As the rate of humanity’s data creation increases exponentially with the rise of AI, scientists have been interested in DNA as a way to store digital information. After all, DNA is nature’s way of storing data. It encodes genetic information and determines the blueprint of every living thing on earth.
And DNA is at least 1,000 times more compact than solid-state hard drives. To demonstrate just how compact, researchers have previously encoded all of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, 52 pages of Mozart’s music, and an episode of the Netflix show “Biohackers” into tiny amounts of DNA.
But these were research projects or media stunts. DNA data storage isn’t exactly mainstream yet, but it might be getting closer. Now you can buy what may be the first commercially available book written in DNA. Today, Asimov Press debuted an anthology of biotechnology essays and science fiction stories encoded in strands of DNA. For $60, you can get a physical copy of the book plus the nucleic acid version—a metal capsule filled with dried DNA.
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