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Name: Jim
Status: Student
Age: 15
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
On a radio program that I heard last night, the guy said that one gram of DNA has the ability to store as much information as 1 trillion CDs. is this true. Also stated in this program, was that if there was a strand of DNA the size of a pin head, and you wrote down all of the information into a book, that book would be 500 times the distance from the earth to the moon big. Both of these statements sound rather far fetched.

So what I'm looking for is if this information was factual or fiction?


Replies:
It's hard to know if that is true or not. I'm sure that its based on mathematic calculations. Remember that we are dealing with molecules which are too small to see. Every cell in your body (except red blood cells) contain all the genetic information necessary to make you. The DNA is supercoiled and packed into each cell. If you took one gram of cells (which would be ALOT of cells) each having their complement of DNA that would be ALOT ALOT of DNA. So although I don't know the exact amount, mathematically it must be ALOT!!!

vanhoeck


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