As the rate of human data creation increases exponentially with the rise of AI, scientists have become 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 defines the blueprint of every living thing on earth. And DNA is at least 1,000 times more compact than a solid-state hard drive. To demonstrate 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 a small amount of DNA. But this is a research project or media stunts. DNA data storage is not yet mainstream, but it may be getting closer. Now you can buy what may be the first commercial book written with DNA. Today, Asimov Press debuts an anthology of biotech essays and science fiction stories encoded in strands of DNA. For $60, you can get a physical copy of the book plus a nucleic acid version—a metal capsule filled with dried DNA. To encode the book in DNA, Asimov Press worked with the Boston-based company Catalogue, which creates approximately 500,000 unique DNA molecules. to encode 240 pages in the book, representing 481,280 bytes of data. Traditional DNA data storage works by converting digital files of binary codes of 0s and 1s into As, Cs, Gs, and Ts—the building blocks of DNA. Special DNA strands are chemically synthesized letter by letter to match the desired sequence. The catalog instead uses a method called composite assembly, which companies like Gutenberg’s printing press. Just like how movable letters can be arranged to form words, the Catalog creates an alphabet of pieces of DNA that can be assembled to represent bits. The company mass-produced these pieces of DNA and then used enzymes to encode the information. David Turek, the Catalog’s chief technology officer, said it cost thousands of dollars to encode the book in DNA and make 1,000 copies. using molecular biology tools,” he said. “It’s quite easy to do this in volume.” In 2023, the French company Biomemory began offering a $1,000 DNA storage card that allows customers to store approximately one kilobyte of data, equivalent to a short email, of their choice. At the time, CEO Erfane Arwani told WIRED that the offering was an experiment to gauge consumer interest in DNA data storage. because the synthesis of DNA is still quite a slow and expensive process. The catalog claims that the combinatorial approach is more efficient. After the catalog does the encoding, the DNA molecules are dried into powder and sent to France, where the biological storage company The image is packaged molecularly into a stainless steel capsule with an inert internal atmosphere, meaning there is no oxygen or moisture inside. In this state, the DNA inside can be preserved for thousands of years.
An Entire Book Is Written with DNA—and You Can Buy It for $60
