Stone, parchment or laser-written glass? Scientists find new way to preserve data
Some cultures used stone, others used parchment.Some even, for a time, used floppy disks.Now scientists have come up with a new way to keep archived data safe that, they say, could endure for millennia: laser-writing in glass.The Guardian’s journalism is independent.We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.
Learn more.From personal photos that are kept for a lifetime to business documents, medical information, data for scientific research, national records and heritage data, there is no shortage of information that needs to be preserved for very long periods of time.But there is a problem: current long-term storage of digital media – including in datacentres that underpin the cloud – relies on magnetic tape and hard disks, both of which have limited lifespans.That means repeated cycles of copying on to new tapes and disks are required.Now experts at Microsoft in Cambridge say they have refined a method for long-term data storage based on glass.
“It has incredible durability and incredible longevity.So once the data is safely inside the glass, it’s good for a really long time,” said Richard Black, the research director of Project Silica.Writing in the journal Nature, Black and colleagues report how the system works by turning data – in the form of bits – into groups of symbols, which are then encoded as tiny deformations, or voxels, within a piece of glass using a femtosecond laser.Several hundred layers of these voxels, Black notes, can be made within 2mm of glass.The system uses a single laser pulse to make each voxel, making it highly efficient.
By splitting the laser into four independent beams writing at the same time, the team say the technology can record 65.9m bits per second.The researchers found they could store 4.84TB of data in a 12 sq cm piece of fused silica glass, 2mm deep – about the same amount of information that is held in 2m printed books, an accompanying article by researchers in China notes.The team have also developed a way to create voxels in borosilicate glass, the material used by the Pyrex brand.
“It’s much more commonly available, it’s much cheaper, it’s easier to make manufactured,” said Black,Once written, the voxels can be read by sweeping the glass under an automated microscope with a camera to capture images of each layer,These images are then processed and decoded using a machine learning system,“All steps, including writing, reading and decoding, are fully automated, supporting robust, low-effort operation,” the team write,They add that the data storage system is very stable, with experiments suggesting the deformations created by the laser would last more than 10,000 years at room temperature.
However, Black said the technology was unlikely to end up in a home office, instead noting that the system was intended to be used by big cloud companies.Melissa Terras, professor of digital cultural heritage at the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved in the work, welcomed the study.“Any type of storage that allows for long-term digital information management is exciting, particularly if the media is inert and has the potential to last without special maintenance,” she said.But, she added, potential difficulties remain – including whether the instructions and technology for reading the glass would remain available for future generations.And there is another issue: significant investment would be needed to deploy Silica at scale.
“We are not in an economic moment where industry or politics is choosing to build infrastructure that will support the information needs of future generations,” said Terras.“I’d recommend that if that was a concern, we should pour our scant resources into fixing the aftermath of the cyber-attacks on the British Library, to ensure the information we already have in known formats is stewarded and available to users now and in the future.”
Colbert on Kristi Noem: ‘Everyone can’t wait to tell a reporter how awful you are’
With Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel off air for the Presidents’ Day holiday, Stephen Colbert focused his monologue on a Kristi Noem scandal and Maha’s new suggested way to enjoy vegetables.On Monday night’s Late Show, Colbert returned after a week off the air to focus on the Wall Street Journal’s recent exposé of Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary. The host described the piece as “the kind of article that gets published only if everyone who works for you can’t wait to tell a reporter just how awful you are”.The Journal exposé claims that Noem is jealous of the border czar, Tom Homan, and monitors her media appearances to make sure that she is on TV more than he is. The article also reports that Noem’s relationship with the Trump aide Corey Lewandowski is more than professional, and the pair are in a romantic relationship despite both being married with children
Barbican arts director to leave, months after revealing creative vision for centre
Devyani Saltzman is leaving the Barbican as the arts institution undergoes another significant leadership change just a few weeks after its new CEO joined.The shock departure of Saltzman, who became director of arts and participation at the Barbican in February 2024, comes months after she unveiled a five-year creative vision for the venue.Saltzman was named recently as one of the 40 most influential women working in the arts in the UK, and was described as the “driving force behind the organisation”.The Barbican refused to confirm the exit, with a spokesperson telling the Guardian it would be “unable to comment on individual staffing matters”.It is unclear when Saltzman will leave the organisation and there are no plans to replace her
British Museum removes word ‘Palestine’ from some displays
The British Museum has removed the word “Palestine” from some of its displays, saying the term was used inaccurately and is no longer historically neutral.Maps and information panels in the museum’s ancient Middle East galleries had referred to the eastern Mediterranean coast as Palestine, with some people described as being “of Palestinian descent”.Concerns were recently raised by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLIF), a voluntary group of solicitors, about references to “Palestine” in displays covering the ancient Levant and Egypt, which risked “obscuring the history of Israel and the Jewish people”.In a letter to the museum’s director, Nicholas Cullinan, the group wrote: “Applying a single name – Palestine – retrospectively to the entire region, across thousands of years, erases historical changes and creates a false impression of continuity.“It also has the compounding effect of erasing the kingdoms of Israel and of Judea, which emerged from around 1,000BC, and of reframing the origins of the Israelites and Jewish people as erroneously stemming from Palestine
My cultural awakening: ‘Thirteen influenced my hedonistic youth, until a psychotic episode ended it’
My teenage self was shy and miserable, before a coming-of-age film unleashed an adolescence of drink, sex and drugs. It was a years-long party that eventually came crashing downAt 13, what felt like almost overnight, I turned from a happy, musical-theatre-loving child into a sad, lonely teenager. Things I had cared about only yesterday were suddenly irrelevant, as I realised that nothing and no one mattered, least of all me. It’s an angst that adults often find difficult to remember or understand; as the famous line from The Virgin Suicides goes: “Obviously, Doctor, you’ve never been a 13-year-old girl.”Going to an all-girls Catholic school, I didn’t even really know that sex, drugs and alcohol existed, or that they had currency, until I watched Thirteen for the first time at 14, after seeing a still on Pinterest
The Guide #230: From Oasis to Bowie, your stories of seeing pre-stardom acts
From the Beatles slogging through mammoth sets for jeering sailors in Hamburg basement bars, to Ed Sheeran playing just about every open mic night in the south of England, even the biggest acts had to start small. So when we asked Guide readers to share their memories of seeing now-massive bands and artists before they were famous, it was inevitable we’d get some great tales. So much so, in fact, that we’ve decided to devote the main chunk of this week’s Guide to your pre-fame gig recollections. We’ve also asked Guardian music writers – seasoned veterans of seeking out the next big thing – to share a few of their memories. Read on for tales of Kurt Cobain in Yorkshire, Playboi Carti’s set in an east London snooker club and an ill-advised David Bowie mime performance …PulpIn 1991, I was a young music writer starting out when I came across a pre-fame Pulp (pictured above) at a short-lived event called Piece Hall Live in Halifax
From Wuthering Heights to Mario Tennis Fever: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Emerald Fennell’s film brings the raunch to Brontë’s romance, while Nintendo’s beloved plumber stars in a colourful, family-friendly sports gameWuthering HeightsOut now Out on the wily, windy moors, writer-director Emerald Fennell has constructed a new interpretation of the Emily Brontë classic. Margot Robbie is Cathy while Jacob Elordi takes on Heathcliff, and as you might expect from the film-maker behind Saltburn, the passionate pair are set to leave no height unwuthered.It’s Never Over, Jeff BuckleyOut now Very few musicians have the impact that Jeff Buckley had during such a short space of time. This documentary from Amy Berg explores the success of his only album, Grace, and his death at a young age by accidental drowning, through previously unseen archive materials and the perspectives of the people in his life.WhistleOut now Whistling is easy – as Lauren Bacall advised Humphrey Bogart: just put your lips together and blow … or maybe don’t, if the whistle in question is an ancient Aztec death whistle that has the power to summon dark and deadly forces to your local high school
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