Is DNA the future of data storage? - Leo Bear-McGuinness

Translator: Jone Aliri Lazcano Reviewer: Ainize Sarrionandia

Let's say there's a disaster that sends humanity back to the Stone Age.

Demagun, harri-arora bueltan bidaltzen gaituen zerbait gertatzen dela.

Can our knowledge and history survive?

Gure ezagutzak eta historiak biziraun al dezake?

The printed page will decompose.

Inprimatutako orriak desegin egingo dira.

Hard drive storage will deteriorate.

Disko gogorrak apurtu egingo dira.

Even stones will eventually crumble.

Harriak ere apurtu egingo dira.

But we might have something inside us that can outlast these physical limitations:

Baina posible da geure barruan muga fisiko horiek gaindituko dituen zerbait izatea:

deoxyribonucleic acid.

Azido desoxiribonukleikoa.

DNA already stores our biological information.

ADN-ak jada gordetzen du gure informazio biologikoa.

From eye color to skin tone, it programs our entire bodies.

Begi koloretik azal kolorera, gure gorputzak programatzen ditu.

DNA is made of four organic bases:

DNA lau oinarri organikoz osatua dago:

adenine,

adenina,

guanine,

guanina,

cytosine,

zitosina

and thymine,

eta tiamina,

or A, G, C, and T.

edo, A, G, Z eta T.

The specific sequence of these bases into groups of three, known as codons,

Oinarri hauek hirunaka osatzen dituzten sekuentziek, kodoiek,

gives our cells instructions to make each of the proteins in our bodies.

zelulei gure gorputzeko proteinak sortzeko argibideak ematen dizkiete.

But this code can be used for other things, too,

Baina kode hau beste gauzetarako ere erabili daiteke,

like secret messages.

mezu ezkutuetarako adibidez.

In 1999, scientists in New York created an alphabet

1999an, Nueva Yorkeko ikerlariek alfabeto bat sortu zuten

in which each of the 64 possible DNA codons

bertan, posible diren DNAren 64 kodoietako bakoitzak,

substituted for a specific letter, number, or grammar symbol.

hizki bat, zenbaki bat edo sinbolo bat ordezkatzen zuen.

They spliced a 22-character message into a long strand of DNA

22 hizkiz osatutako mezu bat DNA kate luze bihurtu zuten

and surrounded it with specific genetic markers.

eta markagailu genetiko espezifikoekin inguratu zuten.

They then hid the DNA over a period in a type-written letter

Gero, DNA denbora batez ezkutatu zuten makinaz idatzitako gutun batean

with only a small smudge to give the location away.

orban txiki batekin non zegoen oroitzeko.

They mailed the letter back to themselves.

Gutuna euren buruari berbidali zioten.

Then they examined the letter looking for the DNA strand.

Eta DNA sekuentziaren bila aztertu zuten.

Once the DNA strand was located, they found the genetic markers.

DNA sekuentzia aurkitzean, markagailu genetikoak aurkitu zituzten.

Then, they sequenced the DNA and successfully decoded the message.

Gero, DNA sekuentziatu zuten eta mezua modu arrakastatsuan dekodifikatu.

It soon became obvious that DNA cryptography

Denbora gutxian jakina bihurtu zen DNA kriptografiak

could code for much more than simple text.

testu sinple bat baino gehiago kodifikatu zezakeela.

By translating the 1's and 0's of binary code into DNA codons,

DNA kodoien kode binarioaren 1ak eta 0ak itzuliaz,

digital data could be programmed into synthetic DNA,

datu digitalak DNA sintetiko bihur litezke,

then decoded back into its original form.

eta gero atzera bere forma originalera itzuli.

In 2012, UK scientists encoded 739 kilobytes of computer files

2012an, Erresuma Batuko ikerlariek 739 KB

into DNA strands,

DNA sekuentzia bihurtu zituzten.

including all 154 Shakespeare sonnets

Bertan zeuden, Shakespeareren 154 sonetoak

and an excerpt from Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

eta Martin Luther King-en "Amets bat daukat" hitzaldiaren zati bat.

And four years later, researchers at Microsoft and the University of Washington

Lau urte beranduago, Microsofteko ikerlariek eta Washingtongo Unibertsitateak

broke that record.

marka hori apurtu zuten.

They used binary coding to capture a whopping 200 megabytes of data,

Kodifikazio binario bidez 200 MB datu bildu zituzten.

including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Giza eskubideen deklarazio unibertsala

and a high-def OK Go music video,

eta definizio altuko OK Go music bideoa.

all in strings of DNA.

Dena DNA sekuentzietan.

As far as storage capacity goes,

Gordetzeko gaitasunari dagokionez,

DNA stands out because of the surprising amount of information it can hold

DNA, gorde dezakeen informazio kantitateagatik eta behar duen

in so little space.

espazio gutxiagatik gailentzen da.

The current theoretical limit of DNA'S storage capacity is so high

DNAk duen gordetze gaitasunaren muga teorikoa hain da handia

that you could fit 100 million HD movies on a pencil eraser.

100 milioi HD pelikula borragoma batean gorde daitezkeela.

It's even conceivable that one day we could fit all of the information

Pentsa daiteke egun batean interneteko informazio guztia

currently on the Internet

into the space of a shoe box.

zapata kaxa batean sartuko dela.

Also, computers and the magnetic tape and discs that their information is stored on

Gainera, informazioa gordetzeko ditugun ordenagailuek, kaset magnetikoek eta diskoek

only last for a few decades, at most, before degrading and becoming unreliable.

hamarkada batzuk soilik irauten dute.

Meanwhile, DNA has a half-life of 500 years,

Bitartean, DNAk 500 urteko bizitza-erdia du,

meaning that's how long it takes for half of its bonds to break.

bere loturen erdiak hausteko behar den denbora hori da.

And if left in a cold and dark environment,

Eta ingurune hotz eta ilun batean utziz gero,

DNA could potentially last for hundreds of thousands of years.

DNAk ehundaka edo milaka urte biziraun lezake.

And if that isn't long enough,

Eta hori nahikoa ez balitz,

scientists experimented with having synthetic DNA auto-reproduce.

ikerlariek DNA sintetikoaren auto birprodukzioarekin esperimentatu dute.

After creating their own strands of DNA

DNAren sekuentzia propioak sortu ostean

that spelled out the lyrics to the children's song "It's a Small World,"

non "Mundu Txikia da" haur-kantaren letrak zeuden,

they placed them into the genome of a microbe nicknamed Conan the Bacterium.

Conan Bakterioa izendatutako mikrobioaren genoman kokatu zituzten.

Conan belongs to a species which can survive in a vacuum,

Conan, txertoei biziraun diezaieketen espezietako bat da,

or without water, for six years,

sei urte urik gabe ere biziraun dezake,

or come out unscathed after being exposed to a dose of radiation

erradiazio dosi bat jasan ondoren ere biziraun dezake,

1,000 times that which would kill a human.

gizakia hilko lukeen dosia baino 1000 aldiz dosi handiagoa izanda ere.

According to the experiment,

Esperimentuaren arabera

the bacterium was able to reproduce at least 100 generations without data loss.

bakterioa 100 belaunaldietan ere birproduzitu zitekeen daturik galdu gabe.

Theoretically, if the organism had redundant copies of the information

Teorikoki, organismoak informazioaren kopia erredundanteak baditu

that could be used to automatically correct mistakes,

hauek automatikoki akatsak zuzentzeko erabili daitezke,

the information could stay preserved even longer.

informazioa gordeta gera daiteke luzaroago ere.

So one day, you might be able to create a living, growing, knowledge archive

Beraz, egun batean, bizirik dagoen eta hazi egiten den ezagutza artxibo bat

in your own backyard,

sortu ahalko dugu gure belardian.

and its seeds might carry your family's history,

Eta haziek gure familiaren historia gorde dezakete.

a detailed breakdown of the world's political upheavals,

Munduaren gertaera politikoen gorabehera detailez betea.

or the sum of humanity's knowledge into forests and across continents.

Edo gizadiaren ezagutza osoa kontinente bakoitzeko basoetan.

Perhaps even into the far reaches of space.

Agian espazioko muga hurrunetan ere.

Though we might one day disappear, perhaps our legacy can still live on,

Agian egun batean desagertuko bagara ere gure ondareak biziraun dezake,

if anyone would think to find it.

norbaitek bila badezake.