Shortfilm in DNA

New York, March 6: World great scientists have successfully stored a computer operating system, a short movie along with other data in DNA, an advance that may usher the next generation of ultra-compact, biological storage devices which will last hundreds of thousands of years.

At a time when humans are generating more data than hard drives, scientists have demonstrated that a computer operating system and a short movie could be stored on a DNA.

In a new study, researchers from Columbia University and the New York Genome Centre (NYGC) in the US showed that an algorithm designed for streaming video on a cellphone can unlock DNAs nearly full storage potential by squeezing more information into its four base nucleotides.

They also showed that the technology is extremely reliabl DNA is an ideal storage medium because it is ultra-compact and can last hundreds of thousands of years if kept in a cool, dry place, as demonstrated by the recent recovery of DNA from the bones of a 430,000-year-old human ancestor found in a cave in Spain.

"DNA wont degrade over time like cassette tapes and CDs, and it wont become obsolete - if it does, we have bigger problems," said Yaniv Erlich from Columbia University.

Researchers chose six files to encode, or write, into DNA: a full computer operating system, an 1895 French film, "Arrival of a train at La Ciotat," a 50 USD Amazon gift card, a computer virus, a Pioneer plaque and a 1948 study by information theorist Claude Shannon.

The researchers showed that their coding strategy packs 215 petabytes of data on a single gram of DNA, which according to Erlich was the highest-density data-storage device ever created.

"We believe this is the highest-density data-storage device ever created," said Erlich.