Published in Physics World, 1 Nov 2012
They say the only safe way to preserve information is to set it in stone – but the next best option may be to set it in quartz. That is, according to researchers at Japanese electronics giant Hitachi, who have developed a “semi-perpetual” quartz-based data storage that could survive for millions of years.
Hitachi has been working on permanent methods of data storage for the last five years, driven by the concern that paper, CDs, hard disks and other storage media will not stand long-term physical disturbances and may not be easily readable with future technology. In 2009 Hitachi scientists found that they could store data optically in 3D in quartz, and showed that the medium had the potential to be highly durable and straightforward to read. […]
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