The robots ring along the library shelves. Instead of books, this shelf has a flat, clear glass napkin-sized square. The robot selects a piece of glass and brings it to the microscope. The instruments are deep inside the glass. The focus is a pattern of spotted spots that cannot be seen by the naked eye. A high-speed laser etched this pattern. Your computer can read the digital information stored within it.
Each piece of glass is, after all, a book. It’s very futuristic. Each slim plate can hold 7 terabytes of data. That’s about as much information as 2 million books normally hold today.
The libraries, robots, lasers, microscopes, and plattered glass are all part of a research program called Project Silica. Richard Black oversees the project at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England. “Project Silica is a new approach to storing data,” he says.
Modern computer hard drives easily hold terabytes of data. However, these drives only last about 3-5 years. In fact, all today’s common methods of storing digital data tend to wear out quickly, and Black Notes. “Every few years you need to buy a new one. [storage medium] copy.”And again and again, “I buy and copy, I buy and copy.”
However, in-glass spot data can last “millions of years,” Black says.
“It’s a very neat and clever idea,” says Deep Jaliwara, who didn’t take part in the project. The electrician works at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Glass is actually very durable. These platters can withstand all kinds of calamities. “You can leave [the glass platter] With boiling water,” says Black. “You can put it in the oven. You can use the microwave.” You can also scratch the surface without compromising internal data.
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v = rfeyd4ngqg
Alternatively, you can dump the glass platter into the space to carry a message to the aliens. That’s exactly what high school international teams are trying to do. I NA Podcast Last fall, Microsoft Research announced support for the projectcalled Golden Record 2.0.
How to write in the glass
“It’s fun to think about talking to aliens,” says John Romberg. He is an artist based in Kona, Hawaii. However, these glass platters may soon have important uses on the planet. People create and use an incredible amount of information. It includes medical data, scientific experiments, banking records, Hollywood films and more.
Much of this information “should be kept for a long period of time,” Black said on the podcast. “There’s a lot of it in it, and it’s poured every day.”
In 2014, researchers at the University of Southampton in the UK used lasers. Recording data in the glass for the first time. “We were very happy,” says Jingyu Zhang, who was part of the team. He is currently a physicist at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Uhan, China.
Laser pulses are very fast and are measured in femtoseconds. Black explains that one femtosecond is one thousandth of a second of a millionth. Intake of a small amount of energy and focusing on small points over such premature times can result in amazing results. “The intensity at that point is very moving,” he says. “There’s something called a plasma nano explosion.”
This explosion creates a very small divot in the glass structure. Engineers call it voxels.
Voxel formation is predictable. Zhang explains that every time a laser is fired in the same way, voxels form in the same way. Therefore, different types of voxels work like 1 and 0 to represent digital data. These voxels can also be stacked on top of each other inside the glass plate. If you want to read the data, use a microscope. It focuses on only one layer of small areas within the glass. The camera records the pattern of voxels there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v = 5oyqaff-n0i
In the decade since its discovery by Zhang’s team, Microsoft has been improving its technology. They found a way to write voxels faster and more reliably. It also uses machine learning, a type of AI, to convert voxel patterns into digital data. Additionally, they built a library of these stored stored data. It features a robot called a shuttle that places glass platters on shelves and collects them.
So far, the robot hasn’t dropped the platter yet. However, if a platter breaks or gets lost, you will see that the data will always spread across many other assortments. This is a common technique used when storing data on any type of media.
For now, this is the only library of its kind. However, Black has a big goal. Microsoft runs hundreds of data centers. “Goals,” says Black. “It will eventually happen [a library like this] It is located in all data centers.”
You need a regular hard drive for data you want to work on or access regularly. This is because once the voxel pattern is written it cannot be changed. “This is an archive format for data storage,” says Jariwala. It is intended to last a long time and remains unchanged. That’s why it’s the perfect technology for Golden Records projects.
And when it becomes unchangeable, the saved data will essentially be hacked, Black adds. This contrasts with magnetic tapes used in past long-term storage methods. The tape can be rewritten when it is being read.
Do you have any science questions? We can help!
Submit your question hereand we might answer that Science News is exploring
Message from humanity
The new Golden Records aiming to be an alien are not the first of its kind.
In the 1970s, NASA launched two Voyager spacecrafts. Their main goal was to explore the solar system and beyond. Each was also carried a 30 centimeter (12 inches) of gold-plated copper disc. The disc contains messages about humanity. Jon Lomberg chose many of the music stored in many images and records.
Such a disc is like “a message of a bottle thrown into the sea.” These spacecraft are still there and fly over the depths of space. If the aliens find it, they can learn about who built it.
However, these records used very early types of data storage. It doesn’t fit very well on the disc. Furthermore, since then, humanity has changed dramatically in decades. Alicia Zheng and Noe Mathew are working on the message of a new record. Both are juniors from World School Avenue in New York City. “Our one is a modern version of the original,” Alicia says.
Students from schools in Sao Paulo, Brazil and San Jose, California are also involved in the project. Lomberg advises all these students. However, this time he hasn’t chosen what to put in the message. “I had the opportunity to tell you which photos should go and which music should go,” he says. He hopes that many young people will contribute to a new message.
you can Submit photos and other suggested content to the Golden Records 2.0 website. “It could be a family photo. It could be a pet. Photographs showing different cultures from around the world are also important,” Alicia says.
