📝 A Tiny Piece of Glass Beats Out Data Centers — As the Key to Protecting Human Knowledge for Thousands of Years
Scientists recently wrote the entirety of the human genome onto a small 5D glass crystal with lasers. This new durable glass media could preserve all of humanity’s knowledge and history for up to 10,000 years, but conceivably for billions of years.
Researchers at the University of Southampton developed glass plates or crystals with five dimensions — three spatial and two optical — that can store up to 360 terabytes. The crystals are made of pure fused silica or quartz glass, which is over 99% silica, or silicon dioxide (SiO2).
One of the most durable materials on Earth, this glass shrugs off fire, temperatures up to 1,000 degrees Celsius, direct impact of half a ton, humidity, liquid, and electromagnetic pulses. Once information is recorded on it, the material requires no energy to preserve and could conceivably last for billions of years.
The nature of glass storage means data can’t be stolen or corrupted using traditional hacking methods. The tool to access and read the data could become available for businesses to use in a few years, researchers say, and one developer is aiming for commercial deployment in about five years.
@QSIMedia
Scientists recently wrote the entirety of the human genome onto a small 5D glass crystal with lasers. This new durable glass media could preserve all of humanity’s knowledge and history for up to 10,000 years, but conceivably for billions of years.
Researchers at the University of Southampton developed glass plates or crystals with five dimensions — three spatial and two optical — that can store up to 360 terabytes. The crystals are made of pure fused silica or quartz glass, which is over 99% silica, or silicon dioxide (SiO2).
One of the most durable materials on Earth, this glass shrugs off fire, temperatures up to 1,000 degrees Celsius, direct impact of half a ton, humidity, liquid, and electromagnetic pulses. Once information is recorded on it, the material requires no energy to preserve and could conceivably last for billions of years.
The nature of glass storage means data can’t be stolen or corrupted using traditional hacking methods. The tool to access and read the data could become available for businesses to use in a few years, researchers say, and one developer is aiming for commercial deployment in about five years.
@QSIMedia