DNA – The Next Hard Drive

Scientists looking to store large amounts of data have turned to a surprising material – DNA. With the ability to store 1 billion terabytes (1 zettabyte) of data in one gram of DNA, all of the data in the world today could be stored in a just few grams of DNA. Researchers expect that the data will remain readable for 500+ years, beating out CDs’ and magnetic tape drives’ lifespans by a factor of 10. While reading the data quickly remains a challenge, researchers are hoping that decreasing costs of manipulating genetic materials will yield a less expensive process for retrieval.