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

Translator: Nika Kotnik Reviewer: Matej Divjak

Recimo, da se zgodi katastrofa, ki pošlje človeštvo nazaj v kameno dobo.

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

Can our knowledge and history survive?

Lahko naše znanje in zgodovina preživita?

The printed page will decompose.

Natisnjene strani se bodo razgradile.

Hard drive storage will deteriorate.

Trdi disk se bo uničil.

Even stones will eventually crumble.

Še kamni se bodo sčasoma zdrobili.

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

A morda imamo v sebi nekaj, kar lahko preživi te fizične omejitve:

deoxyribonucleic acid.

dezoksirobonukleinsko kislino.

DNA already stores our biological information.

DNK že shranjuje naše biološke informacije.

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

Od barve oči do tena kože, programira naše celotno telo.

DNA is made of four organic bases:

DNK je zgrajena iz štirih organskih baz:

adenine,

adenin,

guanine,

gvanin,

cytosine,

citozin

and thymine,

in timin,

or A, G, C, and T.

ali A, G, C, T.

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

Specifične sekvence teh baz v skupinah po tri, znanih kot kodoni,

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

dajejo našim celicam navodila, kako narediti beljakovine v našem telesu.

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

A ta koda je lahko uporabna tudi za druge stvari,

like secret messages.

naprimer skrivna sporočila.

In 1999, scientists in New York created an alphabet

Leta 1999 so znanstveniki v New Yorku ustvarili abecedo,

in which each of the 64 possible DNA codons

v kateri je vsak izmed 64 DNK kodonov

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

predstavljal določeno črko, številko ali ločilo.

Sporočilo iz 22 znakov so spojili v dolgo verigo DNK

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

and surrounded it with specific genetic markers.

in jo obdali s specifičnimi genetskimi označevalci.

Nato so skrili DNK v piko v pismu natipkanem na pisalni stroj,

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

with only a small smudge to give the location away.

z majhno packo, ki je izdajala lokacijo.

They mailed the letter back to themselves.

Nato so si pismo poslali.

Then they examined the letter looking for the DNA strand.

Nato so v pismu poiskali DNK verigo.

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

Ko so našli DNK, so našli genetske označevalce.

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

Nato so sekvencionirali DNK in uspešno razvozlali sporočilo.

It soon became obvious that DNA cryptography

Kmalu je postalo jasno, da DNK kriptografija

could code for much more than simple text.

lahko kodira veliko več kot le preprost tekst.

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

S prevajanjem enic in ničel binarne kode v DNK kodone,

digital data could be programmed into synthetic DNA,

bi lahko digitalne podatke programirali v sintetično DNK

then decoded back into its original form.

in jo nato dekodirali v njeno prvotno obliko.

In 2012, UK scientists encoded 739 kilobytes of computer files

Leta 2012 so znanstveniki iz VB kodirali 739 kilobitov računalniških datotek,

into DNA strands,

v DNK verigo, vključno z vsemi 154 Shakespearjevimi soneti

including all 154 Shakespeare sonnets

in del govora Martin Luther Kinga "Imam sanje".

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

In štiri leta kasneje so raziskovalci pri Microsoftu in Univerzi v Washingtonu

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

broke that record.

podrli ta rekord.

Uporabili so binarno kodiranje, da so zajeli ogromnih 200 megabajtov podatkov,

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

including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

vključno z Univerzalno deklaracijo človekovih pravic

and a high-def OK Go music video,

in HD glasbeni video OK Go,

all in strings of DNA.

vse v verigah DNA.

As far as storage capacity goes,

Kar se tiče kapacitete shranjevanja,

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

DNK izstopa zaradi presenetljive količine informacij, ki jih lahko vsebuje,

in so little space.

v tako majhnem prostoru.

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

Trenutni teoretični limit kapacitete shranjevanja DNK je tako visok,

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

da bi lahko spravil 100 milijonov HD filmov na radirko na svinčniku.

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

Prav tako je mogoče, da bomo nekega dne lahko spravili vse podatke,

currently on the Internet

ki so trenutno na internetu,

into the space of a shoe box.

v prostor v velikosti škatle za čevlje.

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

Prav tako računalniki in magnetni trak in diski, kjer so informacije spravljene,

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

zdržijo le nekaj desetletij, preden se razgradijo in postanejo neberljive.

Medtem pa ima DNK razpolovno dobo 500 let,

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

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

to pomeni, da toliko časa traja, da razpade polovica vezi.

And if left in a cold and dark environment,

In če jo pustimo v temnem in hladnem okolju,

DNA could potentially last for hundreds of thousands of years.

bi lahko DNK zdržala na stotine tisočletij.

And if that isn't long enough,

In če to ni dovolj dolgo,

scientists experimented with having synthetic DNA auto-reproduce.

so znanstveniki eksperimentirali z DNK, ki se pomnožuje sama.

After creating their own strands of DNA

Ko so ustvarili lastne verige DNK,

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

ki vsebujejo besedilo otroške pesmi "Majhen je svet",

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

so jih vstavili v genom mikroba z vzdevkom "Konan Bakterija" (po Konanu Barbaru).

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

Konan pripada vrsti, ki lahko preživi v vakuumu,

or without water, for six years,

ali brez vode 6 let,

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

ali je nepoškodovan po dozi sevanja,

1,000 times that which would kill a human.

ki je tisočkrat višja od doze, ki ubije človeka.

According to the experiment,

Sodeč po eksperimentu,

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

je bila bakterija sposobna razmnoževanja vsaj 100 generacij brez izgube podatkov.

Theoretically, if the organism had redundant copies of the information

Teoretično, če bi imel organizem odvečne kopije informacij,

that could be used to automatically correct mistakes,

ki bi lahko bile uporabljene za samodejno popravljanje napak,

the information could stay preserved even longer.

bi lahko bile informacije ohranjene celo dlje.

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

Nekega dne boš morda lahko ustvaril živ, rastoč arhiv znanja,

in your own backyard,

ki raste na tvojem dvorišču,

and its seeds might carry your family's history,

in njegova semena bodo morda nosila zgodovino tvoje družine,

a detailed breakdown of the world's political upheavals,

podroben opis svetovnih političnih preobratov,

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

ali pa seštevek vsega človeškega znanja v gozdove in prek kontinentov.

Perhaps even into the far reaches of space.

Morda celo v globine vesolja.

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

Čeprav bomo nekega dne morda izginili, lahko morda naša dediščina še živi naprej,

if anyone would think to find it.

če jo bo le kdo našel.