Recently, a team led by Professor Peter Kazansky from the University of Southampton achieved a remarkable feat—successfully encoding the entire human genome into a device called “5D memory crystal” with the help of Helixworks Technologies.
Yes, the entire human genome! You might wonder what this 5D memory crystal is. Let’s break it down.
Firstly, this 5D memory crystal is a piece of “black technology” developed by the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at Southampton University. It comes in various sizes, with the largest measuring about 5 inches, yet it can hold 360TB of data!
What does this capacity mean? It’s roughly equivalent to hundreds of thousands of times the storage space on your phone!
Moreover, this device is not only massive in capacity but also offers astonishing longevity. Forget about hard drives failing, data loss, or file corruption—those problems don’t exist here!
The 5D memory crystal is incredibly durable, potentially lasting billions of years without any so-called “bit rot.” It’s practically a “fountain of youth” for data storage.
As for the material, the 5D memory crystal is made from a highly durable “quartz glass.” This material has even won the Guinness World Record for “most durable data storage material.”
Professor Kazansky explains that this quartz glass is different from regular window glass; it’s more like ultra-pure fiberglass, much harder than ordinary glass. According to the professor, this material is “harder than a lizard,” can withstand temperatures up to 1,000°C, endure 10 tons of pressure per square centimeter, and is even resistant to cosmic radiation!
Kazansky and his team believe this storage method could enable humanity to “resurrect” from this data thousands, millions, or even billions of years later. It’s like these storage crystals are turning into “time capsules.”
So, what does “5D” actually mean? In simple terms, 5D refers to the “degrees of freedom” in data writing.
We’ve likely heard of 3D, but 5D goes further—besides the usual three axes (X, Y, and Z), it adds two extra “degrees of freedom”—the direction and size of nanostructures.
Kazansky explains that these two extra degrees of freedom are achieved through polarization states and wavelengths. In other words, each tiny storage unit, which originally could store one bit, can now store eight bits! This upgrade significantly increases data storage efficiency!
In fact, this 5D storage technology is an evolution of existing 3D optical storage, but it incorporates a new feature called “birefringence.” This enhancement greatly boosts the capacity of storage units. Since it offers two additional degrees of freedom over traditional storage, it’s referred to as “5D storage.”
Of course, we may not be able to use this genetic data to directly “clone” or “recreate humans”—that technology might never exist. However, this storage technology alone is immensely useful! It can help preserve the vast amounts of information from our digital age, giving future generations a chance to see our “digital legacy.”
Imagine, billions of years from now, someone might understand our current lives through these crystals—what a hardcore way to preserve history!
In summary, the 5D memory crystal is a super “time capsule” that is not only large in capacity and durable but can store data for billions of years. Forget just the human genome; it seems anything can be stored in it! Want future generations to see our photos, documents, or even trending topics? Just engrave them into this crystal, and they’ll still be “as good as new” billions of years later! With it, data storage and preservation become a possibility of “permanence,” truly making technology cooler for the future.
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