散人笔记

储存媒介的技术，可以说是每天都有新的突破，而最近哈佛大学医学院的新技术，更是让人开了眼界。

不同于传统的光学或是电磁技术，由这位 V Renugopalakrishnan 教授所领军的研究团队，利用数千个光激发的细菌视紫红质（bacteriorhodopsin）蛋白巨分子（分离、纯化自某种耐盐性细菌的细胞膜），镶嵌在盘片的表面，而这些巨分子受光时，激发成一样中间物，而受激发的巨分子，就可做为一个储存单元使用。

而通常这个中间物的半生期只有数小时到数天，所以 V Renugopalakrishnan 教授将该菌的遗传物质做重组，让中间物的半生期能够达到数年之久，就可以用来做为稳定的储存媒介使用。这项技术竟然能让单片 DVD 大小的光盘容量，一路窜升到了 50TB。

We know that it shouldn't come as a shock anymore when researchers announce new storage technologies that promise to hold tantalizingly large amounts of data, but we were still pretty stoked to learn that a recent breakthrough at Harvard Medical School may eventually lead to DVD-size discs whose capacities approach an eye-popping 50TB. Unlike traditional optical or magnetic solutions, the disc developed by Professor V Renugopalakrishnan and his colleagues is coated with thousands of light-activated proteins called bacteriorhodopsin which are found in the membrane of a particular salt marsh microbe -- and which temporarily convert to a series of intermediate molecules when exposed to sunlight. That property allows the proteins to act as individual bits in a binary system, but since they have a tendency to return to their grounded state after mere hours or days, Renugopalakrishnan and his team modified the requisite microbes' DNA to produce proteins capable of maintaining that intermediary state for several years. Unfortunately we won't see this technology come to market anytime soon, and even when it does, 50TB capacities will still be a ways off.
来源：www.engadget.com