A small test tube holds about a petabyte -- a billion megabytes -- of data. DNA storing this much information is about as big as the space between the top two joints of your little finger, Goldman said.

"A gram of DNA would hold the same information as a bit over a million compact discs," Goldman said. "Your storage options are: one thing a bit smaller than your little finger, or a million CDs."

Given DNA's small size and long endurance, according to Goldman and Birney, the method could be used to propagate information about our current selves thousands of years into the future - assuming, of course, our descendants in the year 4013 understand languages as we speak and write them today.