Silk hard drive stores optical data

Researchers in the US and China have made the first-ever silk hard drive using a technique called tip-enhanced near-field infrared nanolithography (TNINL). The device, which can store digital data with a density of 64 GB per square inch, is robust in the face of harsh conditions such as heat, moisture, gamma radiation or high magnetic fields. While a silk-based hard drive is unlikely to match the speed and storage capacity of state-of-the-art solid-state drives at the same cost, its unique set of features makes it promising for electronics that could be implanted in the body.