DNA
DNA is the nucleic acid that stores and transmits genetic information in nearly all living organisms. It consists of two nucleotide strands arranged in a double helix.
One gram of DNA can theoretically hold 215 petabytes — roughly 200 million movies. Its four bases act as a base-4 storage medium. In 2017, George Church's Harvard team stored a short film and images in DNA and retrieved them without errors. Properly stored, DNA can last millennia.
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Most human cells pack ~2 m of DNA into a nucleus just 6 micrometres wide. Scaled across the Human body, that is tens of billions of km — enough to span the Earth–Sun distance hundreds of times. DNA fits by winding around protein spools and compacting about 10,000-fold.
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