Episode 0014: Writing Data in Glass — Microsoft's Project Silica and the 10,000-Year Storage Problem

Why it matters. Microsoft Research published a complete system for writing data into ordinary borosilicate glass using femtosecond lasers in Nature. A palm-sized square holds nearly 5TB and survives for over 10,000 years. This episode traces the 30-year journey from Eric Mazur's 1996 breakthrough to Project Silica's open blueprint.

Microsoft Research — Project Silica. Nature paper · Project Silica blog post

Papers Discussed

• Laser writing in glass for dense, fast and efficient archival data storage — Microsoft Research (Project Silica team), Nature, 2026-02-19. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-10042-w
• Error-Corrected Eternal Lifetime Storage — Xian-Min Jin et al. (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), 2025. arXiv:2503.22355
• Multi-layer 5D Optical Data Storage — Chao Wang et al., 2025. arXiv:2508.20106

Key Figures & Institutions

• Eric Mazur — Harvard University. Pioneered femtosecond laser glass inscription (1996).
• Peter Kazansky — University of Southampton, Optoelectronics Research Centre. Developed 5D data storage in fused quartz. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.033901
• SPhotonix — Commercial spinout from Kazansky's lab. sphotonix.com
• Kazuyuki Hirao — Kyoto University. Advanced 5D nanograting techniques (2010).
• Swinburne University of Technology — First 5D encoding demonstration (2009).
• 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics — Ferenc Krausz, Anne L'Huillier, Pierre Agostini (attosecond science).

News Coverage

• Ars Technica: Microsoft's new 10,000-year data storage medium: glass
• IEEE Spectrum: Glass Data Storage — Microsoft Silica
• Yahoo News: A glass square for the long, long future

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