This is amazing! A new breakthrough for science and technology as given us the next evolutionary step in data storage. The quartz crystals can hold hundreds of terra bytes of information and with stand crazy amounts of damage, it is a stone after all. Produced by Hitachi, the information is etched, in several layers, then read out with a optical microscope. Future generations will not need a proprietary drive to read the information. Anyone with a microscope and an understanding of binary language will be able to decipher the information!

Current methods of optical, flash, and magnetic information storage have fairly limited shelf lives. The information written on the quartz will last as long as the stone does. Hitachi tested the media by subjecting it to two hours of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit with no discernible damage.

For those having a hard time grasping the longevity of this storage, lets add perspective. The Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago and the universe is pushing 13.82 billion years. If someone had engraved information on this medium at the start of the universe it would still be usable today!

The entirety of human knowledge and history could be placed on a few SLIVERS of this medium. It has been officially referred to as the 5D storage device. A research team at Southamton University has already taken the liberty of inscribing: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Newton’s Opticks, The Magna Carta, and The King James Bible.

If everything fails, and humanity is wiped out these crystals will be the best ways for us to never be forgotten. If some tragedy befalls us, the wealth of our knowledge will never be lost. The survivors will have the means to pick up where we started.