'Superman' Memory Crystals Could Survive Billions of Years

The King James Bible encoded onto the "Superman" chip. (Credit: University of Southampton) Millions of years into the future, whatever life-form occupies the planet — assuming this theoretical society still dabbles in archaeology — might hail the discovery of tiny, glass discs that contain the history of their ancient forebears. Researchers at the University of Southampton have created an "eternal" memory storage device that could preserve the story of human civilization long after we've departed. Their 5-dimensional data storage technology uses a combination of lasers and nanostructures to encode information in a fused-quartz glass disc. The researchers say their storage device could theoretically survive for billions of years.