A team of researchers in China has unveiled a prototype data storage system that replaces magnetic tape with DNA, packing the equivalent of more than three billion songs into a single cartridge, according to a study reported by Earth.com. The device stores up to 36 petabytes of information on a thin plastic tape coated with synthetic DNA, offering a glimpse of how future archives might preserve humanity’s digital footprint for centuries.
The system was developed in Shenzhen by a group led by biomedical engineer Xingyu Jiang at the Southern University of Science and Technology. Instead of encoding data as electrical bits, the researchers translate digital files into sequences of the four DNA bases: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. These sequences are then synthesized as short DNA strands and printed as microscopic spots onto a flexible plastic film.
That film is divided into hundreds of thousands of tiny partitions. Each partition acts like a separate file slot, holding a distinct block of DNA. Black, water-repelling stripes prevent the DNA solution from spreading, keeping each data segment isolated. The finished film is cut and rolled into a tape that can be loaded into a cassette-style drive, complete with reels, motors, and an optical scanner that reads barcode-like markers to locate specific files.
In total, the prototype tape is just over half a mile long and contains an estimated 550,000 addressable storage locations. During tests, the system could identify more than 1,500 file positions per second as the tape moved through the reader. To access a file, the drive guides the correct partition into a small chamber, where a chemical process releases one strand of DNA for sequencing. The remaining strand stays attached, allowing the data to be rewritten after reading.
The appeal of DNA storage lies in its density and durability. In theory, a single gram of DNA can hold hundreds of exabytes of data, far surpassing conventional media. Properly protected DNA can also remain readable for centuries. The team coated the DNA with a protective crystalline shell designed to block moisture and enzymes, estimating a lifespan of more than 300 years at room temperature and potentially far longer in cooler conditions.
The approach is not without drawbacks. Writing and reading DNA is slow compared with electronic storage, and synthesizing large quantities of DNA remains expensive. In demonstrations, retrieving even small files took minutes. As a result, the technology is aimed at long-term archival storage rather than everyday computing.
Still, as global data volumes continue to surge and data centers consume growing amounts of energy, molecular storage offers a radically different path. If costs fall and speeds improve, DNA cassette systems could one day serve as ultra-dense, low-energy vaults for music, movies, scientific records, and cultural archives that must outlast today’s hardware.
The study is published in Science Advances.
