Data
-
A quantum internet would be much faster and more secure than the regular web – and now it may be one step closer to reality. Scientists have used quantum teleportation to send information over long distances, with a higher fidelity than ever before.
-
Magnetic tape may seem an antiquated data storage technology, but its density and capacity is still hard to beat for big data centers. Now, IBM and Fujifilm have created a prototype high-density tape cartridge with a record-breaking 580 TB capacity.
-
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have made magnetic tape using a new material, which allows higher storage density and more protection against interference, as well as a new way to write to the tape using high frequency millimeter waves.
-
Data centers require heavy-duty cooling and maintenance. Microsoft has now finished a two-year test of an unconventional solution – dropping a data center to the bottom of the sea – and found that it was more reliable than land-based facilities.
-
A new internet speed record has been clocked at an incredible 178 terabits per second (Tb/s) – fast enough to download the entire Netflix library in under a second. It's achieved by modulating light in new ways before beaming it down optical fibers.
-
Information can be encoded into many patterns, such as ones and zeroes for computers. A new proof of concept has been demonstrated to encode information into artificial molecules, which could enable programmable materials or new types of computers.
-
Storing the world’s knowledge digitally online makes it vulnerable to being lost in a disaster. As a backup, GitHub has now archived 21 TB of public open source data and buried it in a vault in the Arctic in an effort to preserve it for 1,000 years.
-
A new type of data storage system could be denser, smaller, faster and more energy efficient than silicon chips. The new method involves encoding data in sliding stacks of two-dimensional layers of metals.
-
Just one gram of DNA can store 215 million GBs of data. Artificial DNA data storage systems could soon become more practical, thanks to a new technology named DORIS that can read and write files at room temperature without damaging the DNA.
-
Google has released a series of COVID-19 Community Mobility Maps, utilizing location history data from users around the world to present insights into how social distancing measures are changing the way people move around local communities.
-
Microsoft and Warner Bros. have crammed the 1978 movie Superman onto a silica glass slide the size of a drink coaster. This tough new medium is designed to last centuries, surviving punishment that would ruin film or magnetic drives.
-
A longstanding conspiracy is the tale of how Facebook is listening in on your conversations, but the way it is actually serving you ads is much more unsettling.