Church and his colleagues are not the first to store binary information in DNA, but they stored a tremendous amount and were able to read and write it using commercially available gene synthesis and sequencing machinery, in just a couple of weeks.

FORBES: What if Big Data is Too Big? A Radical Solution May Be in DNA

Initially Codon's goal is to dominate the gene-synthesis market.

FORBES: Architect of Life

The gene they chose is involved in the synthesis of a hormone called gibberellin and, once again, a side-effect of the alteration was to cause the trees to grow faster.

ECONOMIST: GM trees are on their way