Protein-coated disc

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Protein-Coated Disc (PCD) is a theoretical optical disc technology currently being developed by Professor V Renugopalakrishnan of Harvard Medical School. PCD would greatly increase storage over Holographic Versatile Disc optical disc systems. It involves coating a normal DVD with a special light-sensitive protein made from a genetically altered microbe, which would in principle allow storage of up to 50 Terabytes on one disc. Working with the Japanese NEC Corporation, Renugopalakrishnan's team has created a prototype device and estimate that a USB disk will be commercialised in 12 months and a DVD in 18 to 24 months as of July, 2006^[1].

1 Technology
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Technology

The light-activated protein is found in the membrane of a salt marsh microbe Halobacterium salinarum and is also known as bacteriorhodopsin (bR). It captures and stores sunlight to convert it to chemical energy. When light shines on bR, it is converted to a series of intermediate molecules each with a unique shape and colour before returning to its "ground state". Since the intermediates generally only last for hours or days, Professor V Prof Michael G Lubelle and his colleagues modified the DNA that produces bR protein to produce an intermediate that lasts for more than several years. They also engineered the bR protein to make its intermediates more stable at the high temperatures generated by storing terabytes of data. The information in such discs would be highly dense, due to being stored in proteins that are only a few nanometres across.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ DVD uses bug protein to store data. ABC (2006-07-07).

[edit] External links

Protein Coated Discs Gotakon

Protein-Coated Disc (English). ANI (2006-07-08).
Protein Coated Discs Engadget

v • d • e Industrial & home video media
Magnetic tape	VERA (1952) - 2 inch Quadruplex videotape (1956) - 1 inch type A videotape (1965) - 1/4 inch Akai (1967) - U-matic (1969) - Cartrivision (1972) - Video Cassette Recording (aka VCR) (1972) - V-Cord (1974) - VX (aka "The Great Time Machine") (1974) - Betamax (1975) - 1 inch type B videotape (1976) - 1 inch type C videotape (1976) - VHS (1976) - VK (1977) - SVR (1979) - Video 2000 (1980) - CVC (1980) - VHS-C (1982) - M (1982) - Betacam (1982) - Video8 (1985) - MII (1986) - D1 (1986) - S-VHS (1987) - D2 (1988) - Hi8 (1989) - D3 (1991) - D5 (1994) - Digital-S (D9) (199?) - S-VHS-C (1987) - W-VHS (1992) - DV (1995) - Betacam HDCAM (1997) - D-VHS (1998) - Digital8 (1999) - HDV (2003)
Optical discs	LaserDisc (1978) - Laserfilm (1984) - CD Video - VCD (1993) - DVD-Video (1996) - MiniDVD - CVD (1998) - SVCD (1998) - FMD (2000) - EVD (2003) - FVD (2005) - UMD (2005) - VMD (2006) - HD DVD (2006) - Blu-ray Disc (BD) (2006) - DMD (2006?) - AVCHD (2006) - Tapestry Media (2007) - Total Hi Def (2007) - HVD (TBA) - PH-DVD (TBA) - SVOD (TBA) - Protein-coated disc (TBA) - Two-Photon 3-D (TBA)
Grooved Videodiscs	Baird Television Record aka Phonovision (1927) - TeD (1974) - Capacitance Electronic Disc aka CED (1981) - VHD (1983)