How many supercomputers would it take to store all of life’s DNA information? About 1021, according to a study published last week (June 11) in PLOS Biology. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh estimated the total amount of DNA present in Earth’s biosphere, a number they suggest could be used as a measure of biodiversity.
“We know that there are a lot of things that change in the natural environment, such as habitat loss. This obviously has an effect on the species living there. This approach offers a complementary way to quantify the changes,” study coauthor Hanna Landenmark, a graduate student at Edinburgh, told The Independent.
The researchers used previous biomass estimates to come up with total cell numbers for each of the five major ...
