A good worm

Researchers at Hewlett-Packard and Princeton are working with a worm, but it's not the type that causes computers to crash and sets users' teeth on edge. The term is an acronym for write-once read-many-times, a type of memory that could greatly reduce the cost and size of memory devices.

Featured in a recent issue of Nature, the technology could become a single-use card that functions better than a compact disc for permanent data storage. HP says the card has none of the moving parts, such as a laser or motor drive, that CDs need to work. Like real annelids, the worm is made of organic material, but it's the type used as an antistatic in clothes-dryer sheets, electronics packaging, and organic LEDs.

The organic electronic memory combines an electrochromic polymer and a thin-film silicon diode deposited on a flexible metal foil. The worm memory doesn't require mechanical drives used in traditional magnetic and optical memories, the research team points out. The result could be an inexpensive, nonmechanical option for storing and retrieving large amounts of data.

Burrowing into the worm research was the team of Sven Moller, a former Princeton postdoctoral candidate working at HP, and Craig Perlov, Warren Jackson, and Carl Taussig of HP Labs in Palo Alto, CA. Stephen Forrest, a professor at Princeton, also took part. HP Labs and the National Science Foundation provided funding.