Re:Microsoft, UW demonstrate first fully automated DNA data ...
by hn_throwaway_99 on Saturday March 23, 2019 @09:56AM
(#19470454)
Minor correction: each base pair is one of 4 values (A, T, G, C), so each base pair is equivalent to 2 bits of data, which gives a number half of what you quoted.
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Re:Microsoft, UW demonstrate first fully automated DNA data ...
by mbreese on Sunday March 24, 2019 @10:49AM
(#19476636)
Yes, I misworded it and gave the wrong numbers. I gave the number of possible combinations in a genome, which is 4^6e9. That’s obviously not the number to compare (and a slightly embarrassing mistake).
With 6 gigabases per cell and 2bits per base, the storage capacity is 12 gigabits (1.5 gigabytes) per cell. And with 37 trillion cells (3.72e13) in a human body, that’s 3.72e13 cells * 1.5e9 bytes per cell which is 5.58e22 bytes per person or 55 zettabytes. This seems like a more reasonable number.