Scientists Build a Data Storage Device Out of Salmon DNA
Storing Data in Salmon DNA The entire Library of Congress, on ice. Joe Mabel via Wikimedia It's good smoked, straight up on the grill with a little lemon and butter, or rolled into sushi. And now, thanks to researchers at Taiwan's Tsing Hua University and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, salmon is also good sandwiched between two electrodes. Using silver nanoparticles, a couple of electrodes, and a thin layer of salmon DNA, those researchers have developed a "write-once-read-many-times" (WORM) data-storge device that they think could eventually lead to a replacement for silicon. Their device basically works based on the way silver atoms behave inside a thin film of salmon DNA. Shine a UV light on such a system, and the silver atoms will bunch into nanoparticles within the DNA film. Add electrodes to both sides of the film, and you've got an optical data storage device. And here's how it works:...