Scientists for the first time have managed to store light-based information as sounds waves on a computer chip, and could bring computers that use light instead of electricity a step closer. Light-based or photonics computers have the potential to be around 20 times faster than current electronic computers, and produce no heat and do not guzzle energy like existing devices. Coding information on photons is easy, but finding a way to retrieve and process the stored information is difficult because light is too fast for existing microchips to read. Akin to capturing lightning as thunder, researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia have developed a memory system that accurately transfers between light and sound waves on a photonic microchip, allowing the data to be stored as a sound so it can be retrieved and processed. To find out more check out A chip-integrated coherent photonic-phononic memory.