# Human Genome Fits on a Zip Disk. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 20, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274 "2004-10-20T20:36:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/1 "2004-10-20T20:36:56Z")
[Human gene number slashed](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3760766.stm) > [@](#): > > the most up-to-date human genome contains only 20,000 to 25,000 genes If we use an average protein subunit MW of 40,000, that converts to a total protein MW of 1 X 10^9. Dividing by the average amino acide mass of 115 gives 8.7 million total residues. At 3 nucleic acids per residue, that could be coded in a total of 26,000,000 bases. Stored as ASCII, you could fit the information for about four humans on a 105 Megabyte Zip cartridge. An iPod would store far more. 30 to 35 thousand genes seemed a reasonable number to me. These new figures are pushing the envelop a bit far for comfort. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/2 "2004-10-20T20:53:49Z")
“So, what’s on your iPod?” “Population of Cleveland. Yours?” ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/3 "2004-10-20T22:23:16Z")
Y’know, I keep telling these guys NOT to keep this information on magnetic media, but they never listen to me. All it’s gonna take is some smartass with a fridge magnet and “Bam” we’ll all have bat wings, rhinoceros horns and genitalia the size of a small car. scientists … ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/4 "2004-10-20T22:25:26Z")
Big whoop. It already fits in a cell. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/5 "2004-10-20T22:45:25Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > “So, what’s on your iPod?” > > “Population of Cleveland. Yours?” What’s the playback device like? I don’t think headphones are going to cut it… ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/6 "2004-10-20T22:46:04Z")
> [@Padeye](#): > > Big whoop. It already fits in a cell. Oh _snap_ . ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/7 "2004-10-20T23:55:35Z")
In the UK a few years back [Prospect](http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/) magazine was giving the whole sequence away as a marketing gimmick on a CD taped to the cover of one month’s issue. Though goodness knows whether any of their readers actually found it any more useful than an AOL free-trial CD. ---
**Author:** ![LeeshaJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/8 "2004-10-21T00:50:55Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > Y’know, I keep telling these guys NOT to keep this information on magnetic media, but they never listen to me. All it’s gonna take is some smartass with a fridge magnet and “Bam” we’ll all have bat wings, rhinoceros horns and genitalia the size of a small car. You say that like it’s a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![Anonymous\_Coward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/9 "2004-10-21T01:58:23Z")
News flash: Humane Genome wiped out by “Click of Death”. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/10 "2004-10-21T02:03:07Z")
I _knew_ I should have upgraded to CD-R. Now I can’t have kids. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/11 "2004-10-21T03:46:27Z")
This reminds me of the discussion I read somewhere - possibly here - of the bandwidth of an average human ejaculation… ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/12 "2004-10-21T04:35:34Z")
Yeah, that soulnds like something one’d find here… ---
**Author:** ![LeeshaJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/13 "2004-10-21T04:49:04Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > This reminds me of the discussion I read somewhere - possibly here - of the bandwidth of an average human ejaculation… That would be [here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5317073&postcount=7) ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/14 "2004-10-21T17:52:47Z")
> [@](#): > > all have…genitalia the size of a small car. I already do. [sub]What? A Matchbox is a small car…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/15 "2004-10-21T19:50:17Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > If we use an average protein subunit MW of 40,000, that converts to a total protein MW of 1 X 10^9. Dividing by the average amino acide mass of 115 gives 8.7 million total residues. At 3 nucleic acids per residue, that could be coded in a total of 26,000,000 bases. [Homestar Runner] Oh. 'Wight! [/Homestar Runner] ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/16 "2004-10-21T19:56:41Z")
Will there be a quiz on this material? ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/17 "2004-10-24T07:06:05Z")
I don’t know a ton about genetics or low-level computing. But they really only need 2 bits for each base. For example: 00 - Adenine 01 - Cytosine 10 - Guanine 11 - Thymine You said 4 people on a zip disk. I think my people only take up a quarter of the space, so is that 16 people? ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/18 "2004-10-26T05:17:02Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > the most up-to-date human genome contains only 20,000 to 25,000 genes I’m not upgrading until version 3.0 - supposedly, they’re _finally_ implementing WYSIWYG editing. But I must admit I’m glad that, for once, they’re working to reduce code-bloat. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/19 "2004-10-26T05:54:25Z")
Given that much of the genome is repetitive, I suppose we’ll soon see a new compressed file format called “GPEG” that will let it fit on a floppy. (No, the decompressor will not be called “Viagra”.) ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-genome-fits-on-a-zip-disk/270274/20 "2004-10-26T10:21:45Z")
You’d need to watch out for all sorts of viruses, though. :eek: P.S. When I saw the thread title, i wondered if Human Genomes could have fits…