What if, instead of carving transistors and other
microelectronic devices out of chunks of silicon like in
conventional computer chips, you used organic molecules?
Molecular Memory
“What if, instead of carving transistors and other microelectronic devices out of chunks of silicon like in conventional
computer chips, you used organic molecules? Even large
molecules are only a few nanometers in size; an integrated
circuit using molecules could contain trillions of electronic
devices-making possible tiny supercomputers or memories
with a million times the storage density of today’s semiconductor chips.”
David Rotman posited this in an article for MIT Technology Review way back in 2001. Far-fetched it may seem,
but nearly 15 years later, the idea is still very much at the
forefront of nanotechnology research. So far, schemes for
molecular memory have relied on physical systems cooled
to near absolute zero, but earlier last year an international
team of researchers described a new molecular-memory
scheme that works at around the freezing point of water.
This may not mean that the technology is right on our doorstep, but it is further proof that scientists are working hard to
make this concept, a reality.
DNA
Scientists have been eyeing DNA, a molecule that encodes
the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and many viruses, as a
digital storage mechanism for some time now. The advantages are substantial – it’s extremely dense, it’s volumetric
and 3-dimensional (much like holographic storage) and it’s
very stable. As Sebastian Anthony writes on ExtremeTech.
com, “where other bleeding-edge storage mediums need to
be kept in sub-zero vacuums, DNA can survive for hundreds of thousands of years in a box in your garage”.
The storage potential of DNA is staggering. Scientists have
successfully managed to store 700 terabytes (TB) onto a
gram of DNA. According to Anthony, in order to store the
same kind of data on hard drives — the densest storage
medium in use today — you’d need 233 3TB drives, weighing a total of 151 kilogrammes.
Delving firmly into the realm of sci-fi now is the possibility of
encoding data into actual living organisms’ DNA structures.
Scientists have added artificial DNA with encoded information to the genome of common bacteria. The bacteria
creates new copies of the data every time it reproduces
itself as well as creating extra copies of the data, inserting it
in different places in its genome, thus further safeguarding
the data. On his website novaspivack.com, technology futurist Nova Spivack writes that (bacteria and) “viruses would
have to be non-transmittable and have no adverse effects
on health, functionality and well-being of the host organism.
Data could be encoded onto specimens of this virus and
then injected, ingested or inhaled to ‘store’ it in the human
body. Later, the data could be retrieved via a small sample
of blood containing the virus.”
He adds that this can apply to human DNA too, “particularly
the ‘junk DNA’ regions which presumably are less involved
in critical functions of the DNA. If stored in the sex-cells,
stored data can also be passed down to offspring. However, a disadvantage of using DNA for data-storage is the
possible unanticipated effects on cell development and
health”, presumably neither of which has been studied in
great detail yet.
The Human Body
Not for the squeamish, various parts of the human body can
be used as storage media as well. According to Nova Spivack, rather than encoding our DNA with data, a complicated
and possibly risky procedure, we can use the fingernails,
eyes, hair, teeth and skin to store data instead. Here’s how:
Fingernails - Micro-etching onto the surface or better yet,
via holographic etching within the matrix of the fingernail
itself.
Eyes - The lens of the human eye may provide a good medium for encoding data. Data would be written into it using
laser holographic etching.
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