To prepare for potential extinction, scientists are storing the human genome on a “memory crystal” designed to last billions of years

Researchers have encoded the entire human genome onto a “5D memory crystal” as a precaution in case our species faces extinction. Even if this effort ultimately fails, the device could theoretically provide our genetic code to a future sentient being, even if it takes billions of years for them to discover it.

For over a decade, crystal has been regarded as the gold standard for durable data storage. More specifically, a nanostructured glass disc developed in 2014 by a team led by optoelectronics professor Peter Kazansky at the University of Southampton. This 360-terabyte data crystal can remain stable at room temperature for 300 quintillion years, and its lifespan only reduces to 13.8 billion years (the current age of the universe) if exposed to temperatures of 374 degrees Fahrenheit. With the ability to withstand extreme temperatures, direct impacts up to 10 tonnes per square centimetre, and prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation, it holds the Guinness World Record for the most durable digital storage medium. Given the growing concerns about the reliability of today’s digital landscape, it is one of the prime choices for securely archiving electronic information.

With this in mind, Kazansky’s team recently set to work encoding the three billion characters of the human genome into one of their coin-sized memory crystals. According to a university profile, they employed ultra-fast lasers to etch the DNA code into voids within the disc’s silica as small as 20 nanometres wide. Unlike most traditional information-recording methods (such as paper and magnetic tape), the crystal “uses two optical dimensions and three spatial coordinates to write throughout the material,” which they describe as “5D.”

Inspired by the Voyager mission’s iconic Golden Records, the disc includes a visual key explaining its usage. It features illustrations of male and female humans, the universal elements hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, DNA’s molecular structure, and other essential information that could be necessary for synthetically creating a person.

Kazansky’s team recognises that current technology is not yet advanced enough to accomplish what their disc is designed to support. Nevertheless, advancements in synthetic biology, such as the 2010 creation of synthetic bacterium, suggest a future where artificially created humans, as well as plants and animals, may become feasible.

“We know from the work of others that the genetic material of simple organisms can be synthesised and used in existing cells to create viable living specimens in a laboratory,” Kazansky stated. “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 future science permit.”

Currently, the human genome-encoded “5D memory crystal” is housed in the Memory of Mankind archive, a time capsule project located in the world’s oldest salt mine in Hallstatt, Austria. If all goes according to plan, it will remain there until it is potentially needed—hopefully never.