Imagine if every tweet, snapchat, and YouTube comment ever made was preserved for eternity?
Well, we might have the technology, for better or worse.
Hey guys, Amy with you on DNews today talking some incredibly mind-bending data storage
technology!
The new technology comes from scientists at the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics
Research Centre. They developed a five dimensional recording and retrieval process on fused quartz
using femtosecond laser writing -- meaning a laser pulse that lasts one quadrillionth
of a second.
Yeah, you heard that right: a laser is recording data on quartz in 5 dimensions!
To break this down, let’s compare this new technology to a CD. When data is stored on
a conventional optical media like a CD, it’s stored by burning tiny bumps on one or more
layers of a plastic disc. This means it’s stored as bumps using three spatial dimensions:
height, length, and width. When the data on a CD is read, a laser light is bounced off
the disc, registering a 1 when the light bounces off a bump and a 0 when there’s no bump.
With those 1s and 0s, it can store anything from books to music to images.
But this new technology of recording data using a femtosecond laser on a fused quartz
disc, it’s not making a bump like a CD or a pit like a vinyl record, instead it’s
creating self-assembled nanostructures, which are basically layers of 3D dots called nanograting.
And this nanograting produces birefringence in the quartz, bringing out optical properties
rooted in its refractive index. And the scientists have taken advantage of this birefringence
to access two “new” optical dimensions.
When data is read from a five-dimensional quartz, the light being bounced back and read
depending on the nanograting’s orientation is the fourth dimension. The varied strength
of the laser’s light refracted by the structure is the fifth dimension. Add these to the traditional
three-axes of height, length, and width, you get five dimensions. By taking advantage of
multiple dimensions, each spot in the glass can store three different bits of information.
One file is written in three layers of nanostructured dots each separated by five micrometres (one
millionth of a meter), which is less than 0.0002 inches, meaning it’s incredibly densely
packed.
And with so much data stored in such a tiny way, the implications are huge. This storage
method means 360 Terabytes of data can be stored in one small crystal. This is a crystal
with the whole of the King James Bible stored on it.
And while the information on a CD is superficial and can be scratched off, the data stored
in quartz is safe within the structure of the extremely resilient material. It can withstand
temperatures as high as 1,832ºF (1,000°C ) and will last virtually forever stored at
room temperature.
This kind of technology could change the way we store and read data. No more worrying about
degrading a video tape or scratching a disk. The whole of human history could really be
saved in a format that could well outlive the human race. But how does it stack up to
the human brain? Trace looks into how much our brains can store in this episode right
here.
So, of all the everything that’s ever happened, what do you guys think is worth preserving
for a literal eternity? Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to subscribe
so you can watch a new DNews episode every day of the week.
So, of all the everything that’s ever happened, what do you guys think is worth preserving
for a literal eternity? Let us know in the comments and be sure to check back here every
day for more DNews.
So, of all the everything that’s ever happened, what do you guys think is worth preserving
for a literal eternity? Let us know on the Discovery News Facebook page or Twitter feed
@DNews. And you can find me there, too, I’m @astvintagespace. Thanks for watching!