He explained that a joule, a unit of energy, is the amount of energy that is needed to burn a 100-watt light bulb for one second. Thermodynamic theory, he says, predicts that one joule can fuel 34 times 10 to the 19th power operations. A cell can perform 2 times 10 to the 19th power operations. But a supercomputer can only do 10 to the 10th power operations, making a cell 10 to the 10th power times more efficient. The same goes for information storage, Adleman said.
Cells can store one bit of information in one nanometer of space.
A videotape stores one bit in 10 to the 12th power nanometers, taking a trillion times more space than is used in cells. Gifford said that for him, it is these philosophical issues that make the work so intriguing.