Could all of the world´s data fit on the surface of this screen?

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it seems impossible..

except if we consider a tiny molecule that has existed since life began:

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid)

The genetic material DNA has raised considerable interest as a medium for digital information storage

DNA’s four-letter nucleotide code can be used like the binary digital code

A — 00
T — 01
C — 10
G — 11

And its density and durability are far outweigh those of existing silicon-based storage media[1]

For example, DNA is at least 10000 times more dense than the most compact hard drive

and at least 300 times more durable than the most stable magnetic tapes

So it could last for 10,000 years.

But is it just a theoretical fantasy?

No, it´s really, true.

In 1988, Jos Davis and researchers from Harvard encoded a 5x7 pixels images in DNA[2]

Then in 2011, the Wyss Institute encoded several copies of a book totalling 5.27MB[3]

In 2016, Microsoft and the University of Washington encoded 1GB of data[4]

as a video clip, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in more than 100 languages as well as 100 others books in DNA

The same year, we were able to store data at a density of 215 petabytes per gram of DNA[5]

and in 2021, the global datasphere produced by humans has grown to around 115 Zettabytes[6]

So, can all the world´s data really fit on the surface this screen?

Let´s take a look at what this means more concretely!