The secret, scientists say, lies in a “5D memory crystal.” A team from the University of Southampton has successfully stored the entire human genome on five-dimensional memory crystals that could eventually be used to revive society after an extinction event.
The crystal is now stored in the Archive of Human Memory, a special time capsule inside a salt cave in Hallstatt, Austria.
A team from the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre also said a revolutionary data storage format that could survive for billions of years could be used to record the genomes of endangered plant and animal species.
A university spokesperson explained that unlike other data storage formats that degrade over time, 5D memory crystals can store up to 360 terabytes of information (at the largest size) without loss for billions of years, even at high temperatures.
It was awarded the Guinness World Record for the most durable data storage material in 2014.
“The crystal is equivalent to fused quartz, one of the most chemically and thermally robust materials on Earth,” said a University of Southampton spokesperson. “It can withstand high and low temperatures from freezing to fire and temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. The crystal can also withstand a direct impact force of up to 10 tons per square centimetre and is unchanged by prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation.”
The team, led by Professor Peter Kazansky, used ultrafast lasers to precisely engrave data into oriented nanostructured voids within the silica, with sizes as small as 20 nanometers.
“Unlike simply marking the surface of a two-dimensional piece of paper or magnetic tape, this coding method uses two optical dimensions and three spatial coordinates to write across the material, hence the name ‘5D’,” the University of Southampton spokesperson added.
Although it is not currently possible to create humans artificially using genetic information alone, the longevity of the 5D crystal means that the information will be available if such developments are achieved in the future.
Professor Kazansky pointed to the creation of artificial bacteria by Dr. Craig Venter’s team in 2010.
“We know from the work of others that the genetic material of simple organisms can be synthesized and used in an existing cell to create a viable living specimen in the laboratory,” he said.
The 5D memory crystal opens up possibilities for other scientists to build a permanent repository of genetic information from which complex organisms such as plants and animals can be restored if science allows it in the future.
Engraved on the crystal is a visual key showing the universal elements (hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen), the four bases of the DNA molecule (adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine) along with their molecular structure, their location in the DNA double helix structure, and how genes are positioned in the chromosome, which can then be inserted into the cell.
“The optical key engraved on the crystal gives whoever finds it knowledge of the data stored inside and how it can be used,” Professor Kazansky explained.
Source: Daily Mail
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2024-09-20 21:12:07