In 2025, scientists revived the cassette tape using DNA to store vast amounts of data, far surpassing traditional versions. The innovation, developed in China, can hold every song ever recorded on just 100 meters of tape. Researchers aim to bring the technology to market within five years.
Researchers at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Guangdong, China, have reinvented the cassette tape from the 1960s by replacing iron oxide with synthetic DNA molecules printed onto plastic tape. This DNA-based version achieves a storage capacity of 36 petabytes, equivalent to 36,000 terabyte hard drives. While a standard cassette holds about 12 songs per side, the new tape can accommodate more than 3 billion tracks, assuming 10 megabytes per song, on 100 meters of material.
Xingyu Jiang and his team encode digital information by designing the sequence of DNA bases—A, T, C, and G—to mimic binary 0s and 1s. "We can design its sequence so that the order of the DNA bases (A, T, C, G) represents digital information, just like 0s and 1s in a computer," Jiang explained to New Scientist in September. The tape supports any digital files, including text, images, audio, and video.
The announcement drew widespread interest beyond academia. "One of the most unexpected outcomes was the wide range of reactions—not just from scientists, but from artists, engineers and educators," Jiang noted. "Many people wrote to us saying the work inspired them to think about data, biology and technology in new ways. That was incredibly rewarding."
Future development focuses on a specialized 'head' device, akin to those in magnetic tape drives, to handle reading and writing. "In our system, this ‘head’ precisely positions and presses a selected section of the DNA tape into a small reaction chamber, where chemical or biochemical processes—such as releasing, reading or rewriting DNA—can take place," Jiang described. The project emphasizes reimagining data storage in biological forms, with hopes of commercialization in five years. "For us, the DNA cassette tape project was always about more than just storage capacity. It’s about reimagining how information can live in physical, even biological, forms," he added.
