Question

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Hypothetically, if DNA was used as form data storage for digital devices, what are two potential advantages and two potential disadvantages to its use, compared to a standard hard drive?

Answer 1

Answer,

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is expected as a novel and potential data storage medium.

These traditional media like standard hard drive cannot meet the urgent requirement of big digital data storage. With such advantages as high density, high replication efficiency, long-term durability and long-term stability,which are absent in standard hard drive.

For the new DNA data storage, the files or any data readable will be converted to binary and then encoded to DNA sequences consisting of Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G), and Thymine (T). The data-carrying DNA sequences will be synthesized and stored until data retrieval one day. Once data retrieval, the unique data-carrying DNA fragments will be amplified, sequenced and analyzed. The DNA-based data information will then be decoded into binary and eventually converted to the information readable.

the growing speed of these archival data explosively increases at an exponential rate. These traditional media and their limited data-storing capacity cannot meet the requirement of the rapid increase of digital data. Meanwhile, the data-storing durability of these media is one major challenge. Their durability is very limited. These media last only for a very limited time [5]. For instances, the disks can last for several years and tapes last for several decades. Other electronic storage can be kept under good condition for several decades. Data-storing capacity is another problem for storing big digital data. A CD may store several hundred megabytes (MBs) of data. A large hard drive may store couple terabytes (TBs) of data. However, their capacity is far away from the requirement of the explosive information data .

As said by Patrizio, there are totally 33 Zettabytes (ZBs) of data worldwide in 2018 equal to 22 trillion gigabytes (GBs). Therefore, a novel storage technology and innovative system are needed to meet the requirement of this modern era. The deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), due to its unique advantages, is expected to be an ideal medium for the digital data storage.

DNA is also incredibly stable, as has been demonstrated by the complete genome sequencing of a fossil horse that lived more than 500,000 years ago. And storing it does not require much energy.

The simple bacterium Escherichia coli, for instance, has a storage density of about 10¹⁹ bits per cubic centimeter.

So in one word advantages are high stability can store data for more than 50k years which is significantly more than a standard hard drive.2.it can store massive amount of data which is significantly more than a standard hard drive.

Disadvantages.

DNA is a fairly slow process compared to other forms of data storage and it might not be suited where information is needed quickly.2.DNA data storage is also more expensive than storing in hard drives.

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