In 2013, researchers from Cambridgeshire ‘downloaded’ all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets on to strands of synthetic DNA

Just one gram of DNA can store the equivalent of 14,000 Blu-ray discs.

But although the potential for DNA as an alternative to hard drives has been known about for years, it is not the most reliable and secure way to keep data safe.

The latest breakthrough could be about to change that, however.

Chemists subjected spheres of DNA to extreme temperatures designed to mimic chemical degradation and found the material – and the data stored on it – could be successfully decoded.

The research was led by Robert Grass from ETH Zurich’s Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences.

‘DNA lends itself to this task as it can store large amounts of information in a compact manner,’ said the researchers.

‘Unfortunately, the data is not always retrievable error-free: gaps and […]