The top tech and science breakthroughs of 2012
An unexpected entrant to this list, DNA was the target of some very interesting research breakthroughs this year. The year began with a biological computer that can decrypt images that are stored in DNA, and that was followed by non-volatile computer memory made from… salmon DNA.
The biggest DNA-related news, though, was Harvard’s announcement that it had stored data on strands of DNA with a density of 700 terabytes per gram of DNA (video below). To achieve the same kind of density you’d need 233 3TB drives, which would weigh in at 332lbs (151kg). The only downside is that you need a laboratory to read and write to the memory — and with current bleeding-edge microfluidics and labs-on-a-chip, you’d still be waiting many months or years to sequence 700 terabytes of DNA-encoded data.
As scientists continue to analyze the almost incomprehensibly complex of life on Earth, we are continually reminded of just how smart biological systems are. It makes sense, given these systems have been evolving for billions of years, while our own bleeding-edge tech is often only decades old. Using DNA as storage is just the beginnings of new systems and technologies that are bio-inspired.