The feature photograph and the architecture of this place is remarkable. I'd love to see it integrated with some future iteration of the Clock of the Long Now: http://longnow.org/clock/
If I have read the OA correctly, the vault depends on electricity supplies from the local community, has freezers running without spare parts (I'd have expected a complete duplicate freezer unit kept as parts with regular swap outs for more recent designs after a certain number of hours). The data about the samples is not attached to the samples themselves as well as being indexed off site, and there appears to be no viability checking.
I my understanding is correct, then perhaps agencies should be funding other kinds of activity such as that outlined later in the article.
It's not critical that the seeds are kept at that temperature, it's just to maximize the amount of time they last.
If the freezers fail then it will take several weeks for the temperature to go from -18C (freezer) to -4C (ground temperature), and after that the seeds will still last a very long time.
Thanks for clarification on that one, the dramatic opening paragraph seemed to suggest that the sky would fall if the freezer was not repaired immediately.
Edit to my original post: the project should be funded along with complementary approaches.
5 comments
[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 22.0 ms ] threadI my understanding is correct, then perhaps agencies should be funding other kinds of activity such as that outlined later in the article.
If the freezers fail then it will take several weeks for the temperature to go from -18C (freezer) to -4C (ground temperature), and after that the seeds will still last a very long time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFAcyJxIguA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault
Edit to my original post: the project should be funded along with complementary approaches.