Biology question

[kwerk]

How many MB does a sperm hold?

The human genome is supposed to be about 350 MB of data, so wouldn't a sperm contain all that data in DNA? According to this it only contains 1 bit (X or Y), so an entire ejaculation would only be 21MB. That doesn't sound right to me.

Now if you really can fit 350MB on a single sperm couldn't this somehow be harnessed for data storage? That's an incredible amount of data for such a small space.

http://www.utheguru.com/fun-science-how-many-megabytes-in-the-human-body

The number of Megabytes ‘exchanged’ during human reproduction

The human sperm can be one of three states - x, y or wasted.Each sperm cell in a human male is heterogametic, meaning it contains only one of two sex chromosomes (x or y) - incidentally, the female egg is homogametic - meaning that it only has an x chromosome.

This means the male ‘determines’ the sex of the child, which makes a mockery of Henry the 8th’s annulment of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon on account of the fact that she was ‘incapable of providing a male heir’.

Basically, sperm cells are like bits - they can (in most cases) be only one of two states - x or y, or in digital form, 0 or 1. So, it’s possible to express an ejaculate in megabytes (!?!) - Let’s try.

The average human ejaculate contains around 180 million sperm. So, that’s 180,000,000 bits. If we use google to convert 180 million bits to megabytes, we find that approximately 21.45 megabytes of ‘data’ is transferred during each act of human sexual reproduction in the form of gametes.

 

[kwerk]

Well I suppose the question is sort of answered by ANother.

The idea isn't as far fetched as it sounds though. Trust the Japanese to come up with it. They use bacteria instead of jizz though.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/11/artificial-dna-an-immortal-library-of-human-knowledge-.html

Professor Masaru Tomita and his team of researchers at Keio University, Japan, have developed artificial DNA with encoded information that can be added to the genome of common bacteria. The four characters used in genetic coding (A's, T's, G's and C's) work much like digital data. If coded in a particular way, different character combinations can represent specific letters and symbols which can then be translated to produce music, text, video and other content.

 

[kwerk]

Lose the megabyte and bit analogy and use the proper terms for a start. Its megabases for a start and nucleic acids instead of bits.

DNA has nothing to do with computers so please don't confuse the two.

Everything has to do with information/computing. The whole universe can be broken down to 1/0s (and 1 and 0 at the same time if you are in to quantum physics). The universe is literally just information. There is an interesting physics theory that it might not even be real, but a projection of information stored at the edge of the universe or the surface of black holes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle

 

[kwerk]

Unless it was an experimental computing or theoretical physics exam.

It's all one thing people need to get these imaginary divisions out of their head. Biology is not sterile and separate from physics or even computing.

Maybe you should write a letter to prof. Tomita and correct him.

 

[kwerk]

Or maybe you should actually read some genetics booklets and white papers and join up all of the common terms, aka the ones I've said twice over now whilst your quoting a theory which hasn't been proven in any scientific extent.

If your exam question is specifically on "relate genetics to computer models and hypothesise a computer system based on biological denominators", fine, but you're talking about how much genetic information a sperm cell has. Might want to reread your own question perhaps?

I asked how much DATA it can store. DNA is just encoded data there's nothing magical about it. If you created your own artificial DNA you can encode whatever DATA you want in it.