Magnetic Bacteria for Storage

[Renegade]

This seems very cool. I've not thought through the implications, but on the surface, it sounds cool:

http://www.bbc.co.uk.../technology-17981157

A team from the UK's University of Leeds and Japan's Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have used microbes that eat iron.

As they ingest the iron, the microbes create tiny magnets inside themselves, similar to those in PC hard drives.

The research may lead to the creation of much faster hard drives, the team of scientists say.

As technology progresses and computer components get smaller and smaller, it becomes harder to produce electronics on a nano-scale.

So researchers are now turning to nature - and getting microbes involved.

Not sure how it will turn out, but it is interesting.

[Stoic Joker]

After temporarily being the latest hotest trend ...iM_Pod... They'll be sued out of existence when the cheaply made Chinese bacteria powered data storage implants start cracking open and releasing the bacteria into the users bloodstream. Once the bacteria eat all the iron out of the users blood the resulting fatigue will leave them incapable of calling for help when circulation is cut off by clumps of the now magnetic bacteria.


(Sorry, I'm in a really dark mood)

[Renegade]

Dark moods are ok!

[barney]

Hm-m-m.

I'd be concerned more about antiseptics & antimicrobials.  Just normal household/office cleaning could not only erase, but eradicate, your hard drive  .  Although it would take some forms of hacking to a new - read very old - level:  physical access, as in breaking and entering  .

And I cannot help but wonder how information transfer/smuggling might be affected  .  Brings to mind a few sci-fi movies I've seen  .

[SeraphimLabs]

I would be more concerned about keeping the bacteria alive.

I have rotten luck with pets and houseplants, managing to kill any type of flowers given to me and most fish.

So far I think only cacti and spider plants (go figure) have survived any length of time.

This might be an interesting concept, and I could see it serving amazingly well for applications like biometrics or high performance computing.

But I really don't like the idea that I would have to 'feed' my computer every few days to keep it's hard drive from being erased.

[Deozaan]

Just hope your hard drive doesn't get a virus!

[barney]

Yeah!  You'd have to stock up on tissue  , check it for a fever  , maybe feed it chicken soup  .  Egad, someone would have to set up some kind of ER for infected drives  .