DNA Drives, Glass Discs & 5D Crystals: The Race to Store Data Forever
DNA data storage can reach about 215 petabytes per gram, with estimates of nearly 1 zettabyte per gram under optimal conditions, and a grain of salt could hold 10 full-length movies. DNA storage could last millennia if properly stored, and dried DNA encapsulated in glass survived neutron radiation without data loss. Writing DNA is slow and expensive today, taking hours or days to write even a few MB, but in 2025 an AI-driven decoder called DNAformer cut retrieval time for 100 MB from days to about 10 minutes. In March 2024 the DNA Data Storage Alliance published the Sector 0/1