Air Bubbles Trapped in Ice as a Message Storage System

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Recently, a team of researchers from China and Czechia has developed a novel method of storing information using air bubbles trapped in ice.

• The technique offers an alternative for storing messages in extremely cold environments, where traditional storage methods fail.
• Inspiration – The idea is inspired by natural air bubbles preserved in glaciers, which have held ancient atmospheric samples for thousands of years.
• Recognizing the ability of ice to trap and preserve air, researchers explored controlled bubble formation to encode information.
• Working principle – Freezing air bubbles to store data when water freezes, it traps air bubbles.
• The shape, size, and arrangement of these bubbles depend on the freezing speed.
• By controlling freezing speed, scientists can create bubble patterns representing data, similar to:
  • Morse Code (dots and dashes)
  • Binary Code (0s and 1s)

Morse code is a telecommunications method which encodes text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called dots and dashes.

• Types of bubbles formed – Researchers identified two primary bubble shapes:
  • Egg-shaped bubbles
  • Needle-shaped bubbles
• By measuring bubble height and width, regions within the ice could be categorized as:
  • Egg-shaped only
  • Both egg and needle-shaped
  • Needle-shaped only
  • No bubbles
• Creating information layers – Scientists induced rapid temperature changes to control freezing speed, generating bubble layers at precise locations.
• Multiple bubble layers can be created in a single ice slice by repeating the temperature control process.
• Message encoding process – The storage process involves:
• Converting the desired message (letters/numbers) into a temperature-control pattern.
• Using the pattern to guide the freezing process and form bubble layers.
• Scanning the ice slice with a camera.
• Using a computer algorithm to interpret light and dark bands in the image as encoded information.
• Potential applications – Storage of information in extremely cold places, where electronics or paper are impractical in,
  • Arctic and Antarctic regions
  • Moon or Mars missions
• Long-term information preservation in glacial environments or space exploration.

Reference

The Hindu| Air Bubbles Trapped in Ice as a Message Storage System