Scientists at Microsoft Research in the United States have demonstrated a system called Silica for writing and reading information in ordinary pieces of glass, which can store two million books' worth of data in a thin, palm-sized square. In a paper published today in Nature , the researchers say their tests suggest the data will be readable for more than 10,000 years. What tiny pulses of light can do The new system, called Silica , uses extremely short flashes of laser light to inscribe bits