Page 16 - The Miracle of Creation in DNA

data warehouse 40 times bigger than the biggest encyclopaedia of the
world that includes millions of items of information. This means a huge
1000-volume encyclopaedia which is unique and has no equal in the
world. Were one piece of information present in human genes to be read
every second, non-stop, around the clock, it would take 100 years to
complete the process. If we imagine that the information in DNA were put
into book form, the volumes placed on top of each other would reach 70
metres high. The latest calculations have revealed that this huge
encyclopaedia contains some 3 billion different "subjects." If the
information in DNA were to be written down on paper, that paper would
stretch from the North Pole to Ecuador.
These examples are an indication of the imposing amount of
information contained in DNA. Yet how can we talk of a molecule
containing information? This is because what we talk about here is not a
computer or a library, but just a piece of flesh that is a hundred thousand
times smaller than a millimetre, simply made up of protein, fat and water
molecules. It is a miracle of astounding proportions that this infinitesimal

piece of flesh should contain and store even a single bit of information-let
alone millions of bits.