Scientists claim to have made substantial success in their efforts to store data as DNA molecules, which are smaller and endure longer than other possibilities. According to the researchers, a chip developed in Atlanta, Georgia, could increase current DNA storing technologies by a factor of 100. “The density of features on our new chip is [approximately] 100x higher than current commercial devices,” Nicholas Guise, a senior research scientist at Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), told in a statement. “So once we add all the control electronics – which is what we’re doing over the next year of the program – we expect something like a 100x improvement over existing technology for DNA data storage.“

Hard drives, which are increasingly often used to store computer data, can take up a lot of space and must be replaced over time. If we employed life’s chosen storage medium to back up our valuable data, we could store vast amounts of data in small molecules. The data, according to scientists, would last for thousands of years. One building block at a time, the process creates one-of-a-kind DNA strands. These are the bases, which are four distinct chemical components that make up the DNA molecule. DNA storage has a higher error rate than regular hard drive storage. In collaboration with the University of Washington, GTRI researchers developed a mechanism for detecting and correcting these mistakes.