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Storing Data for Centuries: Page 3 of 4

His original plan was to create both high-density analog and digital disks. "We tried to develop both. Digital may happen years down the road,” he says. “But it is eye-readable data that is important to our culture now. This is a way of preserving the history of our culture.”

The approach isn't cheap, because each disk is created by hand. It can cost anywhere from 20 cents to $1 a page, "depending on the data. It takes time to write it with a focused ion beam. Copies are not as expensive," notes Bishop.

The cost means it isn't something you would consider for trivial or changing data. But this technology might be worth considering if you have information that needs to be available in a few centuries.

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  • Los Alamos National Laboratory