DNA, the double helix structured strand of only four amino acids, is what determines what we will be and are. At least in a physical and scientific sense. Depending on how these amino acids (Adenine, Guanine, Thiamine & Cytosine) create hydrogen bonds with each other and in what repeating sequences (the "DNA Code") will determine whether any given life form will be a tree, a rat, a dog, a gorilla, a human or a mushroom. All living things have the DNA code within their cells as the blueprint that determines how the building blocks of life will be assembled to make them what they are.
Obviously, there is a tremendous amount of data stored within this microscopic structure in order to have such a vast amount of life on this planet. Currently, that numbers well into the millions of different life forms. Incredibly, this number would skyrocket if it included life forms that have gone extinct or those we haven't found yet or have any knowledge of from the past.
It is mind blowing, almost in a literal sense.
But now scientists are working on a way to use the DNA structure to store man made data, both as a storage and access device. Apparently, they've so far been able to store a million copies of an old movie in the space of just a few drops of water.
I find this achievement exciting... but also terrifying.
When we start messing with the code of life, the literal blue prints of how things are made, we may have no idea of the consequences. What if scientists develop DNA information storage to the point where education could be implanted into a new human's brain at inception? Like buying a computer with every application pre-installed. All of human knowledge encoded into a person's DNA, before they are even born. Or, conversely, just some types of information that those in power want to be implanted, or possibly making classes of people that are pre-programmed to serve certain functions.
Interesting. Terrifying. What do you think?
[Image and story source: I Read Today(https://www.facebook.com/ScienceNaturePage/videos/1260813317384257/)