you know a little bit about technology, have borrowed a disc or bought a disc to install software, you also have the concept of technology for storing and sharing electronic data. We go from floppy disks, hard disks to hard drives, USB sticks, memory cards - more and more sizes, bigger and bigger.

And now the next turn in storage: we use the tools available on Earth for millions of years, that's DNA. On Friday, the Catalog startup announced that they had stored all the data on Wikia (English version) into DNA, which is still available in your body.

Catalog uses ready-made synthetic DNA fibers to record data.

They made a breakthrough thanks to an equally groundbreaking tool: devices that write data to DNA are large . equivalent to a room! There are two things to note before you admire:

1. The first computer of mankind is of such huge size.
2. We can't throw the memory card aside. However, Catalog confirmed that there were places to find applications for DNA that store this data.

DNA strands are extremely small and difficult to work on, but these biomolecules contain more data than we thought; In addition to carrying data to clearly segment bananas with monkeys, DNA's storage potential is greater than that. Catalog uses pre-made synthetic DNA strands , although shorter than slightly human DNA, it contains a huge amount of data.

It sounds like using a very unreliable biological storage system, especially when we have large storage tanks available, but there is a reason for science to do so. DNA has a stable structure, both biologically and its physical structure; moreover, when DNA is the foundation of the entire Earth's biology, it will be the ultimate storage tool, unable to be replaced as an extinct floppy disk when the CD exposes.

The machine writes data to the Catalog's DNA.

Who will take advantage of the new storage tool? Catalog had its first partner, the Arch Mission Foundation, with the central focus of storing human knowledge not only on Earth, but anywhere in this 'little' Solar System. In addition to AMF, Catalog does not disclose who will use their services, nor how much it costs to write data to DNA.

' We have been discussing with government agencies, international science projects often have to store huge amounts of data, big companies of the oil or gas industry, and companies that have solutions. location, media, finance and more ', Catalog announced.

Currently, they own a tool to write data to DNA at a rate of 4 megabits per second. If the system is optimized, the speed can be multiplied several times, allowing storage of 125 gigabytes per day.

Catalog uses a system that allows customers to access large databases. Although DNA stores data in long strings, Catalog can still read information anywhere with microscopic-sized detectors. In other words, this is a random memory access type.

Although the data recorded on DNA can be corrupted by cosmic rays, Catalog still confirms that this storage is much more stable than the technologies we currently have.

After all, did we still get the DNA of extinct animals from thousands of years ago? And the USB is probably only used for ten more years.