Researchers have stored the entire human genome on a 5D memory crystal, a data storage breakthrough that can last billions of years. A team at the University of Southampton envisions the crystal serving as a blueprint to revive humanity from extinction,

University of Southampton scientists have stored the full human genome on a 5D memory crystal—a revolutionary data storage format that can survive for billions of years.

For now, the human genome-encoded “5D memory crystal” is stored in the Memory of Mankind archive, a time capsule project located within the world’s oldest salt mine in Hallstatt, Austria. If all goes as planned, it will remain until potentially needed—hopefully never.

Researchers at the University of Southampton in the UK successfully stored the entirety of the human genome sequence onto an indestructible 5D optical memory crystal no