Delft university unveils smallest hard drive ever

A team of TU Delft scientists developed the the physically smallest hard drive ever to exist in the world so far. The hard disk has a storage capacity of 80 terabits, about 500 times more than is currently commercially available, and each bit consists of only one chlorine atom, NU.nl reports. "In theory, with this capacity we would be able to save all the books that mankind has ever written on one stamp", according to research leader Sander Otte. The chlorine atoms are placed on a surface of copper atoms, and each chlorine atom can be in two positions. The atoms are read and moved with a so-called scanning tunneling microscope, which uses a very sharp needle to scan the atoms one by one. For now the TU Delft tiny hard drive will not be available commercially, as it can only function in a vacuum environment, cooled to -196 degrees Celsius.