New Delhi: The world now produces copious amounts of information, far more data that legacy storage systems can handle for long-term archival. Researchers from China have developed a novel method to store information on DNA tapes, allowing for storage of vast quantities of data for hundreds of years without power, within a tiny space. The researchers have developed a long, thin tape that works like an old cassette tape, with spots where information can be stored. Printed black-and-white patterns act as address labels, allowing for a machine to quickly home in on any required spot.

One kilometre of tape has over half a million spots. The information is first turned into snippets of synthetic DNA, which are then placed onto the chosen spots on the tape. Each spot can hold many copies of th

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