In an attempt to experiment with the idea of using biological materials to store digital data, researchers have created a method where they were able to capture light patterns -- photos -- and store them onto DNA.
Police departments are using a new high-tech tool for catching criminals and identifying victims: realistic portraits generated from DNA data. The technology is astounding in its results, but it has attracted its fair share of criticism and controversy.
In "news we missed last month," genealogy website MyHeritage has launched its very own easy-to-use Photo Enhancer tool that uses deep learning technology to turn blurry or faded family photos into sharp snaps in a single click. People on social media are loving it.
Memory card full? Just pull out some DNA storage and keep shooting. Scientists have figured out how to store digital photos in DNA and then perfectly retrieve them afterward.
Back in 2011, we shared a series of "Genetic Portraits" by photographer Ulric Collette that showed portraits of various family members spliced together to show the similarities and differences of those who share DNA. Photographer Andrew Ryan did something similar for his project Base Pairs, except he ventured along the analog route instead of going fully digital.
Just as RAW photo files contain all the information you need to put together a photograph, DNA contains all the information needed for a human being. Information artist and PhD student Heather Dewey-Hagborg has a fascinating portrait project that explores this idea.
Could memory cards and hard drives one day store massive numbers of digital photographs on DNA rather than chips and platters? Possibly, and scientists are trying to make that happen.
Last year, we reported that a group of researchers had successfully stored 700 terabytes of data on a single gram of DNA. The data being stored that time was a book written by one of the geneticists. Now, a new research effort has succeeded in storing something that's a bit more relevant to this blog: a photograph.
An interesting photographic first has been announced by a scientist at the University of Genoa in Italy. Enzo di Fabrizio revealed the world's very first true photograph that shows the double helix structure of DNA, shown above.
If you think modern day hard drives store a lot of data, get a load of this: researchers at Harvard have succeeded in storing roughly 700 terabytes of data in a single gram of DNA. The strands of DNA are treated much like other storage devices, except instead of using electric charge or magnetism to store information, DNA's four bases (A,C,G,T) are used.