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Stone, parchment or laser-written glass? Scientists find new way to preserve data
UK News•February 18, 2026 at 4:00 PMNational

Stone, parchment or laser-written glass? Scientists find new way to preserve data

By Nicola Davis Science correspondent•The Guardian - UK News

Hard disks and magnetic tape have a limited lifespan, but glass storage developed by Microsoft could last millenniaSome cultures used stone, others used parchment. Some even, for a time, used floppy disks. Now scientists have come up with a new way to keep archived data safe that, they say, could endure for millennia: laser-writing in glass.From personal photos that are kept for a lifetime to business documents, medical information, data for scientific research, national records and heritage data, there is no shortage of information that needs to be preserved for very long periods of time. Continue reading...

Hard disks and magnetic tape have a limited lifespan, but glass storage developed by Microsoft could last millennia

Some cultures used stone, others used parchment. Some even, for a time, used floppy disks. Now scientists have come up with a new way to keep archived data safe that, they say, could endure for millennia: laser-writing in glass.

From personal photos that are kept for a lifetime to business documents, medical information, data for scientific research, national records and heritage data, there is no shortage of information that needs to be preserved for very long periods of time.

Continue reading...

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