13 May 1998
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 15:51:54 -0500 Sender: Air Force News Service <AFNS@AFPRODUCTS.EASE.LSOFT.COM> From: "90. USAFnews" <usafnews@AFNEWS.AF.MIL> Subject: 14may98 - afns To: AFNS@AFPRODUCTS.EASE.LSOFT.COM 980650. AFRL-Rome awards contract to convert bacteria for storage ROME, N.Y. (AFNS) -- Syracuse University researchers will investigate ways to turn a San Francisco Bay bacteria into a mass storage medium under terms of a two-year, $2.1 million contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate. The contract, "Protein-Based Optical Memory Development," will develop a prototype optical memory system using an organic protein known as bacteriorhodopsin, a light-absorbing molecule that is distilled from a bacteria that grows in salt marshes. "When you fly into San Francisco and the bay has a purple color, that's the bacterium in high concentration," said Bernard J. Clarke, program manager in the directorate's Information and Intelligence Exploitation Division. "We hope to use the protein from the bacteria as the active ingredient in a memory media that will allow us to store the equivalent of 100,000 books on a single source." "The crux of the Syracuse University research will be how to encapsulate the protein so that it retains its qualities without drying up," said Clarke, adding that three-dimensional optical memory systems using the protein would be an interim advancement, before memory systems envisioned using synthetic DNA. An optical storage media of synthetic DNA, potentially capable of storing the contents of all American research libraries on a single disk, was recently selected as a finalist for the 1998 Discover Awards for Technological Innovation. The technology was developed by Nanotronics Inc. of San Diego, Calif., under a Small Business and Innovative Research contract with the Information Directorate. "While the DNA storage has greater long-term potential, the use of a protein-based media is simpler and closer to reality," Clarke said. "We hope to turn thick disks or cubes into early 21st century memory vaults for massive amounts of data." --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send E-mail with the following command in the text (without quotes) "SIGNOFF AFNS" to LISTSERV@AFPRODUCTS.EASE.LSOFT.COM. To subscribe visit http://www.af.mil/news or send E-mail with the following command in the text (without quotes) "SUBSCRIBE AFNS" to LISTSERV@AFPRODUCTS.EASE.LSOFT.COM. If you have questions about the list, write to: AFNS-REQUEST@AFPRODUCTS.EASE.LSOFT.COM