Not Hard Disks, Chinese Scientists Now Use DNA to Store Data

A group of scientists from China has developed a new data storage technology that is claimed to be capable of storing billions of songs, tens of billions of photos, and various other digital files in a compact device. The technology comes in the form of a “DNA Cassette Tape,” a long plastic tape coated with synthetic DNA that can store digital data. In addition to storing a large amount of data, the device is also said to be able to “preserve” data for up to 20,000 years if stored at freezing temperatures (0 degrees Celsius). The development of the DNA Cassette Tape technology was published in the journal Science Advances in September 2025. This is far greater than the storage capacity of typical laptops or PCs, which ranges from 500 GB to 2 TB, or smartphones at 128-512 GB. So, how does the DNA Cassette Tape work? DNA is known as a double helix molecule composed of four chemical bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). The sequence of these four bases typically stores genetic information of living organisms, including humans. Here, the researchers utilise a similar principle by translating binary digital data (0s and 1s) into sequences of artificial DNA bases. The synthetic DNA is then printed and attached to a plastic tape approximately 100 metres long, and this length of tape is said to be able to store up to around 3 billion songs. The cassette player is capable of scanning the tape, locating specific files based on barcodes, and then extracting the DNA of the file from that section. Once the file’s DNA is released, its base sequence is read through a sequencing process and translated back into the original digital data, such as images, documents, or audio files. Not only reading, the system also allows for editing data, moving files to the correct barcode location, and rewriting new DNA, which can be done automatically. The main advantage of this technology is not only its enormous capacity but also its durability.