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Microsoft's glass data storage system saves terabytes for 10,000 years (newatlas.com)

submitted 11 months ago by abobla@lemm.ee to c/hardware@lemmy.ml

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[–] Dogyote@slrpnk.net 35 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (11 children)

"So they told me that, according to the most advanced theories and techniques in every field, based on extensive theoretical research and experimentation, through analysis and comparison of multiple proposals, they did find a way to preserve information for about one hundred million years. And they emphasized that this was the only method known to be practicable: carving words into stone"

[–] LordKitsuna@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago (10 children)

What is glass except just a bunch of really tiny Stones melted together?

[+] Muehe@lemmy.ml -13 points 11 months ago (9 children)

Glass is actually more of a very slow moving liquid than a solid. You can see this on windows that are hundreds of years old, e.g. in churches. They will be thicker on the bottom because part of the glass flowed down.

[–] botengang@feddit.de 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No it isn't. That's an urban legend.

[–] Muehe@lemmy.ml 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It's a matter of debate, but it definitely isn't a solid.

A more elaborate alternative definition is this: "Glass is a non-equilibrium, non-crystalline condensed state of matter that exhibits a glass transition. The structure of glasses is similar to that of their parent supercooled liquids (SCL), and they spontaneously relax toward the SCL state. Their ultimate fate, in the limit of infinite time, is to crystallize." [...]

"On the other hand, any positive pressure or stress different from zero is sufficient for a glass to flow at any temperature," he said. "The time it takes to deform depends mainly on temperature and chemical composition. If the temperature to which glass is submitted is close to zero Kelvin [absolute zero], it will take an infinitely long time to deform, but if it is heated, it will at once begin to flow."

[–] calavera@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You are telling me that if we heat glass it would deform? Who would have thought about that right

[–] Muehe@lemmy.ml 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Heat in this context means any temperature above -273.15°C. Steel doesn't display liquid properties at "room temperature", glass does.

[–] calavera@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Which liquid property? I don't see any

[–] Muehe@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Deforming on time scales longer than a human life, so that's why you wouldn't see it. It might indeed be an urban legend, I don't know, but given the claims in the article I cited I wouldn't entirely discount the possibility.

[–] calavera@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Well, the churches glass deforming overtime were indeed a mith

[–] botengang@feddit.de 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Their ultimate fate, in the limit of infinite time, is to crystallize.

Alright, but the article is talking about long to infinite timescales. The discussion above was about church windows and that is not caused by glass flowing.

[–] Muehe@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

Their ultimate fate, in the limit of infinite time, is to crystallize.

Alright, but the article is talking about long to infinite timescales.

Long to infinite timescales for it to crystallise, that is to solidify. This is explicitly noted in the abstract of the paper the article is based on. I understood the "short timescales" on which it "relaxes towards the liquid state" to mean more than one human life time based on figure 4 (the image also shown in the article), but not so sure about the 10ky cited in the OP though.

The discussion above was about church windows and that is not caused by glass flowing.

Yeah that might indeed be an urban legend, could be manufacturing artefacts as claimed here. However I will note that the version of it I am familiar with isn't about "bull’s eye marks, warps, and lines" as that article states, but specifically about old windows being thicker only at the bottom.

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