Let's talk Science #DNA

 When I started my PhD a question that I often faced from people was what is my research all about. Well, it was easier to answer this if the person asking the question came from a science background because I didn't have to explain them the various scientific terminologies, rather the so-called scientific jargons. But it was quite difficult for me to explain accurately what my research is about to someone who did not have a science background. And I assume the set of people I come across in a given time is a random sample set representation of a larger set of people across the roads.

This made me realize two things. Firstly, as scientists it is imperative that we understand how to communicate our science to each one and everyone, whatever be their background. Secondly I realized how difficult it is to communicate scientific research to non-science audience in simple language. Not just that, even for science academia, disciplines can be very specialized and niche at times, which is why it might be difficult for a biologist to explain their science to a physicist. 

Here is where I got stuck and started thinking. How can we communicate science efficiently such that everyone understands easily? 

Well as they say, charity begins at home.

So here is where I decided to begin. I identified the key words/ scientific concepts I use to explain my own research work and present them one at a time in bite size digestibles. 

Here's the first word that I've picked:

DNA: I know I know, “yeh to hum ko pata hay, school mein sikhaya tha- deoxyribonucleic acid”. -Umm, that's just the full form. What does it do? Why is it important?

-“Kuch to tha, something to do with genes…”

-Well, quite about right you are. How about a quick recap?

DNA is the material that carries all the information about how a living thing will look and function. For instance, DNA in humans determines such things as what color the eyes are, which food you like most. Each piece of information is carried on a different section of the DNA. These sections are called genes. DNA can be imagined to be just like a hard disk and genes as different folders in it!

DNA is present in every cell of every living thing.

Each human cell contains approximately 2 meters of DNA if stretched end to end. But the nucleus is only about 6um in diameter. This is geometrically equivalent to packing 40km of extremely fine thread into a tennis ball! So how does it fit? DNA is packed into a compact structure inside the cell called chromosome. 

Now that's another term! What is exactly a chromosome?

That's coming up next.

Before that, a little more cool info about DNA:

Information storage has gone through different evolutions from stone to parchment, paper, tape, hard drives, CD/DVDs, and flash drives, to name the main archiving media. While the need for storage technologies has seen dramatic increases over time, these approaches still have drawbacks. With our drive to generate exponential amounts of data, it becomes increasingly essential to find new ways to overcome the current limitations and preserve data safely with guaranteed access for the future.

George Church, Ph.D., who is a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), first pioneered the idea of using short synthetic DNA as a long-term information storage medium. His team first converted a complete book, including 5.27 megabits of text and images, into a binary digital code, which they then encoded in DNA, and finally decoded again using next-generation sequencing technology.

To put in simple words, they manage to store the code corresponding to certain information in the DNA and were able to read it later as well! 

It is estimated that 1 gram of DNA can hold up to ~215 petabytes (1 petabyte = 1 million gigabytes) of information, although this number fluctuates as different research teams break new grounds in testing the upper storage limit of DNA. Assuming the Avengers Endgame movie in 720p HD takes up 6 gigabytes, you can store ~36 million copies of the movie in one gram of DNA. Global digital data is expected to grow to 175 zettabytes (1 zettabyte = 1 million petabytes) by 2025, and because all the digital data in the world can be theoretically stored in ~81kg of DNA, DNA storage is being actively pursued as a compelling storage medium for the future!