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March 11, 2015
‘Synthetic fossils’ could make it possible to store data on DNA for millions of years

Researchers in Switzerland have taken inspiration from fossils to discover how DNA could be used to reliably store data for over two million years. They stored 83 kilobytes of data — containing the text from the Swiss Federal Charter of 1291 and the English translation of the Method of Archimedes — on DNA, which was subsequently encapsulated in silica to mimic the protective shell provided by fossilized bone. 

April 9, 2014
Data Avenue for easy storage access

Discover Data Avenue, a service that makes transferring large amounts of data between distributed computing infrastructures simple.

January 15, 2014
Storing data as DNA – as easy as ACTG?

iSGTW recently interviewed Ewan Birney, associate director of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), regarding his keynote talk at the EUDAT 2nd Conference. In this interview, Birney raised the exciting prospect of using DNA as an organic data storage device. But could DNA storage really replace tapes and hard disks for long-term preservation of data? Charles Harvey investigates… 

October 9, 2013
Data in the DNA: transforming biology and data storage

Ewan Birney, associate director of the European Bioinformatics Institute, says that biology has now transformed to become a 'big-data science'. Ahead of his keynote talk at this month’s EUDAT 2nd conference, he explains that the field faces both what he terms 'blue-' and 'white-collar problems' in handling this data deluge.

Plus, could DNA really be the future of data storage? Birney believes it could be. "DNA is remarkable," he says. "Just one gram of DNA can store about a petabyte’s worth of data… it's estimated that you could put the whole internet into the size of a van!"