IBM Atomic Manipulation

[DigiKing]

This is a really interesting video I found from IBM. They make a short stop motion animation film by magnetically moving CO molecules bit by bit. It's cool but the interesting part is that this technology may one day have an effect on data storage. In the making-of video, they mention that controlling data on the atomic level like this would allow for massive storage spaces. The way they do it is by shrinking the transistor down to the size of 12 atoms. I think it is really cool, even if we don't see the effect of this technology for a while because it would mean that even the smallest device could hold pretty much all the data ever.

 

The making-of video

 

The film they made

http://www.youtube.com/madewithatoms

[Nicktrance]

Slick's reaction to the video: "1:42 IBM Model M :o :o "
My reaction "nice jab at law students"

I doubt we'll see this implemented for a very long time, it would probably be easier to continue increasing density the way they're doing. What I'm curious about is how it would be possible to convert current data into this new method because if there is no way to do it quickly and efficiently it will probably never happen.