Researchers at the University Of Southampton claim they have developed a disc that will store data for a mindblowing 13.5 billion years.
Using laser technology, scientists at the university’s Optical Research Centre said their disc can withstand temperatures of 1000C and will store the data without any of it degrading for so many years that mankind, the sun, the moon, and the whole of planet Earth are expected to have died before their disc.
It’s even believed you can spill coffee on it with no problem.
The discs, which can store 360TB of data (around 700 laptops’ worth), etches its data using microscopically short bursts from a laser.
Each file comprised of three layers of tiny dots. This means you need a microscope to read the data storage disc itself.
The new disc has been dubbed the 5D Disc, as the Optical Research Centre says it can store data in five dimensions. They may have been just trolling people with that claim.
The University Of Southampton team’s head Professor Peter Kazansky said: “It’s thrilling to think we’ve created the technology to preserve information and store it for future generations.”
Professor Kazansky’s team first unveiled a prototype of the disc in 2013, when it was only capable of storing 300kb of data.
The Optical Research Centre scientists have already stored the whole of the Magna Carta, King James Bible, Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, and Isaac Newton’s Opticks on the new disc.
Professor Kazansky said: “This data can store the last evidence of our civilization. All we’ve learned will not be forgotten.”
This means your tweets and Facebook posts can be kept until the sun burns out and the cosmos explodes. Hurrah!
However, it hasn’t been fully explained as yet whether technology like microscopes will still be available to future generations for 13.5 billion years.