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gcb parent
1GB for DNA data is assuming we know all that there is in a DNA.
JabavuAdams
It also assumes that all the information needed to build a new human is in the DNA, which is clearly false. A lot of information is in the "factory" and process.

Show me a human that has been created from conception to healthy birth in-vitro.

For the patching/dog example: you can't currently implant a dog embryo into a human woman and expect to get a viable birth.

If I have a really full-featured runtime, hey, I can make smaller programs. But ... not all the information required to create the program is in the source code.

infinite8s
Even more importantly, you can't take the nucleus from one species and implant it into the egg of another and get a viable organism (unless the species are very closely related).
azakai
Not sure why you are downmodded. I took your comment to imply that there might be additional information that is not in the standard way we understand DNA, which is a very legitimate question. But if you meant something else and I am wrong, maybe the downmod was justified ;)

Getting back to DNA, we measure information there based on the base pairs. But for all we know, there could be additional sources of information, like some subtle aspect of physical shape that DNA has, that is also inherited (as part of the replication process). Perhaps the amount of information encoded is substantially higher due to that.

(That's wild speculation, of course.)

wynand
You're right - DNA methylation is inherited (see epigenetics). So DNA alone does not give you enough information.
infinite8s
And methylation patterns are believed to affect higher-order structure in DNA. This higher order structure has to do with the way DNA is packaged when not being actively read for protein synthesis or cell division. Most of the time it is stored in a tightly coiled form that renders it inaccessible to most of the DNA machinery, and it's believed that the methylation patter on the DNA affects the structure of this compaction.
gcb OP
exactly. from the little i know about chemistry tests, most of them are done blending stuff and adding some reagent and see if that changes color or something else that is measurable.

I have no idea how they 'check' dna pairs, but i doubt they compare every subtlety of the molecules every time. If they do, wow! but still, we may not be able to accurately detect something else that is even smaller. since we only saw dna recently. the wikipedia article has dozens of diagrams, but only one blurry 100nm image, from 2004.

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