“Den Cassette” can store all songs ever recorded

New technology combines DNA’s storage capacity with the design of a traditional cassette and can store 36 petabytes of data.

The old cassettes may be back – but with a high -tech DNA high -tech touch.

Although DNA has already been used earlier as a support for information storagea team of researchers has now combined this capacity with the look and convenience of a 1980s cassette, creating what they call an DNA cassette.

The new storage support, which was presented in a published this week at Science Advances, was developed by a team led by Xingyu Jiang, investigador da Southern University of Science and Technology, printing DNA molecules synthetic in a plastic tape.

“We can conceive the sequence of DNA so that the order of the basis Azotados from DNA (A, T, C, G) Represent Digital Informationlike the 0 and 1 on a computer, ”explains Jiang, quoted by. This means he can store any type of digital file – Text, image, audio or video.

One of the problems of previous DNA storage techniques was the difficulty accessing data. To solve this, the team overlap a series of barcodes that make it easier to recover information.

“It is a process similar to Search for a book in a library”Explains Jiang.“First we need to locate the bookcase Where is the book, and then the book itself on this bookcase. ”

The tape is still covered by what investigators call a “Crystalline Armor”, made of zealitic imidazolatowhich prevents the degradation of DNA bonds. This means that the cassette can store data for centuries without deteriorating.

As a traditional cassette managed to save about 12 songs on each side, 100 meters of this new DNA tape are able to store more than 3 billion music tracksconsidering an average of 10 MB for music.

In total, the storage capacity is 36 PETABYTES OF DATA – or equivalent to 36 thousand rigid discs of 1 terabyte.

Still, warns Jiankai Lialso from Southern University of Science and Technology, if anyone puts one of these new cassettes in an old Walkman will hear no sound, because DNA cassette does not use magnetic signals like the originals.

“Our tape transports DNA molecules,” Li explains. “That is, it would be like trying to listen to a photograph in a gym-the formats are incompatible.”