What kind of crash are you having? A Fatal Exception? Something else? Can you provide any specifics?

The reason that your game 'reverted' to a previous state is that it is only saved when you exit the game (or switch apps). Say, for example, that you had been playing the game for awhile, took 3 female researchers and turned them into moms, and played for another hour or so when the game crashed and required a soft reset. When you launch the game again, it will load your last saved game state - before you made the babies (since you had been running the game all day). Instead of having 3 babies, the game will 'think' that your researchers had been researching all day (since the baby-making activity hadn't been saved). The same goes for any puzzles you might solve, etc. That stuff is only saved when you exit the game. It's not the pause that saves the game - the game is saved when you change apps or go back to the launcher.