Scientists at the University of Southampton are offering a tantalizing look into a new type of technology that could be be the future of data storage.

The new technology, dubbed "Superman memory crystal," uses lasers and nanostructures to record huge amounts of data onto tiny glass disks. The research, which is being presented at a conference in San Francisco this week, could allow people to preserve data and documents for billions of years, scientists say.

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The researchers have been experimenting with the technology, called 5-dimensional data storage, since 2013 when they first used the technique to record 300KB of text. Now, the technology has progressed enough that scientists are able to store up to 360TB of data on the disks. The "5D" technology uses a combination of lasers and tiny nanostructures to record the data, which can be viewed with an optical microscope and a polarizer. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the technology is that its creators promise the disks will have a "virtually unlimited" lifetime, if stored at room temperature (they estimate the disks will survive up to 13.8 billion years at 190 degrees Celsius.)

Image: University of Southhampton

Though promising, the technology, which is being presented at the Optical Engineering Conference in San Francisco this week, is still at a relatively early stage as it requires expensive lasers to do the actual recording. But the researchers say they are looking for partners that could help commercialize the technique so it could be available outside of a lab.

They note 5D data storage could have a huge impact on how some of history's most important documents — like the Magna Carta and Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) — are preserved and have already recorded copies of the UDHR, the Magna Carta, the King James Bible and Newton's Opticks.

"This technology can secure the last evidence of our civilisation: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten,” Professor Peter Kazansky said in a statement.