Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft has been working on making it possible to store data on strands of DNA and the company’s computer architects have now revealed that they will be able to have operational DNA storage in a few years. Microsoft is aiming to have an operational storage system using DNA inside a data center by 2020, this according to a report in the MIT Technology Review.

Operational DNA storage will be the next step in ensuring the longevity of data for a data-driven generation. Conventional drives in data centers are able to store data for a few decades but as more and more data is generated with each passing day, more forward-thinking solutions are required.

Microsoft’s computer architects have been trying to come up with ways to fix this problem. They have now been considering biological material such as DNA for backing up countless terabytes of digital information.

Scientists have previously been able to record 215 million GB of data on a single gram of DNA by using strings of nucleic acid to cram information into living cells.

However, the materials required to take on a similar exercise even half this size will require considerable investment. So the costs have to come down quite a bit for this to become a financially viable storage option.

Microsoft Expects Operational DNA Data Storage In A Few Years , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Authorities issued the highest danger alert for aircraft after the Bogoslof Island volcano erupted in Alaska.

The eruption of the state’s most active volcano lasted for 55 minutes Sunday and sent a massive plume of ash up to 45,000 feet into the atmosphere. 

Planes flying between North America and Asia use the route above the volcano that’s in the Aleutian Islands chain as a key flight path, though there were no reports of problems with aircraft following this eruption.

Seismic activity on the island has been low since Sunday, but another eruption could occur at any time without warning, noted monitors at the Alaska Volcano Observatory. 

“Bogoslof Volcano remains at a heightened state of unrest and in an unpredictable condition,” said a statement from the observatory. “Activity may ramp back up with additional explosions producing high-altitude volcanic clouds with little precursory activity.”

Monitors were tracking a cloud of white-gray ash from Sunday’s eruption that was drifting north. Authorities lowered the alert level later that day from red to orange.

Aircraft engines can suck in volcanic ash, which can melt and coat the mechanisms, ultimately leading to engine failure. A major eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland in April 2010 caused Europe’s largest air-traffic shutdown since World War II.

This current sequence of seismic activity of frequent eruptions and volcanic lightning started on Bogoslof in December 2016. There were 36 eruptions from January to March on the island, which is less than a half mile wide.

Bogoslof is in such a state of upheaval that scientists can’t place sensitive monitoring equipment on the island, which is home to bird species and sea lions.

Researchers have to rely on satellite images, flyovers and instruments on nearby volcanoes to monitor Bogoslof.

The volcano has been sporadically active for decades. The material it’s spewed out has tripled the size of the island since 2015.

Volcanic eruptions have in recent months significantly changed the coastline and appear to have split the island into segments.

There were some reports of a light ash dusting of Alaska’s Unalaska Island and the community of Dutch Harbor, some 63 miles southeast of the volcano, during an eruption in February.

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