Alternative storage stuff is always interesting. In this case it’s also nanotech, so that makes it a double-whammy. Some researchers have made a two-layer nanowire out of germanium, antimony, and tellurium that can be made to store information in the form of its physical state. They can alter the crystalline structure in the tiny wires by an electrical pulse and it’ll stay that way – so all they have to do is decide what’s a “0,” what’s a “1,” and in this case what’s a “2″ as well.

This kind of customizable, non-volatile storage medium could be very handy for extremely small electronics that can’t power a solid-state disk or hard drive. Bonus: they look like nano-caterpillars.