As with any novel fuel production or energy storage method, it is the numbers that matter: efficiency is king.

BBC: Petrol from air: Will it make a difference?

This new breakthrough -- when combined with the DNA-based data storage and a method to transmit DNA between cells the school's already working on -- means that Stanford has created all the necessary components of a biologic computer.

ENGADGET

If photo albums are your preferred method of storage, digital shots can be turned into glossy hard copies with inexpensive color printers and the right paper.

CNN: The Proof Is in the Pixels

Pharmaceutical companies are patenting all aspects of a drug's production, storage, packaging, route of administration and method of use.

FORBES: Hard to Swallow

Though DNA storage is still quite expensive, the researchers say this method could eventually provide a viable option for archiving information, especially considering DNA's high capacity and long life span.

ENGADGET: Scientists encode Shakespeare sonnets, MP3 and more into glitch-free DNA

Hal Rosen, a manager of research at Hitachi, says he's impressed by the researchers' ability to shrink so much storage into such a small space, but skeptical that a self-assembling method could create larger-scale disks.

FORBES: Magazine Article