How DNA stored in Austrian cave could be key to future of humanity

Extinction of human race could be reversed in future thanks to efforts of Southampton professor

Humanity could be brought back from extinction in millions of years after a person’s genome was etched on a crystal and stored in an Austrian cave.
The 25mm-long 5D memory crystal includes the DNA data of a person as well as instructions on how to read the data, including images of humans, text files and an explanation of what DNA is.
Prof Peter Kazansky, a professor in optoelectronics at the University of Southampton, encoded his own genetic information on the object as part of the Memory of Mankind time capsule project inside a salt cave in Hallstatt, Austria.
Scientists say, 5D memory crystals can store up to 360 terabytes of information safely for billions of years, and are able withstand extreme pressure and temperatures.
“It can withstand the high and low extremes of freezing, fire and temperatures of up to 1,000C,” a spokesman said.
“The crystal can also withstand a direct impact force of up to 10 ton per cm2 and is unchanged by long exposure to cosmic radiation.”
The team used ultra-fast lasers to precisely inscribe data into nano-structured voids orientated within silica – with feature sizes as small as 20 nanometres.
Prof Kazansky said that although it is not currently possible to synthetically create humans, plants and animals using genetic information alone, the longevity of the 5D crystal meant the information would be available if these advances were ever made.
He compared the technology to the Steven Spielberg film “AI: Artificial Intelligence” in which a human is brought back from extinction millions of years after the end of civilisation by a robot species.
“In the movie, the DNA from hair is the key to bringing David’s mother back, albeit briefly and with limitations (she cannot live beyond one day),” he told The Telegraph.
“In the real world, 5D memory crystals containing human DNA could potentially hold vast amounts of biological information for reconstruction or cloning in the future, underlining the same theme: using remnants of a person’s biology to ‘resurrect’ them.”
The crystal has been designed that if it is discovered in millions of years a future machine or species could recreate human life with no other information.
A key shows the universal elements (hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen); the four bases of the DNA molecule (adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine); their placement in the double helix structure of DNA; and how genes position into a chromosome, which can then be inserted into a cell.
Prof Kazansky explained: “The visual key inscribed on the crystal gives the finder knowledge of what data is stored inside and how it could be used.”