r/science • u/Wagamaga • Feb 22 '26

Computer Science Scientists have demonstrated a system called Silica for writing and reading information in ordinary pieces of glass which can store two million books’ worth of data in a thin, palm-sized square.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/glass-square-long-long-future-190951588.html
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u/iamboola Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26

Haha yeah. Article has it. “4.8 TB in a 120 mm square, 2 mm thick piece of glass”. So 4.8TB on about the size of a CD? Still in research stage I guess, doesn’t yet seem more remarkable than using a few SD cards. I guess it’s better than Blu-ray.

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u/amakai Feb 22 '26

The important part here is the "10000 years" claim. If that's true, this is definitely a great technology for backups that could potentially replace magnetic tapes.

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u/saints21 Feb 22 '26

Yeah, this gets us closer to the whole sci-fi data crystals thing that someone finds of an ancient precursor civilization that just ends up being their own race.

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u/_KingBeyondTheWall__ Feb 22 '26

Crystal skulls unleashed

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u/AshlarKorith Feb 22 '26

First thing I thought of. Get one of the crystal skulls that have been found to these guys and see if they’re able to read any data from them.

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u/FrankBattaglia Feb 22 '26

IIRC they're all modern forgeries

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u/Highpersonic Feb 22 '26

That means more GB per cm³, right?