How to store data on DNA?

Can a file be stored on DNA? What would be the advantages of such storage? And what developments can we expect in the future? All these answers in 12 minutes!
0:00 - Introduction
2:00 - Inspiration from life, DNA
3:24 - Storing files
7:35 - A technology under development
10:51 - Conclusion
Video produced for EchoSciences Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur www.echosciences-paca.fr with CNRS research director Marc Antonini (I3S - CNRS/UCA). Based on an original idea by Play Azur Prod. Video coordinated by Gulliver www.gulliver-sciences.fr and Play Azur Prod: playazur-prod.fr/
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Calculations and sources of the figures :
0:42: lejournal.cnrs.fr/articles/pe...
0:46: 100ZB for an ADSL speed of 20Mb/s = 1.2 billion years
0:54: DVD of 1.2mm and 8.5GB, approximately 10^13 DVD for 100ZB or 12 million km
1:04: www.nature.com/articles/s4154...
1:12: www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspub... / www.carbone4.com/analyse-faq-...
1:18: datacentrereview.com/2022/01/...
2:21: human genome of 3 billion base pairs, not including redundancies = 6Gb ~ 1GB
2:34: www.sciencefocus.com/the-huma...
2:56: ~10µm core containing ~1GB: 10^15GB/m^3. SD card of ~100mm^3 containing 1TB: 10^10GB/m^3
6:35: Capsule of ~100mm^3 and compactness 1PB/mm^3 (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...) ~ 100PB. Disk of 1TB and 100cm^3: compactness ratio of 10^8
6:39: For 100-1000 ZB, need 1000-100000 capsules of 100mm^3 each containing 10-100PB, i.e. a volume of 100-10000cm^3 ~ shoebox
11:45: www.nature.com/articles/nbt862
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This video is narrated by Octave Masson.
For more videos, subscribe to the KZbin channel : / scienceclicen
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Alessandro Roussel,
For more info: www.alessandroroussel.com/en
_________________________________________________
ScienceClic Français : / scienceclic
ScienceClic Español : / scienceclices
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[@ScienceClicEN]

I'd like to make it clear that I don't believe in technosolutionism, in the sense that I don't think such a technology will solve our problems: although it may help, above all we need to be more sober in our relationship with digital technology, and in particular we must avoid storing data unnecessarily as much as possible. We discussed this issue, among others, with Marc Antonini, with whom I co-wrote the video.

[@i93sme]

There are already optimized methods of storage for cold backups way better than DNA. I only see DVDs mentioned while other forms of storage way more dense than them overlooked

[@dalludidalla]

Understandable its also out of your book as far as i know but its nice to see that you open up to different categories just makes your content 10x as interesting

[@sanj-m]

​@@i93sme some of those other denser forms usually require extremely high-tech and expensive equipment like femtosecond pulsed lasers.

[@i93sme]

@@sanj-m same with DNA. A simple PCR test takes ages to perform. And expensive equipment. Plus read and write speed and more. There are already power optimized cold storage solutions but the trade off is speed.

[@sanj-m]

@@i93sme PCR is actually really cheap these days. There are also "lab-on-a-chip" system made dirt cheap that do isothermal PCR amplification. Even the cheapest PCR machine will only set you back less than 1000 US dollars. A femtosecond pulsed laser system will set you back an easy 20,000 to 40,000. Maybe one day, but people won't have those at home anytime soon.

[@shamimsheikh633]

Am I dreaming or is this a parallel universe? I thought we won't get any videos for the next two or three months. Thank you science clic.

[@KyuubiCore]

My thoughts exactly LMAO

[@ScienceClicEN]

Next one coming in three weeks or so 😉

[@_abdul]

​@@ScienceClicEN 😳 Thank You ❤

[@DeveloperJake]

@@ScienceClicENNice

fr@@ScienceClicEN

[@juggadaaku4219]

“Hey you brought the hard drive?” “Yep” _inserts finger in the usb slot_

[@easymoneysniper9013]

😂😂😂

[@bitkurd]

😂😂

[@sicfxmusic]

Whoever came up with the name "thumb drive" were way ahead. 🤣🤣

[@denissavgir2881]

Your comment has so much potential for inappropriate abuse 😄

[@Dr.Akakia]

Did you bring my data? Me: ah yes i upload them in WC you can download them

[@_6-6_]

Was not ready for the fluent baguette in the beginning ! Bien fait 🇫🇷 !

[@riwen0851]

(His main and first channel is french)

[@BYRDE1917]

Yeah, until this moment I genuinely thought he was a brit

[@koharaisevo3666]

@@weplaywax He was born in France.

[@lucasagua77]

im a molecular biologist, i discovered your channel a few days ago and you are already my favorite channel, please keep up the biology videos!

fr

[@lucasagua77]

reading DNA, as in genomics, its remarkably hard and has many problems, its almost immposible to read without errors, like you said, but it is very fun!

[@Posesso]

Such a tricky request. guy does physics, keeps quality superb, takes time, this had funding... tricky, tricky Whatever, please don't burn Alessandro, Humanity needs him I'm begging you

[@MulengaMwinsa]

Another iconic and momentous video from science clic. Great work brother, keep it up.

[@ScienceClicEN]

🙏

fr@@ScienceClicEN

[@youramazingvulptexwife4180]

I can't wait for solid state bacteria for data storage!

[@TactileTherapy]

Wonder whattll be the cure for the first computer std

[@sicfxmusic]

@@TactileTherapy It all begins when computers start looking for nearby computers in compuTinder.

fr

[@076torikul9]

😂😂

[@_MdTasnimulKhairTousif-jk5rs]

It makes me want to scream out loud in joy. During my undergraduate course, I was taught about a few bio inspired comuting algorithms, but using bio inspired storage is completely mind blowing concept.

[@revelari5250]

how does this make you excited? i don’t get how any of this is exciting. All of it is demonic and terrifying.

[@herobrine1847]

@@revelari5250every new technology is “scary” in some sense. But that’s the fun part!

[@Posesso]

Why there are no ads in your videos? Is it because you want to deliver the ultimately understandable knowledge aport you can? and ads ads just don't do that. So here, an ultimate master piece for a concept that at least could work, instead of some skillshare crap. When it comes to YT, funding, and what the channel does. I think this is the best answer even if delivered with a 'but can be wrong' comment. The beauty in it, the economy of words. Man, you are what legendary will refer to once we are all gone.

[@yogafrogz]

Why does every video on this channel absolutely blow my mind?

[@adamelalfy06]

This channel is amazingly captivating. More uploads will be awesome!

[@spectralelements]

Always makes me giddy when I see a new vid from you guys. Feels like a new season of your favorite series just got released.

[@1miykael41]

One of my favorite channels on this planet, please make more content

[@Shreyy17]

As an aspiring theoretical physicist and also who loves biology, especially DNA and genetics, I love your channel. Also you have shown the mathematics of relativity is another W

[@beabzk]

This was a very good video as always. It has yet again widened my view of the world. Thanks for maintaining such a quality. I would also like to point out that your voice is so comfortable to listen.

[@justp303]

Every one of your videos is top quality. Thanks!

[@Memfyy]

Wow, I keep being amazed by how far we've gotten as a species, all these videos bringing these complex subjects to an understandable level for free is just amazing. Thanks ScienceClic for all the work you put in, your work will alaways be supported ♥

[@osamabinladen6070]

Then we fight each other over bulkshit, and we support capitalism

[@ag3575]

S-tier video on a fascinating subject, thank you

[@stephanieparker1250]

Fantastic video. Packed with info, clearly explained, well researched.. I loved learning about the cooperation between organizations. Thanks!

[@ahgversluis]

Love your stuff, and your music!

[@gameofquantity96]

One of my favorite KZbin channels

[@collie8]

you just never disappoint us, great topic

[@moonfoxarise]

This is so high quality a video that I’m scared of having to make something of this standard once I get to university

[@shantanuaphale3966]

Incredible presentation ❤❤❤

[@dalludidalla]

Wouw octave and alessandro never disappoint ❤️👍🏾 go on !!!!

[@SuperImPrOv]

Seriously, those pronunciations in the beginning were wildly impressive. Good shit.

[@jamium]

I think he speaks French, because the main channel, ScienceClic, is French. That's why there's a separate narrator to the writer.

[@praneelpathak2911]

I just wanted Alessandro to know that he is currently one of the best content creators on KZbin in the science community. But I think he already gets many comments like that, so I'm going to give few suggestions too: 1. Making complex topics simple by animation and slow voice is your strength. Don't lose that. 2. Try to upload slightly frequent. I know you don't have a large team but still upload the fastest you can. 3. Please do a playlist on the mathematics of Quantum Physics just like your playlist on mathematics on theory of relativity. 4. Please make videos on interesting topics of mathematics too, not just physics. 5. Consider making a video on quantum computing too!

fr

[@russellsantana]

This channel has to be one of the best on KZbin. I just watched a PBS Nova video before this one and, while perhaps Nova is directed to a wider audience, its content is so much less informative and enjoyable than ScienceClic.

[@updatefrommember]

amazing. thanks for video

[@ganashkumar3140]

The concept is good. We have to wait for the technology to be developed in a similar way to how we evolved from vacuum tubes to semiconductors that shrunk the size and time.

[@harishthethird]

Bro has completed physics

[@spadeyspacely]

A life long buddy and I have always had long conversations about abstract things. Neither one of us have much education in the topics beyond complete fairytale theory, but we just enjoy imagining the abstract. A handful of years ago started our conversations of wondering how we may get ourselves to walk and experience another planet. In our current form, I don’t believe it’s possible. My first curiosity was whether or not we could “store” and compress the human conscious and how large would it be in terms of fitting it on a medium. Could we create a consciousness, store it, extract it and read it? Next the thought was getting a 3D print machine on to a probe that could “print a body” in a Boston Dynamics manner, and final implementing the extracted conscious into the robot. It’s awesome to think we’re seeing KZbin videos pop up about ideas we’ve wondered about for years, and even experiencing real life abilities of doing such this like storing simple data on DNA. Even with the idea of Neural Link, it would even be awesome to think of booting into the conscious of a mechanism that we put on our planet of interest and control it from a craft we put close enough to contact. Anyway, complete fairy tale stuff, but vids like this open up the sci-fi flood gates

[@Caniac5337]

Well, looks like I just found my favorite channel

[@shamimsheikh633]

So we are living data centers.

[@bitkurd]

I’m a walking hard drive 😅 according to Michael Talbot and his book “the holographic universe” the entire universe is encoded in a single atom in your body

[@M_1024]

Self-replicating data centers.

[@ivymarimo1631]

I thought i was cool for being capable of reading binary and now ur telling me that the new meta for computer understanding is being able to read dna? Give me a break

[@oryxchannel]

Well done. A fine catalyst for my AI research assistant and I.

[@rafaelcalderabebber1198]

Such a cool technology

[@kieranhosty]

the computer science is extremely straightforward, but the biochemistry... I have mad respect because I have no idea how to keep track of all of it. Synthesis and Sequencing must be extremely complicated! Edit upon finishing the video: man I'm kinda wishing I went into Biotech for my course, DNA computing sounds awesome! Though if we run an AI such as a GPT on DNA substrate, will it really be right to call it artificial? (I'm not getting involved in the debate on whether the current systems are intelligent, I personally strongly doubt it.)

[@o_o-037]

While I love your space & physics videos, this is an interesting change of pace.

[@kwezicanca3698]

As a South African very grateful for a quick release... Love your videos dude

[@lucasinatur2925]

?

[@thatisabsolutelykooooge2211]

Good lord another great video

[@pandemichypnotic387]

@ScienceClicEN Can you make a video about why mathematics works at all and how it has developed and will continue to develop? To this day it is still no mystery to me how such a language comes out of nothing and is so precise, or how the rules were established. Good Video!

[@tongyizheng4289]

Nobel prize of education to you!👍

[@meryembl8846]

"bro i lost all my documents !!" "dont worry!" *licks usb port*

[@SynthRockViking]

This is awesome 😵

[@Autrone]

Very interesting video, I found it in my recommendations and I'm getting hooked! Also I've thought about it, is it possible to store the data in a specialized eu/pro-karyotic cell? The only thing the cells need are food and water (or maybe even sunlight/whatever chemical they need, if you picked autotrophs), which is most probably cheaper than electricity. I reckon that the data should be stored in plasmids (ring DNA). (There is good research that proves that plasmids are a very good mode of data storage). And those plasmids should be stored in a big and heavily-protected bioengineered organelle only with DNA polymerase seldomly fact-checking those plasmids. Other than that, this speciallized cell should be allowed to do its daily functions, metabolize and all. I don't think that we can bioengineer specialized cells like that in this point in time, but I hope that I will live long enough to see it come into fruition.

[@Fran-or3lt]

In my DNA I store the information required to construct a fully functioning alcoholic.

[@Tom_Quixote]

The end result of four billion years of evolution, countless forefathers fighting and dying for a chance to mate and pass on their precious genes.. only to create an advanced being that ends up as a slave to the excrement of yeast. But don't get me wrong. I like a drink, too.

[@erasamus1057]

may i suggest an animation of the newly discovered ghost resonance in the sps of cern, I'm not sure if that is fitting for this channel and i understand based on the trampoline analogy but i love the way this channel animates phenomenons

[@ashenzenden]

scienceclic video LEZZ GOOOO

[@224SS]

Thanks a lot for the all beautiful people's hard work. Scienceclick 👍

fr

[@kishfoo]

Storing the data this way sounds cool! Accessing it will also need to be put in place for quartey comms. Every communication cable would have to have four threads plus multidirectional communication. So, a minimum of 8 threads even with fiber optics.

[@alessiomasciandaro1022]

This channel's videos will need to be stored in DNA too. Not because they'll become cold data, but because we need to protect the good there is in the internet!

[@OIII-IOOO]

gives new meaning to thumb drive

[@AverageAlien]

Somehow I've lived life without realising we now have the ability to do this in the real world

[@SportDubs]

Now we talking, Woooo!

[@mrt6012]

I love you Alessandro 💕

[@vinniepeterss]

love this❤

[@unaeki]

We are heading into a weird future.

[@hugoballroom5510]

Indexing/metadata and extracting seems to be a bigger obstacle than encoding the data. It would be great to have a series on what's involved with that. For example, does reading the DNA damage it at all?

[@zobanpreetsidhu3746]

Literally magic

[@Redtoad1234]

Seems like a good way to preserve stuff for future generations in case society collapses but not much else. An interesting advertisement by the French state.

[@ursibar7837]

Still I hope that DNA storage comes soon

[@iphaze]

What if DNA is the result of already achieving a way to preserve data from an ancient past? We are the result of something that wanted to preserve itself - or a part of itself - long, long ago.

[@Elias_Halloran]

sounds promising enough.

[@NaveenKumar-sv9mk]

Who else need a video on Quantum Computing?

[@rolandasgrigaitis708]

Imagine if somehow information was already stored in everyone's DNA but we just don't know how to read it yet. The moment we uncover how to read it it'll give a repeating message that will say "Hey Earthlings, your life is meaningless but congratulations for cracking the code. I'm just letting you know that you're all fucked and there is no afterlife".

[@Soupy_loopy]

Finally, an optimistic point of view! And everyone else is always expecting the worst outcomes.

[@herobrine1847]

Yes that message is encoded in “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

[@rg807]

Please do a follow-up with analysis on the impact of quantum computing on DNA storage.

[@AluminumOxide]

This is like quantum computing of data storage - a massive leap!

[@tobaidi]

This is fascinating stuff! I wonder How wpuld quantum computing come into play if any?

[@DanOC1991]

How does this compare to the current go-to method for cold data storage of using magnetic tape? If we found a way to use a quarternary tape, would DNA be better than that?

[@ScienceClicEN]

It would be much more compact and stable over time probably

[@James_3000]

hell yeah

[@roncho]

Interesting technology

[@user-dq3iu8di2k]

hello everyone! at 4:45 you say that the quaternary uses half the digits used from binary, to repreesent the same numbers, but in reality wuaternary uses four [0, 1, 2, 3] digits to represent a, t, g, c acid bases, rather than two [0, 1] used from the binary. hope you edit it in order to avoid misdirections. always thankful for the video! i m sorry. i didnt understand it at first. now i do. you re right. i leave it here to help someone that may do the same mistake as me and goes to search at comments though. u be good everyone!

[@skun406]

So to see a file, I would have to file a request several days prior, to let the techician sequence the strand (opening the vial, exposing the storage to elements). How much energy does this sequencing use, anyway? Less than a hard drive?

[@belleviebernardo6369]

What are you using to create that clean that animation ?

[@calebmydood6249]

Are you going to do more general relativity/gravity vids in the future? Maybe a video that talks about the influence that gravity has on the whole universe? I also dint completely understand how objects get trapped into a masses gravity. Like how does an apple actually start moving? It had to be out of the gravitational field at some point, so how did it enter a masses gravity?

[@johnreder8167]

life is a weird computer

[@juggadaaku4219]

Imagine storing the family’s important dates, figure and events in intractable format inside humans, that piggyback biology to pass the down the “info” to generations, like Animus.

[@benjamindover4337]

​@@juggadaaku4219imagine that's exactly what human reproduction is

[@juggadaaku4219]

@@benjamindover4337 I didn’t say to recreate reproduction. Rather to use it, to transfer additional immutable information that can be externalized. I can explain to you, I can’t understand it for you.

[@benjamindover4337]

​@@juggadaaku4219how could you explain that which you do not understand

[@mgord9518]

"And a speed roughly equal to an internet connection: 100kB/s" That's insanely slow by modern standards, most people's internet (at least in the US) is 10-50x that speed. It's certainly promising, but still needs to jump another order of magnitude or two before it's practical.

[@obiwanjacobi]

You can store it for thousands of years... If they know how to read it by that time. If you extrapolate the progress of technology in the past 50 years and how fast old tech is 'lost', the problem is not storing the data, but storing (documenting) the mechanism/technology to read it back.

[@ScienceClicEN]

According to the researchers that's also one of the key advantages of this method : as long as there will be life on this planet we'll most probably have machines to sequence DNA

[@ReginaldCarey]

Can you sequence the dna without changing the archive? You’ve got to take a sample and put it in a reader. I don’t think the process is benign.

[@Nxck2440]

I wonder if this could be a new way of visualising natural genetic mutations. Give a bacteria a plasmid encoding an image of something, then grow the recombinant clones, allowing it to mutate over generations. Then sample the genome over time and decode the resulting image. How long before the image gets corrupted? If the protein resulting from the image code turns out to be useful, this could be really cool way to watch evolution in action.

[@hatcha_gamer7211]

Better then Google Drive

[@__________________________6910]

Great

[@abhir7823]

So let's say a DNA containing a music file is accidentally put in a human cell and it grows into Elvis Presley

[@MillionviewsYT1]

😂😂 u r evil

[@YouthEnergy]

Didn't expect this video to end with "Tic tac toe".

[@lowenzahn3976]

Please create Game of Life in DNA next.

[@takeiteasybruh]

the name "thumb drive" is getting real recognition

[@azertyuiop432]

Allez ! Univ Côte d'Azur

[@benjaminbeard3736]

Considering how they sequence it would you have to rebuild the DNA every time you went to read it?

[@ScienceClicEN]

Very good question! At the moment they store millions of copies of each file, and sequence only a drop of the DNA each time, so most copies should remain in the capsule.

[@benjaminbeard3736]

@@ScienceClicEN ok, that makes sense. It's not like it would take up much space. Thanks for the reply. Really interesting video, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

[@bitkurd]

My purpose in life is to nourish all the fundamental forces of the world, Science, religion, atheism and mysticism. Thank you for these wonderful gifts!

[@10sqrftthisthat]

Mind blown

[@angelguerrero2890]

This could be used for artificial connecting flesh and machines for a better connection with nerves

[@maucazalv903]

1. 2:22 that's a lot less of what I expected- 2. 8:03 being fair because of the very short space they could allow to have a lot of copies and still be more space-efficient

[@Lukas-qy2on]

Imagine a science fiction story, they are trying to regain human archives and information. there's time travelling, messages from the past or future. and at one point the main character dramatically realises the implications of dna storage, and looks slowly at his own hands. " *i found it* "

[@mynameisjeff9124]

I wonder what the protein looks like made from a Mona Lisa JPG

[@herobrine1847]

All the alpha helices ever

[@Aditya-tt2jz]

Nice one bro. What about next topic ???

[@ScienceClicEN]

It will be about space, calculations, and movies, but I won't spoil it yet ;) It should come out in three weeks!

[@Aditya-tt2jz]

​​​@@ScienceClicEN Yep , waiting for it. And I wanted to know how you create these videos ? - From India.

fr

[@elektrode4585]

@@Aditya-tt2jzbelieve there’s a making-of video on their main channel although it’s in french

[@BooleanDisorder]

Could we synthesize "dna" with even more base pair types that doesn't exist in life? Or similar

[@ScienceClicEN]

Yes! Some researchers work on synthetic polymers with more bases than DNA

[@DaddyRaiden]

Can't wait for the day I'll no longer need to go to school bc everything I want to learn can be easily written to the DNA of some artificial redundant cells inside of my body and there is a method for altered DNA-reading proteines reading out that info and starting off a hormonal exchange to my brain, so I can use it whenever I want.

[@mitdemall]

Its crazy. Back in the 80s Science Fiction Authors thought in the Future we wold adapt our bodies to interface with computers. But maybe were gonna adapt computers to interface with our bodies in the future xD

[@matthewhall6288]

Data stored as DNA becoming a weird monster would be a cool plot for a sci-fi thriller.

[@jdkingsley6543]

Ive always looked at the "noise" issue as one of natures cybersecurity measures.