Digital technology is taking over the world, and scientists are hard at work finding better ways to store data, lots of it and for long periods of time.

Scientists are exploring new materials for data storage as well as new methods for printing data on their chosen medium.

Here are a few of the emerging storage technologies to be explained.

1. 5D Disc - Eternal 5D Data Storage could record the History of Humankind:
Scientists at the University of Southampton have made a major step forward in the development of digital data storage that is capable of surviving for billions of years.
Using nanostructured glass, scientists from the University’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have developed the recording and retrieval processes of five dimensional (5D) digital data by femtosecond laser writing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiL_yhtWHMo

2.IBM Stores Data on a Single Atom. A Credit Card-sized Device can store 35 Million Songs:
IBM has created the world’s smallest magnet using a single atom – and stored one bit of data on it.
Currently, hard disk drives use about 100,000 atoms to store a single bit.

The ability to read and write one bit on one atom creates new possibilities for developing significantly smaller and denser storage devices, that could someday, enable storing the entire iTunes library of 35 million songs on a device the size of a credit card.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77nbk7d3hKs

3.World's First Light-based Memory Chip to store data permanently:
The world’s first entirely light-based memory chip to store data permanently has been developed by material scientists at Oxford University.

The device makes use of materials used in CDs and DVDs, and it could help dramatically improve the speed of modern computing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KlV_VXNuEw

Read about other storage technologies at http://qualitypointtech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=9630

Cool stuff!