by Mark Ollig
Looking out the bay window to the left
of my writing desk, I am seeing signs of autumn; the nearby trees bordering the
street are showing off their vibrant fall colors of red, gold, and yellow
leaves.
I also noticed the glass on the window
needs to be cleaned.
In this week’s column, we will discover
another use for glass, besides its being fashioned as a window to look through.
“The volume of data being created every
day is exploding, but in terms of keeping it for later generations, we haven’t
necessarily improved since the days we inscribed things on stones,” said
Hitachi researcher Kazuyoshi Torii.
Glass, specifically quartz glass, has
been successfully tested as a data-storage medium having the capacity to
preserve the information placed inside of it almost indefinitely, without any
degradation.
Technology developed by Hitachi of
Japan, used a laser beam to generate digital data (binary formatted data) as
dot etchings positioned inside a very thin piece of quartz glass.
This quartz glass-plate storage medium
measures just two centimeters (0.8 inches) square and only two millimeters
(0.08 inches) thick. It can contain four separate layers of dot etchings.
Each glass square can hold 40 megabytes
worth of binary data per square inch.
The binary data stored inside the
square of quartz glass was read using special data-reading software, along with
an optical microscope connected to a display monitor.
The quartz glass is also highly
resistant to heat and water.
The permanency of the quartz glass was
tested, and it was determined it would last, according to Hitachi, for
“hundreds of millions of years.”
Hitachi reported quartz glass-plate
samples withstood two hours of exposure to 1,832 Fahrenheit degree heat in an
accelerated aging test.
Hitachi concluded the data stored using
the quartz glass would be readable for 100 million years.
While we have developed cutting-edge
technologies for storing data as binary information on a variety of
long-lasting materials, it is yet to be confirmed the data stored will be fully
retrievable in 1,000 years, or 1 million years . . . let alone 100 million
years.
Hitachi researchers believe if data is
stored in a simple binary format (dots) inside the quartz glass; future
civilizations should be able to read the information with an optical
microscope.
To be fair to my readers, Hitachi did
not disclose if they foresee optical microscopes needed to read the data would
still be obtainable in the year 100002012.
According to Hitachi, quartz
glass-plate technology would be a preferred method for storing “historically
important items such as cultural artifacts and public documents, as well as
data that individuals want to leave for posterity.”
“Initially this will be aimed at
companies that have large amounts of important data to preserve, rather than
individuals,” said Tomiko Kinoshita, a spokeswoman at Hitachi’s main research
lab.
Just imagine . . . yours truly could
store all of his treasured Bits & Bytes columns inside a small square of
quartz glass – where they could still be readable in 100 million years.
This is epic. Bits & Bytes may
possibly realize a future civilization of faithful readers.
Sadly, I have read a few predictions of
Earth’s fate 100 million years from now, and folks, I admit, it doesn’t look
very promising.
One future timeline says Earth will
have been impacted by a meteorite the size of what hit us 65.5 million years
ago and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
If there is still intelligence
inhabiting this planet 100 million years from now, they would most likely have
in place some type of artificial protection screen surrounding the Earth.
Possibly a global force field would have been designed to deflect large asteroids
and meteorites away from this planet.
Speaking of storing messages in the
hopes of them being retrievable in the distant future, I am reminded of when
NASA launched two Voyager probes into space in 1977.
The late Carl Sagan advised NASA to
include a message from Earth – in case an intelligent extraterrestrial
civilization would come into possession of one of the Voyager probes.
Each Voyager contains duplicate
messages: a variety of sounds, greetings spoken in many languages, and 115
images of life on Earth.
The information is etched onto a
12-inch phonographic, gold-plated copper disk (golden record), and one is
attached to each Voyager probe.
Included with each golden record are
the stylus and cartridge needed to play them.
A drawing on each golden record shows
whatever intelligence finds it, how to retrieve the information carved onto its
surface.
Each golden record is essentially a
“message in a bottle” humans from Earth have tossed out into the ocean of
space, with the hope that one day they will be found, and their messages seen,
heard, and understood.
Meanwhile, back here on Earth, we can
expect to see Hitachi’s new quartz glass storage technology being brought into
the marketplace by 2015.
So, let’s stay focused . . . as we look
out the window towards the future of quartz glass storage.
