In a historic step forward for the biotechnology industry, Atlas Data Storage, a pioneering American company, officially announced the Atlas Eon 100 on December 2. This technology allows data to be encoded into synthetic DNA to create a storage platform with a lifespan far exceeding any current media.
According to researchers, this could be the beginning of a bio-archiving era in which humanity's digital heritage is protected in the most sustainable way.
The Atlas Eon 100 was officially announced on December 2nd (Photo: Getty).
From binary code to the language of life
Atlas Data Storage, a California-based company, says its Atlas Eon 100 system is the first commercial storage service to use synthetic DNA at scale. Digital information is converted from familiar strings of 0s and 1s into the four letters that make up genetic material: Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G), and Thymine (T).
Encoding data in DNA isn't an entirely new idea. One of the first experiments, published in the journal Nature in 2012, showed that researchers could store books, pictures, and software in synthetic DNA with high precision.
In the following years, several groups from the University of Washington and Microsoft Research continued to demonstrate the stable storage capacity of DNA when stored in dry, dark conditions.
Research since 2012 has shown that synthetic DNA can store books, images and software with high precision, paving the way for sustainable storage technology in dry, dark conditions (Photo: Getty).
What’s new about the Atlas Eon 100 is that it’s a system that can be deployed at the enterprise level. The company says the synthetic DNA is dehydrated and packaged under optimal conditions to maintain stability.
In this state, DNA molecules are not affected by oxidation or biodegradation, allowing data to last for thousands of years without requiring power or regular maintenance.
“Atlas is honored to be the only company globally to deploy a DNA-based storage product at scale, the culmination of more than a decade of multidisciplinary research, providing an optimal solution for long-term storage,” said Bill Banyai, founder of Atlas Data Storage.
The Atlas Eon 100 uses synthetic DNA that is dehydrated and specially packaged, allowing data to last for thousands of years without electricity or maintenance (Photo: Getty).
The solution to the digital lifespan problem.
Scientists have repeatedly warned that most of today's storage media have a short lifespan. Mechanical hard drives typically fail after about 10 years due to the deterioration of moving parts. Flash memory is prone to data loss after 1-2 decades due to electrical leakage. DVD and Blu-ray discs are also limited by the aging process of the optical layer.
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, many large data centers must periodically copy data to avoid corruption, which increases operating costs. Millions of storage devices are discarded each year, creating a significant amount of electronic waste.
The short lifespan of hard drives, flash memory and optical discs forces data centers to perform constant backups, increasing costs and creating a large amount of electronic waste each year (illustrative photo).
Meanwhile, DNA has proven to be a durable storage structure in nature. Samples of ancient animal DNA found in permafrost can survive for more than a million years. Research published in the journal Nature Communications in 2021 found that DNA remains highly stable in dry, dark conditions, even at room temperature.
The Atlas Eon 100 builds on this evidence. The company says DNA storage density is thousands of times higher than traditional hard drives. A large amount of data can fit in a storage tube the size of a finger. The reliability is claimed to be 99.99999999999%, meaning the chance of error is virtually zero.
The potential to preserve digital heritage for generations.
Cultural experts and archivists see DNA technology as a promising way to preserve information long-term. Where paper documents, film, or digital records are susceptible to deterioration over time, synthetic DNA could serve as a durable “physical representation” of data.
Scans of artifacts, historical documents, ancient languages, or oral recordings can be encoded and preserved without the need for duplication. Museums and libraries can significantly reduce the costs of maintaining cold storage or servers.
Several international research groups have proposed using DNA to store information about sites facing climate change, including maps, architectural simulations or archaeological data.
Synthetic DNA opens up a more sustainable way to preserve digital documents and artifacts (Photo: Getty).
In the scientific field, the need for long-term storage of large datasets is growing rapidly. Climate data repositories, biological simulations, astronomical observations, and artificial intelligence training data all need more secure solutions.
According to estimates from the International Energy Agency, global data centers consume about 460TWh of electricity per year, equivalent to the consumption of the entire country of France. Moving some of that data to DNA could significantly reduce the energy burden.
Ambitious expansion to terabyte capacity.
The Atlas Eon 100 is currently in its first phase of commercial service. The company's long-term goal is to develop a system that enables terabyte-scale storage while reducing the cost of DNA synthesis to a more widely accessible level.
Technical hurdles remain. The cost of synthesizing and sequencing DNA is currently much higher than the cost of magnetic storage. However, the pace of price reduction in molecular biology is rapid.
According to a report by the US National Institutes of Health, the cost of sequencing has fallen more than a millionfold over the past two decades. If this trend continues, the cost of DNA storage could approach a feasible level in the future.
Several international research groups are also developing stronger encryption algorithms to increase information density and reduce the risk of errors when rereading data. Methods of protecting DNA with silica or polymer materials could help increase durability in a variety of environments.
The launch of the Atlas Eon 100 takes DNA from the lab into the world of applications. DNA has long been considered the optimal structure for storing information because of its high compressibility and stability over time. Tapping into nature itself to solve the storage challenge is becoming a more sustainable approach than energy-dependent solutions.
With the amount of data the world is expected to generate reaching more than 180 zettabytes by the end of the decade, the need for long-term storage is inevitable. DNA technology may not replace electronic storage entirely, but it has the potential to become a foundational layer for the data that needs the most long-term preservation.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/khoa-hoc/cong-nghe-dna-moi-mo-duong-cho-o-cung-song-co-tuoi-tho-hang-nghin-nam-20251209183924681.htm
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