Everlasting data storage is the holy grail of government and the police, so I expect Lawrence Livermore will shortly be receiving an advance order from authoritarian in chief Jack Straw. From Computerworld via Digg:
Researchers have demonstrated a form of archive memory using carbon nanotubes that can theoretically store a trillion bits of data per square inch for a billion years.
The technology could easily be incorporated into today’s silicon processing systems and it could be available in the next two years, a lead researcher said.
The scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California said the new technology can potentially pack thousands of times more data into one square inch of space than today’s chips
That’s pretty damned clever, but think of just one of the many implications: not least, what do you actually do with that unlimited stored data? We know what public employees are like with discs and memory sticks and the like and any nanotube storage device would likely be portable – and ideal for a civil servant to drop on a train or lose in the post or even accidentally flush down the loo, perhaps:
The government today offered a £20,000 reward for the safe return of two missing CDs containing personal details of half the British population.
The Metropolitan police, which has been heading the search for the data, has asked thousands of government workers to check their desks and homes “in case the package or discs have turned up”.
Last month, the government admitted that details of all child benefit claimants, including dates of birth and home addresses, had been lost in the post when sent from a HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) office in the north-east to the National Audit Office. The information on the discs was not encrypted.
In a statement, the Met said its primary search had been concluded without recovering the discs, which hold the details of more than 25 million people..
Perfect for the DNA Database, then.
