scie nce ne wsf o rkids.

o rg

http://www.sciencenewsfo rkids.o rg/2013/02/genetic-memo ry/

Genetic memory
By Stephen Ornes / February 8, 2013 DNA can be f ound in nearly every cell of every living thing. T he molecule is a chemical blueprint that ef f ectively instructs cells on how to work. If holding the blueprint of lif e isnt impressive enough, consider this: Scientists have now shown that DNA also of f ers a good way to store data. T he new work is genuinely exciting, says Drew Endy. Hes a biologist and engineer at Stanf ord University who did not work on the study. In the Jan. 23 issue of the journal Nature,

A DNA mo le c ule lo o ks like a twis te d lad d e r. Sc ie ntis ts have fo und a way to us e the rung s o f that lad d e r to s to re d ata e ffic ie ntly. Cre d it: NHG RI

European researchers showed how DNA could be used to store dif f erent types of inf ormation. T hese included text f iles, an image even an audio recording. And DNA may even work better than magnetic tape, which is currently used to store large amounts of data, the new study f inds. Spoiler alert: For their new device, the European researchers didnt use DNA f rom a living organism. Instead they created a synthetic, or lab-built, mimic of DNA. You might think of these DNA-based storage systems as f uturistic thumb drives. But never f ear: T he new f indings dont suggest some version of these will ever involve your actual thumbs. T he researchers are merely using the structure of biological materials in your thumb and other parts of your body as inspiration f or new devices. T hese lab-built DNA systems could one day beat the data-holding ability of DVDs and electronic storage devices.

A DNA molecule looks like a twisted ladder with rungs made f rom pairs of molecules known as nucleotides. Key chemicals in DNA nucleotides are represented by the letters A, T, C and G. T he researchers used their lab-built DNA to store such things as a photograph and a text f ile with all 154 sonnets penned by William Shakespeare. Another f ile stored on the new DNA included a 26-second audio excerpt of the I have a dream speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. T he storage process had many steps. First, the researchers converted their f iles into computer code. T hen, they translated that code into another code. T his one used those As, T s, Cs and Gs f rom DNA. T he researchers sent that code to a laboratory in Santa Clara, Calif . Scientists there built billions of new strands of DNA based on the code, putting every A, T, C and G in its place. T he lab then sent the DNA to the researchers in a small test tube. To test their technology, the European researchers sequenced the DNA. T hat means they f igured out the coded order of nucleotides. Nick Goldman, a researcher f rom the European Bioinf ormatics Institute in Hinxton, England, led the ef f ort. He told Science News the DNA recordings came back without any errors. T hat means those f iles were translated perf ectly into DNA and back again. T he inf ormation is remarkably compact, which means it takes up little space. For instance, one of those Shakespeare sonnets, the researchers estimated, could be stored in less than a trillionth of a gram of DNA. DNA is also compact, lightweight, and can potentially remain intact f or thousands of years if stored in a dark, cool environment, notes Rachel Ehrenberg in Science News. Especially important, the new technology might avoid a potential problem that all storage devices experience today: quickly becoming outdated. Data stored on old tape f ormats like Betamax are all but unreadable because the machines needed to read them are no longer widely available. (Another tape f ormat, VHS, replaced Betamax. DVDs have since replaced both of those.) But Human beings are never going to stop caring about DNA, argues Endy. He told Science News that because people will always want to be able to read DNA, f uture devices should always be able to read the f iles stored on it. T he technology isnt new. Similar research was reported in Science last year. But the technology is getting cheaper to use, say the authors of the new study. T hey project that within 10 years or so, DNA-coded inf ormation may of f er a reasonably priced way to store digital data f or decades or longer. Power Words DNA A long, spiral-shaped molecule that carries genetic inf ormation and can be f ound inside nearly every cell of an organism. synthetic Made f rom chemicals to imitate a natural substance. nucleotide A compound consisting of a nucleoside a sugar and one of the letters of DNA linked to a phosphate group. Nucleotides f orm the basic structural unit of nucleic acids such as DNA. cell T he smallest f unctional element of a living thing.