Breaking the world record for the highest-capacity SDXC card in the world, this design by Western Digital’s SanDisk comes just 16 years after the company shocked the world with a 64-megabyte version with 1/16,384th the storage capacity (and two years after their 512 GB one).

There is a lot of talk about Moore’s Law slowing down, but this prototype shows that there are still limits to be pushed. The disk is not commercially available yet, but SanDisk sees the need for more storage in the face of 4K and 8K footage plus 360-degree video and virtual reality cinematography.

Of course, when it does come out it will no doubt be expensive and somewhat slow – you sacrifice cost and speed advantages the higher you go – but for most of us, well, our whole digital lives could probably fit on this disk.

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Analog tape disks degrade, digital storage media is temperature-sensitive, and books (print on paper) are still some of the best ways to store data long-term, at least until five-dimensional storage came along to change all of that, jumping us from centuries to eons in scope.

Researchers at the University of Southampton’s Optical Research Center have developed a 5D storage technique that can keep data safe for billions of years, etching it onto thermally-stable discs with femotsecond laser bursts. Think: Superman’s memory crystals, except real.

The medium can hold a stunning 360 terabytes per disc and withstand temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius, but kept in ideal conditions have a shelf life of 14 billion years. Human-readable etchings at larger scales allow the discs to be marked for future identification.

The trick is in the layering of nanoscale dots, defined by three points in space as well as their size and orientation, constituting their fourth and fifth dimensions. Light traveling through the disc is read with a polarizer. In the past three years, the team has upped the storage capacity from a few hundred kilobytes to its currency status.

“It is thrilling to think that we have created the technology to preserve documents and information and store it in space for future generations,” Professor Peter Kazansky from the ORC said in a statement. “This technology can secure the last evidence of our civilisation: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten.”

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Researcher Karin Ljubic Fister studies plant-based data storage, which involves modifying genes, bacteria and infected plants to store information in the very genetic sequences of species. Once a coding system is established, generally a form of substitution cipher, it can added to the DNA of a bacterium and used to infect a plant.

“Imagine walking through a park that is actually a library,” she says, “every plant, flower and shrub full of archived information. You sit down on a bench, touch your handheld DNA reader to a leaf and listen to the Rolling Stones directly from it, or choose a novel or watch a documentary amid the greenery.”

The result is not just data storage that lasts for the life of a given crop, but storage that is heritable, each new generation containing a “Hello World” program or whatever else you want to implant within it

Imagine using, for instance, a global seed vault to store data as well as seeds, a backup system invulnerable to EMPs – a whole world’s worth of information packed into a pile of corn and peas.

Plants could, of course, also be used to seed landscapes of communication, fertile grounds could become a more complex storage system, with different plots to store parts of a larger informational set,

Imagine: farms and other ecosystems as vast organic archives. No more time wasted trying to see the forest from the trees – there could be a whole new layer information in the mix as well. (h/t Geoff Manaugh)

The post Seed Drives: Plant-Based Data Storage Literally Goes Viral first appeared on Gajitz.

A new twist on an ancient technique, this subterranean refrigerator takes advantage of cooler subsurface temperatures to let you store fruits, vegetables, cheese, wine and other goods right in (or rather: below) your own backyard.

Floris Schoonderbeek of Dutch design company Weltevree crated the Ground Fridge to showcase at Milan Design Week, illustrating the power of simple insulation to store foods self-sufficiently at a stable temperature year round (around 50 degrees F).

The rounded volume is placed under excavated soil, about three feet deep, with an above-ground entry for access. Needing no plumbing or electricity, the structure is generally exempt from building permit requirements so anyone can install one with relative ease. The catch: there are still many things that will spoil in this setup, so you may need to be selective about what you keep in this system, or simply try to eliminate things from your simplified lifestyle that won’t work within it.

“The Groundfridge is an innovative take on the traditional root cellar. It meets the requirements of people with their own vegetable garden, who choose to live in a modern and self-sustaining way. Floris Schoonderbeek (founder of Weltevree) is continuously discovering and exploring new angles, chances and materials that he puts to good use in improving and enriching our habitat. With the Groundfridge, he presents a means for new world citizens who want to handle their food in an autonomous, independent way.”

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Your typical wall clock has one function – possibly two if it happens to be a cuckoo clock. The Lok family of clocks from designer Helena Franca does more than simply tell the time.

One iteration – the handle clock – features a handle on one side that’s perfect for carrying it around from room to room. It’s even better, however, for hanging up small objects like scarves, jewelry, and other accessories.

The other clock – appropriately named the shelf clock – is equipped with a small, clear shelf. The shelf is handy for holding smaller everyday items like change and keys.

Both clocks are made from laser-cut plexiglass acrylic with hands in a selection of colors. Notches on the body of the clock denote the 12, 3, and 9 positions on the face, with the handle or shelf holding the position of the 6.

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