Storing Data on Bacteria

[Babrbarossa]

Here is the abstract from a new paper by Yachie et. al where the used soil bacteria to store a small amount of data "e=mc2 1905" to be exact-- apparently if they insert a few copies into the gene sequence of the bacteria it protects from degradation and the data can be retrieved from descendants of the bacteria a millenium later (if you happen to have an expensive sequencer lying aroung)

"The practical realization of DNA data storage is a major scientific goal. Here we introduce a

simple, flexible, and robust data storage and retrieval method based on sequence alignment of
the genomic DNA of living organisms. Duplicated data encoded by different oligonucleotide
sequences was inserted redundantly into multiple loci of the Bacillus subtilis genome. Multiple
alignment of the bit data sequences decoded by B. subtilis genome sequences enabled the retrieval
of stable and compact data without the need for template DNA, parity checks, or error-correcting
algorithms. Combined with the computational simulation of data retrieval from mutated message
DNA, a practical use of this alignment-based method is discussed."