'5-D' glass disc can store terabytes of data

[UM-Bot 9,792]

Scientists have created a new type of data storage that can keep information safe for billions of years.

Storing data for long periods of time is a tricky business. Even today's forms of data storage such as DVDs and Blu-rays have a finite lifespan of around 200 years before becoming unreadable and some older formats such as cassette tapes and floppy disks have already started to fail.

Read More: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/291771/5-d-glass-disc-can-store-terabytes-of-data

[Reepa 18]

This to me is absolutely brilliant news.

It gives hope that even if something was to wipe us out our history, cultures, endeavours, stories and achievements still have a chance to be passed/discovered.

[nothinglizx2 79]

The Dinosaurs felt it, the Atlanteans felt it, many civilizations have felt it. No matter what we prepare for, now matter how we prepare for a thing, it's the thing we least expect that gets us. Lets not marvel in our designs or their capacity or we should likely see dummy stamps on our foreheads when we look in the mirror in the morning.

But 5-d glass storage, thats awesome! Not so good for the clumsy, but thats awesome!

Edited February 18, 2016 by nothinglizx2

[ROGER 253]

Saving the information is nice but will the READER mechanism survive ? Otherwise in a few years you have a stockpile of frisbees .

Edited February 18, 2016 by ROGER

[clare256 171]

Wow, That was like in the 1960's film the Time Machine. Like Roger says, will be reader survive a billon years?

[acute 62,211]

This reminds me of those 'indestructable' CDs.

[jarjarbinks 300]

I would pay a lot just to put a .doc with my name on something like this.

[Sundew 2,929]

I'll have to buy the Beatle's White Album all over again, just like "Men in Black."

[Michelle 22,237]

Saving the information is nice but will the READER mechanism survive ? Otherwise in a few years you have a stockpile of frisbees .

That was my first thought.

[ChrLzs 20,749]

I can just imagine the excited ET finding one of these, labelled "All Human Knowledge", picking it up and then running to rush it back to his superiors. ET stumbles.. and it smashes into a thousand fragments.

Oops.

[XenoFish 105,411]

I hope they don't download the internet onto that thing. I know what 90% of it would be.

[aztek 23,105]

aren't crystal sculls claimed to be data storage as well?

[Gecks 176]

Im with Roger on this... but all the same fantastic advancement in technology

[ChrLzs 20,749]

A nitpick. This is NOT '5D'!!! The article offers the following unscientific word salad:

But instead of storing information in only two dimensions (1s and 0s), the nanogratings store information in five dimensions: the orientation and size of the gratings as well as their three-dimensional position on the disc.

Using ones and zeros (ie binary) does not equate to 2D - it has nothing to do with spatial dimensions!!! And the other dimensional information is still within the normal 3D reality... The '5D' claim is just plain silly and inapplicable.

[TripGun 222]

People called me crazy when I thought up the USB root beer mug.

[Codenwarra 327]

And in 20 - 50 years the formats will have all changed and the data will be unreadable except by obsolete and unobtainable computer systems. Just try playing some games from 2003 on your latest whizz-bang box of sorrow.

[Leonardo 10,408]

I hope they don't download the internet onto that thing. I know what 90% of it would be.

You mean videos and pictures of cats?

[Rolci 294]

Which month is it hitting the shelves? Or is it gonna be like the new battery technologies they keep reporting all the time that last for months on a charge, but then we never hear about them again, or like all the research into longevity like http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/magazine/can-a-jellyfish-unlock-the-secret-of-immortality.html?_r=0 that then we never get to hear about again???

[BiffSplitkins 4,538]

and if the discs are stored in a stable environment the information contained in them should last up to 13.8 billion years

Hopefully Apple will still be around then to decrypt the data....

[theotherguy 2,243]

A nitpick. This is NOT '5D'!!! The article offers the following unscientific word salad:

Using ones and zeros (ie binary) does not equate to 2D - it has nothing to do with spatial dimensions!!! And the other dimensional information is still within the normal 3D reality... The '5D' claim is just plain silly and inapplicable.

If I may nitpick your nitpickery--

It's referring to 5 different parameters, but 5P doesn't sound as sciency and futuristic as 5D. Sometimes, marketing is king.