The world's smallest library is not made of paper, but of quartz crystal, and it can store all of humanity's information in a space smaller than a coin.
Developed by the University of Southampton in England, this technology called '5D optical data storage' uses femtosecond lasers to write data onto synthetic quartz crystals at the nanoscale.
The impressive features of this crystalline library include:
- Capacity: Up to 360 terabytes on a coin-sized disc
- Durability: Data can last up to 13.8 billion years
- Resistance: Withstands temperatures up to 1,000°C
- Dimensions: Data is stored in five spatial dimensions
In 2016, researchers successfully stored historical documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the King James Bible on coin-sized crystal discs.
This technology could revolutionize long-term data storage, especially for preserving human knowledge for future civilizations.
Source: University of Southampton
