Data storage
The problem of writing bits to a physical medium and reading them back reliably — across seconds, years, or centuries.
Every piece of digital information — a file, a model weight, a genome sequence — eventually reduces to a pattern encoded in matter: magnetic domains, optical pits, charge in a transistor, or glass nanostructures. Storage is the discipline of choosing that medium and keeping the pattern intact. The hard parts are density (how much fits), durability (how long it holds without decay or power), and read speed (how fast you can retrieve it). No single medium wins all three, which is why archivists and data-center engineers face the same recurring trade-off: cost versus longevity versus access latency.
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Overall = breadth + depth + substance + ½·novelty + freshness (a small boost that halves each week)
Pyrex for the archive
Microsoft's Project Silica got laser-written archival storage working in ordinary borosilicate glass — the stuff of kitchen cookware — instead of the costly optical-grade silica it has needed since 2016.
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