Video: Is DNA the future of data storage? - Leo Bear-McGuinness
DNA has emerged as a revolutionary data storage medium due to its incredible density and longevity. A single gram of DNA can theoretically store up to 215 petabytes (215 million gigabytes) of data. This is because DNA encodes information in a highly compact molecular structure.
In the context of the human genome, which consists of approximately 3.2 billion base pairs, storing this data in a digital format would require about 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of storage. This is because each base pair can be represented by 2 bits of information (A, T, C, G), and the total data can be compressed efficiently.
DNA data storage is still in its experimental stages, but it holds immense potential for long-term archival storage, especially for large datasets. Researchers are actively working on improving the encoding, synthesis, and retrieval processes to make this technology more practical and scalable.
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