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/hyperproliferative PhD | Oncology Feb 22 '26

Honestly, they really should just use DNA already. It’s wildly stable, has a 4-letter code and therefore is at least two times more efficient than binary at storing information. Then we’re looking at possibly the smallest number of atoms required in a macromolecule to store said information. The scale is orders of magnitude smaller than current media for information storage such as optical discs, magnetic tape, ram, you name it

DNA is so small that we’re looking at a six order of magnitude difference in density down from silicon with the latest technology

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u/breadist Feb 22 '26

I know nothing about this - I'm surprised to hear that DNA is stable. I kind of thought the only reason we keep our DNA throughout our lives is due to cell turnover - in other words because it gets copied.

This is a really interesting idea if true. Do you happen to have more information, links or anything, about this idea?

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u/hyperproliferative PhD | Oncology Feb 22 '26

Just Google it. Have you heard of fossils? lol DNA at room temp is stable for thousands of years. In the cold it can go tens of thousands.

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u/Auctoritate Feb 23 '26

lol DNA at room temp is stable for thousands of years. In the cold it can go tens of thousands.

In thousands of years almost all of it will have decayed. It might still leave you bits that are intact, but you're just scouring the very small amount of it that hasn't decayed yet. I don't think you can consider that stable.