it is turning out to be a good week in The Economist. This article looks at the current state of hologram technology. We are already at the point where we can use holograms for data storage. The article talks about a commercially available 300 Gb drive. But this is write-once, because etching the hologram changes the physical nature of the disk material. Much more exciting is research into re-writable holographic storage, which works by changing electron distribution in the material instead. As the article points out, once we have this, we are not far away from having holographic TV. (Though emergency holographic doctors might take a little longer.)