Diamond optical discs could store data for millions of years

Diamonds aren't just a luxury item--as one of the hardest naturally occurring materials in existence, they are vital components in many industrial drills, medical devices, and even space-grade materials. But recent scientific advancements show it's not just their durability that's impressive, but their data storage capabilities. According to a study published on November 27th in the journal Nature Photonics, researchers at China's University of Science and Technology in Hefei have achieved a record-breaking diamond storage density of 1.85 terabytes per cubic centimeter. CDs, solid state drives, and Blu-ray discs are well suited to handle most general data storage needs, but that increasingly isn't the case for projects requiring massive amounts of digitized information. The artificial intelligence industry as well as quantum and supercomputers often need petabytes, not gigabytes or even terabytes, of information storage.