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Storing Info in Molecules, for Millions of Years

Pairing molecule mass and binary code, the Whitesides team can "write" massive amounts of data
Pairing molecule mass and binary code, the Whitesides team can “write” massive amounts of data
Credit: Michael J. Fink

As the data boom continues to boom, more and more information gets filed in less and less space. Even the cloud will eventually run out of space, can’t thwart all hackers, and gobbles up energy. Now, a new way to store information could stably house data for millions of years, lives outside the hackable internet, and, once written, uses no energy. All you need is a chemist, some cheap molecules, and your precious information.

“Think storing the contents of the New York Public Library with a teaspoon of protein,” says Brian Cafferty, first author on the paper that describes the new technique and a postdoctoral scholar in the lab of George Whitesides, the Woodford L...

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