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Harvard stores 704TB in a gram of DNA, may have us shopping for organically-grown storage (video)
Early research has had DNA making circuits and little factories. We haven't really seen DNA used as a storage medium, however, and it's evident we've been missing out. A Harvard team led by George Church, Sriram Kosuri and Yuan Gao can stuff 96 bits into a DNA strand by treating each base (A, C, G, T) as though it's a binary value. The genetic sequence is then synthesized by a microfluidic chip that matches up that sequence with its position in a relevant data set, even when all the DNA strands are out of order. The technique doesn't sound like much on its own, but the microscopic size amounts to a gigantic amount of information at a scale we can see: about 704TB of data fits into a cubic millimeter, or more than you'd get out of a few hundred hard drives. Caveats? The processing time is currently too slow for time-sensitive content, and cells with living DNA would destroy the strands too quickly to make them viable for anything more than just transfers. All the same, such density and a lifespan of eons could have us turning to DNA storage not just for personal backups, but for backing up humanity's collective knowledge. We're less ambitious -- we'd most like to know if we'll be buying organic hard drives alongside the fair trade coffee and locally-sourced fruit.
Strand Consult to iPhone users: You're delusional and a big, fat liar too
In a report that is sure to bring cheer to legions of Verizon Droid owners, Strand Consult is saying that all of us who have purchased iPhones are delusional liars. CNET's Chris Matyszczyk reported in his Technically Incorrect column that the Danish marketing consultants posted an article titled "How will psychologists describe the iPhone syndrome in the future?" Among other things, the article describes the similarity between iPhone users defending their (according to Strand) deficient smartphones and the psychological condition known as the Stockholm Syndrome. The latter has been used to describe how hostages often begin believing and defending their captors. Unswitchable Microsoft fans have also been accused of Stockholm Syndrome. Yep, we're all delusional, and Strand Consult offers "proof" of how we've all been taken in by Apple by listing 20 deficiencies of the iPhone platform (most of which, by the way, are no longer valid). The company even goes so far as to say: In reality the iPhone is surrounded by a multitude of people, media and companies that are happy to bend the truth to defend the product they have purchased from Apple. Not only are we all delusional wackos, but we're also liars! Strand wittily created a name for our disease -- The iPhone Syndrome -- and is glad to share this with everyone in a free report. Of course, you have to register to get the report, which most likely puts you on a marketing email list. The following quote may provide some insight into the potential customers they're hoping to reach with this report. if you are one of the many other phone manufacturers: Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG, HTC etc., you will most probably be very envious of the euphoria that Apple has invoked in their customers. I'm glad to be part of the Crazy Ones that Apple celebrated in the Think Different ad campaign. How about you? Do you think that we're all unable to see that the Emperor has no clothes, or is this report an insult? Do we completely disregard the mobile industry's rush to imitate various elements of the iPhone, including the App Store? State your opinion in the comments. [via CNET]
The Queue: Last rites
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Another day, another Queue! Let's jump right in, hm?meme asked... What's the situation about the aesthetic minor glyphs? Could we see them in a future? What's the last thing Blizzard told us about them? Are people in the official forums still demanding them?
