Superman's crystal
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Imagine a device with a storage capacity of 360 TB and a maximum operational life of 14 billion years. That's what they've achieved at the University of Southampton. @http://www.southampton.ac.uk:
[…]The documents were recorded using ultrafast laser, producing extremely short and intense pulses of light. The file is written in three layers of nanostructured dots separated by five micrometres (one millionth of a metre).
The self-assembled nanostructures change the way light travels through glass, modifying polarisation of light that can then be read by combination of optical microscope and a polariser, similar to that found in Polaroid sunglasses.
Coined as the ‘Superman memory crystal’, as the glass memory has been compared to the “memory crystals” used in the Superman films, the data is recorded via self-assembled nanostructures created in fused quartz. The information encoding is realised in five dimensions: the size and orientation in addition to the three dimensional position of these nanostructures.[…]
We're almost there with inventing the hoverboard and fruit that tastes like ham.
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For the curious it is good, now it remains to be seen what applications it can have.
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For the curious it is good, now it remains to be seen what applications it can have.
Last resort backups, libraries, distributed copies of documentation… In the USA due to 9/11, large companies are required to have copies of the data in at least two different locations, separated by x kilometers. This type of medium would be perfect for these backups due to its small volume and its duration.
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For many years that it lasts, if it falls to the ground… goodbye to the 360TB :ffu: they will have to start manufacturing floppy disks.
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I see it as useful for backup purposes, but I doubt its practical use in everyday matters... just look at what happened with CDs and DVDs.
Perhaps for DNA sequencing databases, archiving audiovisual material from a TV or reels of a similar nature that do not require instant access and if they require secure, durable and low-cost storage.
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If all that had already gone through my head, whether they should be even bigger to fit the porn I have, whether being made of glass would cover them under the house insurance, whether the same thing would happen as with CDs with their "lifetime guarantee" when the paint came off even when still in the box with the seal…
But anyway, I suppose that their existence won't have a negative impact on me. ;D
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Crystal servers? Why not?
Or rings with 360Tb crystals, pendants, jewelry, your name engraved in a corner… The millionaires will take care of adding imagination :ugly:
Best regards!
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Of course, using the same system to record information in a diamond xDD
