Scientists Develop Medium That Can Store Data for Millions of Years

New Storage Mediums Can Outlive the Human Race

by Anton Shilov
10/24/2013 | 11:02 PM

Researcher Jeroen de Vries from the University of Twente Mesa+ institute for nanotechnology has demonstrates that it is possible to store data for extremely long periods. The scientist has created an optical information carrier that can store information for extremely long periods of time, with each bit being written using etching techniques.






In order to ensure the stability of the data, an energy barrier that separates the information from the non-information is required. In order to prove that the data is still legible after millions of years, an ageing test is required to see if the energy barriers are high enough to prevent data loss.

“According to the Arrhenius model, the medium should keep working for at least 1 million years if it is heated to a temperature of 473°K (200°C) and kept in the oven for an hour," noted the scientist.

After the test there was no visible degradation of the tungsten, and it was still easy to read the information. Things become complicated at higher temperatures. When heated to 713°K (440°C) it becomes a lot more difficult to decypher the QR codes even if the tungsten is not affected.
