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Feb 27, 2015

World’s Data Could Fit on a Teaspoon-Sized DNA Hard Drive and Survive Thousands of Years

Posted by in categories: big data, DNA, information science

By — Singularity Hub
http://cdn.singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/dna-hard-drive-1000x400.jpg

The blueprint of every living thing on the planet is encoded in DNA. We know the stuff can hold a lot of information. But how much is a lot? We could theoretically encode the world’s data (from emails to albums, movies to novels) on just a few grams of DNA. DNA already preserves life itself—now it might also preserve life as we live it.

According to New Scientist, a gram of DNA could theoretically store 455 exabytes of data. And Quartz drives the point home. If the world has about 1.8 zettabytes of data, according to a 2011 estimate, all the world’s information would fit on a four-gram DNA hard drive the size of a teaspoon.

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