"A device the size of your thumb could store as much information as the whole Internet," said Harvard University molecular geneticist George Church, the project's senior researcher. In their work, the group translated the English text of a coming book on genomic engineering into actual DNA. DNA contains genetic instructions written in a simple but powerful code made up of four chemicals called bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C) and thymine (T). The Harvard researchers started with the digital version of the book, which is composed of the ones and zeros that computers read. Next, on paper, they translated the zeros into either the A or C of the DNA base pairs, and changed the ones into either the G or T. Then, using now-standard laboratory techniques, they created short strands of actual DNA that held the coded sequence—almost 55,000 strands in all. Each strand contained a portion of the text and an address that indicated where it occurred in the flow of the book. (...)" - Amira

"Research groups in the U.S., Europe and Canada devised ways to use DNA to encode trademarks and secret messages in cells. And when genomics pioneer Craig Venter and colleagues created the first synthetic cell in 2010, they wrote their names into its DNA code, the way an artist might sign a painting, along with three literary quotations and a website address. Other researchers used DNA to encode poetry and popular music inside the living cells of bacteria. (...) The Harvard effort stands out for its large scale, the scientists said. All told, the book contains 53,426 words, 11 illustrations and a JavaScript computer program. The 5.27 megabits of data are more than 600 times bigger than the largest data set previously encoded in DNA. It is the equivalent of the storage capacity of a 3.5-inch floppy computer disk. (...) The method requires a series of advanced laboratory procedures, microarray chips and a high-speed gene-sequencing machine to assemble the strands in the proper order, correct any errors and then read the final text." - Amira