Atomic memory developed

Gotta' love these scientific developments news :D

Imagine a CD with a storage capacity not of 650 MB but 650 million MB. Such a storage capacity is theoretically possible because of experiments using individual atoms to store data.

But do not expect it soon; the gap between theory and practice is wide.

In 1959, physicist Richard Feynman pointed out that all the words written in the history of the world could be contained in a cube of material one tenth of a millimetre wide - provided those words were written with atoms.

Now, scientists have done just that, creating an atomic-scale memory by using atoms of silicon in place of the 1s and 0s that computers use to store data.

Proof of concept

The research is reported in the journal Nanotechnology. Scientists say it represents a first crude step toward a practical storage device in which atoms represent bits of information.

"This is proof of concept of what Feynman was saying 40 years ago," says Franz Himpsel of the University of Wisconsin.

News source: BBC