Methods of storing information using nucleic acids

1. A method of storing information using nucleic acids comprising

synthesizing de novo a plurality of polynucleotide sequences using a template independent polymerase, the plurality of polynucleotide sequences encoding a format of information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of polynucleotides are synthesized on a support.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the support is a solid or semi-solid support.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the support comprises spatially defined sites.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the support comprises spatially defined addressable sites.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the support is a member selected from the group consisting of a slide, bead, chip, particle, strand, gel, sheet, tubing, sphere, container, capillary, pad, slice, film, and plate.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the support is a substantially planar support comprising tranches, grooves, wells or chemical barriers.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the polynucleotide sequences are covalently attached to the support.

9. The method of claim 2 wherein the polynucleotide sequences are attached to the support with a cleavable linker.

10. The method of claim 2 where the plurality of polynucleotide sequences is synthesized on the support using ink jet techniques.

11. The method of claim 2 where the plurality of polynucleotide sequences is synthesized on the support using electrochemical techniques.

12. The method of claim 2 where the plurality of polynucleotide sequences is synthesized on the support using microfluidic techniques.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of synthesizing comprises

using a cyclic pattern of dNTP solutions and the template independent polymerase to incorporate the dNTP.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the format of information is an HTML format of information.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the format of information is an HTML format of information with embedded images.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the format of information is text or an image.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the format of information is converted to bit sequences which are encoded into the plurality of polynucleotide sequences.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the format of information is converted to bit sequences which are encoded into the plurality of polynucleotide sequences using one bit per base encoding.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the template independent polymerase is terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase or poly(A) polymerase.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the polymerase function of the template independent polymerase is programmable by light.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the base-specificity of the template independent polymerase is programmable by light.