The present invention provides techniques for conveniently and reliably storing and/or retrieving data associated with a chemical, biological, or biochemical chip, reactor, or reaction system. The data can pertain to the reactor; to chemical, biological, or biochemical species introduced into, taken from, or otherwise associated with the reactor; to conditions to which the reactor and/or some or all of its contents has been, is being, or will be exposed to, or the like. Various aspects of the present invention relate to memory and data storage components suitable for use in chips or other reaction systems. These components may include silicon integrated circuits, magnetic media, optical media, radio-frequency tags, smart cards, bar-codes and other kinds of data storage devices. The chip may contain a reaction site having a volume of less than about 2 ml. In some embodiments, the chip may be constructed in such a way as to be able to support a living cell. The chip may be used for imaging or analysis, or the chip may be used to facilitate a chemical or biological reaction, which may be light-sensitive or light-activated in certain cases. Other facilitated reactions may include the production and/or consumption of a chemical or biological species. In some embodiments, the chip may include more than one component or component type, and/or more than one reaction site.