Scientists Store Entire Human Genome on Durable Memory Crystal

Scientists in the UK have successfully stored the entire human genome on a “5D memory crystal,” aiming to use it as a blueprint for potential future revival of humanity after extinction.

Can Store Up To 360 Terabytes Of Information 

Developed by researchers at the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre, the crystal could also document plant and animal species at risk of extinction.

According to a press statement from the university, the crystal can store up to 360 terabytes of information for billions of years and withstand extreme conditions, including freezing temperatures, fires, direct impacts, cosmic radiation, and temperatures up to 1,000 degrees Celsius.

In 2014, the crystal received the Guinness World Record for the “most durable digital storage material.”

Kazansky’s team utilized ultra-fast lasers to inscribe human genome data into voids as tiny as 20 nanometers, which is roughly one-billionth of a meter.

The data storage on the crystal is referred to as 5D because the information is encoded in five dimensions of its nanostructures: height, length, width, orientation, and position.

“The 5D memory crystal opens up possibilities for other researchers to build an everlasting repository of genomic information from which complex organisms like plants and animals might be restored should science in the future allow,” said Peter Kazansky, a professor of optoelectronics, who led the team at Southampton, reported by CNN Science.

Visual Key for Future Data Retrieval

The team considered who or what might retrieve the information in the distant future, whether it be an intelligent species or a machine. To assist future discoverers, the researchers included a visual key, accounting for a time when no frame of reference might exist.

“The visual key inscribed on the crystal gives the finder knowledge of what data is stored inside and how it could be used,” said Kazansky.

“Their work is super impressive,” said Thomas Heinis, who leads research on DNA storage at Imperial College London and was not involved in the study. He notes that questions remain about how such data could be accessed in the future.

“What Southampton presents probably has a higher durability, however, this begs the question: what for? Future generations? Sure, but how will they know how to read the crystal? How will they know how to build the device to read the crystal? Will the device be available in hundreds of years?” he added. “I can barely connect my 10-year-old iPod and listen to what I listened back then.”

Currently, the crystal is housed in the Memory of Mankind archive, a time capsule located within a salt cave in Austria.

Earlier this year, scientists unveiled a plan to establish a cryogenic biorepository on the moon to safeguard Earth’s species, aiming to preserve them in case of a disaster on our planet.

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