We all know its taboo to mix computers and water, right? However, in the future it might not be uncommon. A team of experimentalists and theorists at the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and Harvard University have come up with a new and astonishing way to effectively store data. By terminating their surfaces with water, the team is effectively able to control ferroelectricity in nanostructures. What does this mean? Simply put:
"Though a scheme for the dense arrangement and addressing of these nanowires remains to be developed, such an approach would enable a storage density of more than 100,000 terabits per cubic centimeter. If this memory density can be realized commercially, a device the size of an iPod nano could hold enough MP3 music to play for 300,000 years without repeating a song or enough DVD quality video to play movies for 10,000 years without repetition."
I can see it now. "Wait, before we leave I need to water my computer." =)