History Main / Biodata

* ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'': Earth is the computer that Deep Thought created to discover the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Because he was a part of Earth's organic matrix, the Question (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) is stored in Arthur Dent's brain wave patterns. Near the end of the book he and Ford Prefect try to discover the Question by introducing a random element that can be shaped by that pattern - drawing Scrabble tiles from a bag without looking.

Information: the lifeblood of modern (and likely, future) civilization.

This does not cover the opposite, where information about a biological organism is recorded by digital computers or otherwise non-organic devices. [[EverythingSensor That's a separate trope.]] Also does not cover inorganic storage system implants, for example in ''Film/JohnnyMnemonic.'' A silicon memory chip in the brain is not an example of this trope; but a port implant that allows Memory Uploading from computer to brain or brain to brain ''would'' count: it all depends on the storage medium.

* NeuralImplanting: downloading computer files, images, databases, or abilities into a person's brain.

[[folder: Anime And Manga ]]

* ''Manga/OutlawStar'': According to Gwen Khan, the information for navigating one's way to the Galactic Leyline and accessing its ability to [[spoiler: alter the laws of probability]], was contained within the "black box" data used to create Melfina. Melfina was unaware of this herself, until [[spoiler: she reconnected with the Leyline.]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'': Data pollen. Literally, pollen from plants that's encoded with newsfeeds, advertising and other information. Breathed in, it releases the information to the nervous system. It's linked to degeneration of the synapses in the brain and goes in and out of legality several times over the series.

[[folder: Films — Live-Action ]]

* In the 3rd installment of the ''[[Film/Zombies2018 Z-O-M-B-I-E-S franchise]]'', [[spoiler:Allison discovers that her alien grandmother had hidden the map to Utopia in her DNA]].

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Creator/IainBanks' ''Literature/SurfaceDetail'' provides us with the Intagliated, slaves whose bodily tattoos contain information detailing their pasts, why they're Intagliated and the markings go right down to the DNA.

* ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse''. Earth is the computer that Deep Thought created to discover the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Because he was a part of Earth's organic matrix, the Question (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) is stored in Arthur Dent's brain wave patterns. Near the end of the book he and Ford Prefect try to discover the Question by introducing a random element that can be shaped by that pattern - drawing Scrabble tiles from a bag without looking.

* Biodata is a recurrent theme in the ''Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures'' novels, especially the ones involving Faction Paradox, where it serves as a sci-fi counterpart to BloodMagic.

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

* ''{{Series/Lexx}}'': Assistant Deputy Back-Up Courier Stanley Tweedle had vital data about the Divine Order's superweapon, the Lexx, encoded in amino acids stored in a false tooth.
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': In the pilot episode, the Klingon courier Klaang carried [[ArtisticLicenseBiology information injected directly into his DNA]], concerning the Suliban's attempts to destabilize the Empire. Probably intended as a CallForward to the TNG example, but the writers couldn't expect [[ViewersAreMorons the audience]] to recognize a graphic of an amino acid sequence as conveying information and all the dialogue was in un-subtitled Klingon so they used the instantly recognizable DNA helix.

** Klingons are NOT dumb. A Klingon scientist temporarily posted on the ''Enterprise-D'' modified a hyposyringe with an optical chip reader, and would use that to transform digital information from the ship's computers into amino acid sequences. Then he would inject someone without their knowledge, and the information would be carried in their bodies in their bloodstream as inert proteins, which could be extracted at any time by another spy. ''Damn, son!''
** The Ancient Humanoid {{Precursors}} in "The Chase" encoded a message to their descendants- us, as well as the Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans, Bolians, Yridians, Vulcans... you get the idea.
** In "Transfigurations," Data and Geordi examine a Zalkonian memory storage device from mysterious "John Doe's" escape pod that is stated to use a chemical matrix for data storage. It's basically the escape pod's Black Box.
* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': The Ancients inscribed knowledge of wormholes into John Crichton's brain and his DNA. [[spoiler: Eventually he unlocked and understood it. Although the Ancients removed it from his head after he used it, his son was implied to inherit it. The Scarrans even tried to extract it from the DNA of Aeryn's unborn child.]]
* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' has done this a couple of times, notably in the first season when ZFT would leave a "calling card" in the DNA of their genetically engineered weapons.
** A similar calling card was later discovered on the Nazi toxin in Season 2, in this case, the image of the seahorse, [[spoiler: a clue that Walter Bishop's father's research had been used to create the toxin]].
* In ''Series/OrphanBlack'', Cosima translates the clones' DNA using binary to find a message encoded. [[spoiler: It's a patent. "This organism and derivative genetic material are restricted intellectual property."]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': Protheans possess BizarreAlienSenses that allow them to read biomarkers of any living creature (and even from some inorganic objects that come into contact with the living) and store this information. This is how their Beacons work, too.
* A recurring theme in the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series - ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'' and ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'' in particular - is the concept that ''everything'' ultimately boils down to data. This is implied to be how [[spoiler: the Embryon were first reincarnated into the simulated world of the Junkyard]], and linked with the notion of the AkashicRecords to explain how [[spoiler: Polaris is systematically destroying the world - and how it can be restored afterwards]].
* The ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' mod, ''Rubicon'', starts on a crashed UESC spaceship, and Durandal at one point tasks you with finding him an ID card that can let him get at its computer systems, since they apparently store data in ''chemical'' form.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* In ''Literature/NextBreedOfThief'', this is the mechanism behind [=MEPHISTO=].
* In one ''Webcomic/DresdenCodak'' comic Kimiko can't find her flash drive, so she starts overwriting her own junk DNA. But then she finds something already written in it, [[spoiler: which turns out to be billion-year-old spam.]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]