This discovery is fairly preliminary, but holds the potential to be the next revolution in physical storage media: General Electric researchers have successfully refined holographic storage technology — first posited back in the 1960s — to the point where it can be practically used to increase the storage capacity of a standard sized CD or DVD disc about a hundred-fold. Using smaller holograms in a technique called microholographic storage, G.E. has managed to increase the reflective power of the holograms enough to be readable by current optical Blu-ray drives. With this threshold crossed, as much as 500 GB worth of storage on a single standard-sized disc become possible.

Of course, there's still a long way to go on the yellow brick road of holographic storage until the marketplace sees actual microholographic optical drives, and many pitfalls exist after that point not least of which is successful adoption of the technology in a world moving away from physical storage media and toward internet-based cloud computing and distribution. Still, local storage and backups will remain an important staple in many industries and perhaps in many homes, especially if G.E. can deliver mass-produced microholographic drives for as low a price point as they claim theoretically possible: 10 cents per gigabyte.

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