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"[Science fiction] has become big business, where books are merchandised and promoted and distributed and placed on sale like slabs of bacon or cans of soup."
- Frederik Pohl

Life Bank  
  A storage facility with the genetic material that was produced by Earth's ecosystem.  

Can we take some of the Earth's biosphere with us if we are forced to leave our planet?

There had been a time when wheat, soybeans, potatoes, corn and rice had been the major foods of the human race. Now there was no one alive who had ever seen them.

But they existed in the Life Bank, as did virtually every plant and animal that existed on Old Earth.

Technovelgy from The Ophiuchi Hotline, by John Varley.
Published by Quantum Science Fiction in 1977
Additional resources -

Compare to the genetic ark from Earth, a 1990 novel by David Brin.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Ophiuchi Hotline
  More Ideas and Technology by John Varley
  Tech news articles related to The Ophiuchi Hotline
  Tech news articles related to works by John Varley

Life Bank-related news articles:
  - Doomsday Vault Design Now Final
  - Survival Seed Vault Low Cost Life Bank
  - Svalbard Seed Vault (aka Doomsday Vault) Gets Upgrades
  - Lunar Biorepository Proposed For Cryo-Preservation Of Earth Species

Articles related to Biology
Black Fungus Blocks Radiation
Lunar Biorepository Proposed For Cryo-Preservation Of Earth Species
Let's Make Slaver Sunflowers! Engineering Plants To Reflect Light
Machete-Wielding Philodendron Isn't Going To Take It Anymore

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Science Fiction in the News

Will AIs Give Better Results If You're Rude To Them?
'I said, "Listen up, motherf*cker.'

Black Fungus Blocks Radiation
'You were surrounded by Astrophage most of the time'

Liuzhi Process Now In Use In China
'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'

Reflect Orbital Offers 'Sunlight on Demand' And Light Pollution
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'

Will Robots Become Family Caregivers?
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'

Chinese Tokamak Uses AI To Keep Fusion Plasma Stable
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'

Time Crystals Can Now Be Seen Directly
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'

RoboBallet The Dance Of Cooperative Robots
'...an integrated seven-unit robot team.'

Chrysalis Generation Ship to Alpha Centauri
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'

More SF in the News

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