You Are Data—4MB to Be Exact

Bits and Base Pairs explores the concept that the information encoded in our DNA can be compressed down to just 4MB, the equivalent, for example, of "the three floppy disks you owned in 1999." To think of ourselves as mere data can feel mundane (the scientists who worked out the compression called their paper "Human Genomes as Email Attachments"), or silly (see Reddit commenters' discussion of the idea that a human sperm carries 37.5 megabytes of information). This short animation, on the other hand, sees the beauty in our data, both digital and genetic. Animator Evan Anthony talks about the making of the short in an interview below.