3 ms·

DNA has a pretty hard lifespan of under a couple million years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_DNA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_DNA

• TravisCooper 3y ago
  Impossible. DNA degrades very quickly. Half-life is ~520 years, and you'd assume any "storage" done quickly and ad-hoc (as these things always are) would not be ideal conditions to maximize this number.
  • praptak 3y ago
    That's the typical half life. The record is ~2 million years, obviously just tiny fragments https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/unlocking-the-oldest-known-dna-revealed-a-lost-greenland-from-2-million-years-ago https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/unlocking-the-oldest-kn...
    • robertlagrant 3y ago
      > That's the typical half life. The record is ~2 million years, obviously just tiny fragments Half-life of DNA is the time it takes for half the bonds to snap. Far longer than 2 million years is achievable based on that half-life, at least under ideal conditions.
• jahewson 3y ago
  And that’s just tiny fragments too.