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The Crystal Revolution : Storing DNA for Eternity

 Today I feel like I should write about this... It's been a while since my last post but no worries, I've come up with something really nice. Science articles always surprise me but some of them spark my imagination with ideas to write stories upon. This was surely one of them. 

Human Genome Stored for Eternity

I will tell you more about this....

5D Crystals

The 5D optical data storage technology, also known as the "Superman memory crystal", was first demonstrated in 2013. The technology was developed by Professor Peter Kazansky and his team at the University of Southampton. These are nanostructured glass crystals which has a unique 5-dimensional structure, allowing it to store extremely large amounts of data. 

It is predicted that almost 300 billion Terabytes of data will be created in 2027 but we don't have enough storage entities to keep up with the demand. So scientists worked hard to find a solution. It took them about 2 decades of brainstorming research to come up with a new breakthrough in technology. 

University of Southampton researchers led by Dr. Kazansky, explored femtosecond laser writing in glass. This created microstructures for optical devices and data storage. In 2013, they demonstrated 5D data storage using nanostructured glass, which achieved 360TB/Cm3 data density, far exceeding conventional storage. 

5D Superman Storage

In traditional storage devices, data is stored in 3 dimensions of space. However, in 5D nanostructured crystals, data is stored in 5 dimensions ; Length, Breadth, Height, Wavelength and Polarization. The ultrafast laser writing creates minute 3D structures within the glass crystals while the wavelength and polarization of the laser influence the shape and orientation of the structure. This enables the storage of enormous data on a simple 5 inch rectangular glass slab. This technology was awarded Guinness World Record for highest data density in 2013. 

From Data to DNA

Researchers realized that these crystals could be adapted for storing biological information such as DNA. In July 2019, the researchers from University of Southampton successfully stored DNA sequences on 5D glass crystals. This was done with the following steps:

  • Genetic information was sequenced to digital data.
  • This data was encoded into 5D crystals using femtosecond laser writing.
  • These are stored and preserved for long.

 It can withstand the high and low extremes of freezing, fire and temperatures of up to 1000 °C. The crystal can also withstand direct impact force of up to 10 ton per cm2 and is unchanged by long exposure to cosmic radiation. 

Futuristic Applications

This is a leap of technology which has a lot of applications. However, in far future these could be used to recreate humans in the future if the technology is developed. This is because the chip could last for billions of years while we could go extinct by that time. The same method used to store the human genome can be used to store the DNA of endangered animals and plants. This could help save species that are on the brink of extinction. 

Can these crystals be used to create new synthetic forms of life? What do you think? Let's imagine in my next blog post.....

Sources

  • https://www.southampton.ac.uk/
  • wikipedia
  • META

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