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Molecular Punchcards?

Posted by michael on from the punch-in-punch-out dept.

Wiesel Werkstätte writes "Nature describes an atomic-force microscope used for data storage by "punching" molecular bits into a plastic substrate." Looks like a long time, if ever, before it could replace hard drive technology, but interesting nonetheless.

8 comments

  1. could this replace voting ballot cards? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 1

    *grin*

    1. Re:could this replace voting ballot cards? by Enigma2175 · · Score: 1

      No, it couldn't replace voting cards. because even with the extremely small "chad" there would still be some people who couldn't push the damn stylus through. Then the Elections Board would have to manually count all these microscopic hanging chads and barn door chads and pregnant chads. They would have to ship a bunch of microscopes into Palm Beach county to count the ballots. It would be an even bigger mess than we have now!


      Enigma

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  2. All because of a little thing by supruzr · · Score: 1

    Called Plastic

  3. Oh, great... by Dannon · · Score: 1

    And they say the punch cards in Florida are hard to read!

    Molecular punchcards... So, when do we see a molecular mainframe?

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  4. AIP Update by Mad+Hughagi · · Score: 2
    Here is the latest American Institute of Physics Update that described this technique. They also have a small picture showing the setup.

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  5. to quote "Charlie's Angels": by Tumbleweed · · Score: 1

    "It might have been the Chad..."

    :^)

    ps if anyone has yet to see it - go see the movie NOW! It's stupid, but amazingly fun, despite the presence of Tom Green & Matt LeBlanc.

  6. Good idea, Never happen. by MasterOfDisaster · · Score: 1
    I've read about stuff like this before...I'm for anything that rids us of magnetic media, but in the near future anyway, something like this is never gona happen(for the consumer, anyway) because of size and cost constraints

    anyone rember those little glass cubes that were 1/4 of an inch and could hold 600 TB? ...back in '95 I think it was. I think it's a great idea, but I'll wait till it's on my desk.

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    1. Re:Good idea, Never happen. by OmegaDan · · Score: 1

      I remember the glass cube thing ... I'm afraid it was all hype though!

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