Human genome stored on ‘eternity crystal’ in case we go extinct

Scientists have stored an entire human genome on a novel memory disc that will serve as our species’ insurance policy.

The research team from University of Southampton, in England, said it hoped that the crystal could provide a “blueprint” to bring humanity back from extinction thousands or even billions of years into the future.

The “revolutionary” disc was developed by the university’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) and is sometimes called a “Superman memory crystal” in reference to the Kryptonian memory crystals described in the franchise.

The crystal is equivalent to fused quartz, one of the most chemically and thermally durable materials on Earth that can withstand temperatures of up to 1000 °C, cosmic radiation, and extreme direct impact force.

Researchers at Southampton also call it a “5D” memory crystal because the data can be encoded within the material using two optical dimensions and three spatial coordinates. The team used ultra-fast lasers to precisely inscribe data into the crystal.

“We know from the work of others that genetic material of simple organisms can be synthesized and used in an existing cell to create a viable living specimen in a lab,” said Prof Peter Kazansky, who led the research team.

This means the technology could be used to store – and to help recreate – the genomes of animal and plant species actually faced with extinction.

“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,” Kazansky said.

The crystal with the human genome was tucked away in the Memory of Mankind archive, a special time capsule within a salt cave in Hallstatt, Austria.