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How To Store Your Data For A

A D VER TI S EM EN T

Million Years
Science is building storage mediums for the distant future. But what information will we
preserve? And will anyone be able to read it?

F E AT U R E D V I D E O
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[PHOTO: MA DS PERCH, G ETTY IMA G ES ]

Ideas t o make Thanksg iving 2020 special

BY C I AR A BYR N E 9 M I N U T E R E A D

A D VER TI S EM EN T

“We are interested in now, most of us,” says Robert Grass, a

researcher in chemistry at ETH Zurich. “We buy our furniture in
Ikea. We don’t care if in 10 years it falls apart. With information it is
similar. We don’t think into the future.“

But Grass isn’t like most of us. His team, which is exploring how to
use DNA as a data storage mechanism, is one of several academic
and commercial entities grappling with the challenge of protecting
data against the elements over time spans stretching out to millions
of years.

At the moment, when our data isn’t entrusted to cloud servers, it’s
left on disks and drives and cards and an array of devices that aren’t
designed to last longer than a decade. “If my son shows photos to his
grandsons,” says Grass, “he will have the photos of my parents,
which are in black and white, and will be stable for a few hundred
years. But there will be a hole after that because my photos won’t
survive. Statistically they won’t, unless I am really careful about
what I do with them.”

That kind of concern, he believes, belongs not only to data mavens

but to humanity as a whole. “How we pick what to store will very
strongly influence how our future will think of us.”

The idea of storing information on DNA traces back to a Soviet lab in

the 1960s, but the first successful implementation wasn’t achieved
until 2012, when biologist George Church and his colleagues
announced in the journal Science that they had encoded one of
Church’s books in DNA. More recently, reports the New Yorker, the
artist Joe Davis, now in residence at Church’s lab, has announced
plans to encode bits of Wikipedia into a particularly old strain of
apple, so that he can create “a living, literal tree of knowledge.”

DNA can store a vast amount of information in a tiny amount of

organic material. “You could take all the information of the world
and store it in a few grams of DNA–unimaginable with all other
techniques we have,” says Grass.

Under the right conditions, DNA can also last a very long time. In
2013, a complete genome was extracted from the fossil of a 700,000
year old horse found in Canada. Inspired by fossils like these, Grass’s
team embedded DNA into a dense, inorganic material–microscopic
spheres of silica, with a diameter of roughly 150 nanometers–in
order to protect it from humidity, oxygen, and other environmental
aggressors. (The researchers encoded Switzerland’s Federal Charter
of 1291 and the Methods of Mechanical Theorems by Archimedes.)

“We can prove that in these capsules, it’s as stable as in these bones,
which have an excellent longevity,” he says. The team also developed
a type of sunscreen for the silica capsules to block the effect of light.

The biggest danger to the data, however, is heat. Any chemical bond
or structure you build to store information decays over time
depending on temperature. Accelerated testing showed that data in
glassed DNA could last 2,000 years at a temperature of around 10
degrees Celsius, but storage at -18 degrees Celsius extended its
lifetime up to 2 million years.

Only 50% of hard disks will survive until their 6th

birthday, according to one study. A CD might last a
decade.

Like any data storage method, DNA is not error free. Reinhard
Heckel, also from ETH Zurich, developed an error-correction scheme
for the DNA-encoded data based on the Reed-Solomon Codes, which
are widely used in consumer data storage methods like DVDs and in
satellite communications.

Because it’s still at the research stage, and there are no commercial
tools to encode data into DNA or read the stored data, DNA storage is
expensive. It costs about $1,500 to encode the 83 kilobytes of
documents used by Grass in testing.

For now, the number of applications that require information to be

stored for a million or even a thousand years may be limited, Grass
acknowledges, but practically everyone has data they want to be
accessible 10 years from now. Current storage methods like CDs or
hard drives simply cannot offer that guarantee. A study from
Backblaze showed that only 50% of hard disks will survive until
their 6th birthday. A CD might last a decade. Magnetic tape has a
lifetime of a few decades when stored in the right conditions. To
make it last longer, all that data must be actively maintained by
regularly transferring it from one medium to another. Methods like
DNA could offer not just longevity but certainty.

“I think a lot of people are not enough aware of how fragile the
information is that they store,” he says.

WHO’S GOING TO LOOK AT THIS STUFF AND WHAT WILL THEY

SEE?
Storing data for long durations is one challenge. Another is ensuring
that the data will even be legible to whatever civilizations discover it
in the future.

All long-term data storage methods face the same

problem 18th-century scholars had with hieroglyphics.

This kind of translation problem isn’t new. In 1799, a group of

Napoleon’s soldiers were rebuilding a fort near the Egyptian town of
el-Rashid. One of the men noticed something unusual embedded in
a wall that the soldiers had been ordered to demolish: a grey stone
slab covered in strange markings. The slab, which later became
known as the Rosetta stone, repeated the same text in three
languages: Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Egyptian demotic
(the everyday language of ancient Egypt). Acting as a type of
dictionary, the stone allowed scholars to finally decipher
hieroglyphics, a language whose meaning had been lost for 2,000
years.

All long-term data storage methods face the same problem 18th-
century scholars had with hieroglyphics: how to decipher data from
the past. Future readers need not only a device capable of reading
the physical storage medium, but also an understanding of the data
encoding. In other words, our descendants will need their own
Rosetta stone.

Grass’s team used a simple enough code: DNA bases A and C for “0”
and G and T for “1”. “For DNA, the theory is if we have a highly
developed culture in the future, it will be interested in investigating
its personal genome, and there will be tools to do that,” he says. “You
can write down your (decoding) instructions on a piece of paper or
engrave them into stone or gold.”

Storage on Earth means coping with “very active

geology” along with the possibility of a nuclear or
environmental disaster, or simply vandalism.

“You need a vocabulary of about 1,000 words to understand a

dictionary. So there must be a guide to 1,000 keywords by using
images,” says Miko Elwenspoek, a professor of engineering at the
University of Twente in the Netherlands and one of the founders of
the Human Document Project, which aims to preserve information
about mankind for a million years.

“One million is just a big round number. What is meant is very long,
much longer than our horizon,” he says. Such a project requires us to
select what information to preserve and a find a suitable location for
it. Elwenspoek’s preference is for the Moon.

“On Earth, one has to cope with the very active geology,” he says, not
to mention the possibility of a nuclear or environmental disaster, or
simple vandalism.

So what might we choose to transmit to the future? “Science and

technology, art, music, philosophy, literature, religion,” says
Elwenspoek. “Our daily little business. Start with all printed books:
they would fit in perhaps 100 hard-disc drives.”

NOT YOUR TYPICAL MEMORY STICKS

Or in considerably fewer “superman crystals.” Peter G. Kazansky
studies optoelectronics, the science of electronic devices that source,
detect, and control light. Kazansky and his team at the University of
Southampton in the U.K. have developed a technique for etching
data in fused quartz crystals, which, under temperatures as high as
200 degrees Celsius, could keep data preserved, says Kazansky, “for
the lifetime of our universe.”

Superman crystals disk KA ZA NS KY LA B

Storing data for 13.8 billion years bears a passing resemblance to

storing data on a regular optical disc. A CD or DVD is coated with a
thin layer of organic dye. To burn the CD, a semiconductor laser
creates gaps in the dye. Instead, Kazansky’s team uses ultrafast
lasers to write on the nanoscale in quartz crystal.

“In normal CDs/DVDs, you create some kind of modification, like a

hole, and then you can encode information in 0 and 1,” Kazansky
explains. “We are not producing a simple hole. Inside of the focus
[of the laser] we create another structure, like a grating, self-
assembled inside glass,” by what he calls “some magic process” that
he and his colleagues are still trying to understand.

Because the nanostructure created by the laser is more complex than

a simple gap, it can contain more information than a 0 or 1. In fact,
he says, it can store up to 256 bits. Additional information can be
captured in both the orientation of the “grating” and its periodicity
(the characteristics of the repeated pattern of atoms within it). This
“five-dimensional” approach gives the Kazansky’s material a very
high information density. A single CD-sized disk could store 360
terabytes of data, roughly equivalent to five Library of Congress’s
worth of data.

As with DNA storage, the main obstacle to making this a practical

storage medium is cost. The ultrafast laser used by the research
team costs around $150,000, and the data is currently read back
using a microscope. It takes three hours to write 2 MB of data–about
the size of a 3.5-inch floppy disk–but the team thinks that write time
can easily be reduced to about half an hour.

Longevity of current storage methods, including Kazansky’s 5D crystal storage method

KA ZA NS KY LA B

Kazansky, who is also a member of the Human Document Project,

cites the movie Interstellar when he describes an even bigger vision
than a thousand millennia of storage.

“Some future beings, they can even manage to travel in time,” he

says. “If they will find our disk, I hope they will be intelligent enough
to read it, and they will be able to pass some information from the
future to here.”

Doug Hansen, the CTO of M-DISC, has a more modest and practical
goal for his optical disk: a millennium. “We are not touting 1,000
years because we think that is what most people want to do with
their data,“ he says. “What we are trying to get across is that there is
enough certainty here that you know that this is going to be good for
a century or two.”

CDs and DVDs use organic, optical dyes that are vulnerable to light.
Blu-rays often rely on inorganic materials but will fail when exposed
to heat and humidity. M-DISC uses oxides, nitrides, and other
compounds (the exact materials are a trade secret) that are, says
Hansen, “a lot like stone in their characteristics.” An M-DISC can be
read by any DVD or Blu-ray drive. Like other optical disks, M-DISCs
keep best in a cool environment, but they “will typically last for
several centuries or longer in your bedroom closet,” says Hansen.

Optical disks have the advantage of already being widely used as a

storage format. Even if that changes in the future, “it’s very easy to
make a player,“ says Hansen. “It’s very easy to find ways to decode
the format, because they are all public standards maintained by
things like ISO and things of that sort.” An M-DISC DVD costs around
$2 when bought in bulk. A Blu-ray will set you back $4. Existing
customers include businesses that are required by U.S. law to keep
documents like tax records up to 50 years, professionals like
photographers, and individual consumers.

“We are just coming for the first time in our history to where we
really have to start dealing with our data,“ says Hansen. “This wasn’t
a problem 100 years ago.” Even 20 years ago, digital data wasn’t a
very large concern. “But as computer technology has freed us to be
more creative, to capture more and record more, there’s a lot more to
try and save, and that problem is not going to get smaller with time.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lapsed software developer, tech journalist, wannabe data scientist. Ciara has a B.Sc. in
Computer Science and and M.Sc in Artificial Intelligence More

A D VER TI S EM EN T

1 1 -2 5 -2 0 6 : 0 0 AM

With just 7 COVID-19 deaths in

A D VER TI S EM EN T

Taiwan, even huge events are back

in business
Careful compliance with safety rules has kept the pandemic in check. So the Outdoor
Show at the Nangang Exhibition Center took place with shocking normalcy.

[Photos: Joshua Bateman]

BY J O S H U A BAT E M AN 5 M I N U T E R E A D

It’s a Saturday afternoon at 3:00 in the afternoon, and Taipei Metro’s

blue line is packed. Riders are standing shoulder to shoulder. Exiting
passengers positioned in the interior kindly ask those in front of the
doors to make way. All passengers are sporting compulsory masks—
including those heading to the four-day Outdoor Show at the
Nangang Exhibition Center.

Right inside the exhibition center entrance, a young man is

positioned off to the side behind a standup desk. On top sit a laptop
and connected security camera. As attendees flow through the
doors, the camera captures their body temperature and relays it to
the laptop, where their respective temperatures pop up in front of
their faces on the screen. They don’t have to stop or slow down for
the camera, and could easily miss it if they aren’t paying attention.
Any would-be attendee whose temperature exceeds 99.5 degrees will
be turned away and advised to seek medical assistance.

[Photo: Joshua Bateman]

With more than a quarter-million deaths to date, the U.S. continues

to be so overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic that even modest
examples of normalcy such as allowing outdoor dining at
restaurants are being reassessed. Safely holding a large trade show
in an indoor venue might sound like a fantasy. But with a
population of 23 million, Taiwan to date has had just seven deaths
and fewer than 600 total cases, most of which were imported when
people flew back to the island. (By contrast, more than 1,400 people
have died from the virus in Kansas alone.)

Rene Wu, marketing manager

at ultralight tent maker UPON
Outdoors, says, “I just feel lucky
that we’re in Taiwan, a place
that is not that much affected
by the coronavirus.”

The expo’s controls are a

microcosm of Taiwan’s broader
initiatives to fight the virus.
Temperature checks, hand
sanitizer, and sometimes
identity registration are not
[Photo: Joshua Bateman] uncommon when entering
restaurants, grocery stores,
department stores, gyms, movie theaters, public transportation, and
government buildings.

Alice Wu
@thatalicewu

A note from abroad: Realizing now that I've been 5 days out
of US that many folks back home don't realize how other
countries might be living with the 'Rona. Here is what it was
like to come to Taiwan. I think we could maybe learn a
coupla things... /1 #COVID
11:08 PM · Nov 21, 2020

42.6K See the latest COVID-19 information on Twitter

Other tables in the exhibition center’s lobby have large dispensers of

hand sanitizer, which attendees are encouraged to apply. To enter
the hall, everyone must scan a QR code on their cell phones, which
will enable contact tracing if a subsequent COVID-19 outbreak does
occur.

Inside, approximately 75 companies show off their latest outdoor

apparel, footwear, sunglasses, chairs, coolers, cook systems,
sleeping bags, tents, trekking poles, recreation vehicles, backpacks,
bike parts, dive gear, LED lights, and portable power stations. A
pitchman demonstrates how to use mini irons designed for outdoor
use. Vendors in the food wing sell coffee, craft beer, and braised pork
rice, a Taiwanese specialty.

A D VER TI S EM EN T

[Photo: Joshua Bateman]

In the crowded hall, social distancing is impossible. The mask

stipulation is not strictly enforced, but roughly 90 percent of
attendees adhere to it. Others simply go without masks, use them as
chin straps, or pull them down when speaking. Although facial
expressions are partially obscured by masks, most people appear at
ease. Couples stroll hand in hand.

Although indoor life in Taiwan proceeds relatively unencumbered,

the pandemic has people looking to beat cabin fever. According to
data from travel platform Klook, outdoor bookings through the first
half of 2020 increased threefold year over year.

[Photo: Joshua Bateman]

“We can see a lot of people are trying new outdoor activities,” says
UPON’s Wu. “Camping is very popular right now among Taiwanese.
Not just camping, but also hiking. We see more bikes out there.
People just love to go somewhere to explore more than we used to
before.”

To buttress the travel sector, the private sector and local

municipalities are getting creative, offering nontraditional outdoor
activities such as eco-tours, glamping, hang gliding, water sports,
and hot-air balloon rides.

Launching new adventures alone, however, is insufficient. Given

global mobility restrictions, Taiwan’s travel and outdoor businesses
continue to languish. To offset this, policymakers introduced
stimulus plans for hotel stays, vacation packages, amusement park
admissions, and bus tours.

[Photo: Joshua Bateman]

Subsidies that help residents move around the island could help
companies such as Shou Hu Xin Keji (“Guardian Heart
Technology”), which produces a car rooftop rack that doubles as a
dingy. The lid is removable and can be taken out on the water.
According to product designer Long-Ping Chou, most buyers are
based on Taiwan’s west coast but will use the product on the east
coast, a natural coastal paradise. “The coastal camping market still
has potential,” he says.

The bigger issue with tourism is the lack of travelers from other
countries contributing to the Taiwanese economy. In January, the
country began restricting flights from certain at-risk cities. By mid-
March, it had entirely closed off entrance to nonlocals and visa
holders. Accordingly, 2020 foreign visitor arrivals are forecast to
drop by more than 80 percent, hitting a 40-year low.

For other companies, the travel ban accelerated existing trends. The
Scuba Shop Taipei opened its current location in 2012 and at that
time relied on foreign customers to buoy its business. Roughly five
years ago, though, the customer base began skewing more domestic.
Dive instructor Felix Huang said, “Initially, I had very many foreign
clients. This year, relatively few.” The travel ban has expedited the
pivot toward local business.

Other businesses have also pivoted successfully. Taipei-based travel

company KKday previously focused on international packages, but
COVID-19 caused revenue to plunge 90 percent. Subsequently, the
startup began offering local travel experiences that are off the beaten
path, such as diving, climbing, and flying journeys. In September,
the company closed a $75 million Series C funding round from
investors such as Cool Japan Fund, National Development Fund,
Monk’s Hill Ventures, and MindWorks.

Risks remain, and a future outbreak is certainly possible. But

Taiwan’s optimism persists. “This year, because of the coronavirus,
this outdoor show is one of the world’s only outdoor or diving shows,
so, we are very happy to be here,” Huang says. “But next year, we
would be happier if the coronavirus warning has ended and
everyone can come here and dive.”
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