 |
Doomsday Vault Design Now Final
The Svalbard International Seed Vault, aka the Doomsday Vault, is to be built into the mountainside on the island of Spitzbergen, one of the Svalbard islands. The vault is intended to safeguard the world's agricultural diversity from catastrophe - global warming, nuclear war, asteroid strikes - the usual suspects.
(Humans enter the vault once per year)
The facility will burrow deep into the sandstone mountain. Equipped with fashionable dual blast-proof doors, two airlocks and one-meter-thick walls of steel-reinforced concrete, it may provide an attractive haven to the rest of us when the time comes.
(Not unlike certain Egyptian facilities)
The only unfriendly feature is the refrigeration, which is provided by standard units reinforced by the local permafrost, cooling the facility down to a less-than-toasty -20 to -30 degrees Celsius. Some seeds would be preserved for decades, others for thousands of years, depending on the seed type.
Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a drop-off in the number of books and movies that forecast the end of the world. Alas, Babylon, a 1959 novel by Pat Frank set in south Florida, sticks in my mind as a particularly realistic fiction work. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and The Postman all deal with a post-Apocalyptic future.
There were lots of great films too, like On the Beach, Dr. Strangelove, Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, Soylent Green (Charlton Heston was a great Last Man) and many others.
Update 18-Aug-2012: Take a look at the life bank from John Varley's 1977 novel The Ophiuchi Hotline and the genetic ark from Earth, a 1990 novel by David Brin. End update.
Find out more at Crop Trust and at Norway to house seeds via Interactive/Media/Design.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 2/12/2007)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 2 )
Related News Stories - (" Agriculture ")
SWEEPER Robot Peter Piper Picking Peppers
'... little machines, that went from plant to plant, apparently on caterpillar tracks, cutting off the ripe fruit.' Otfrid von Hanstein, 1935.
Fully Automated Farm Iron Ox Hydroponics
'Had these machines in some incredible fashion been provided with brains?' - Otfrid von Hanstein, 1935
Once A Jolly Swagbot Camped By A Billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree.
Rowbot Small Autonomous Farm Robot
'...The tiny red glints of self-guided tractors.' - Larry Niven, 1966.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Current News
Soon, Your Tesla Will Follow You Like A Pet
'... follow him as faithfully as a well-trained hound.'
Chinese Watrix Gait Recognition Watching You Always
'... those pesky gait-recognition cameras.'
FlexPai Foldable Phone By Royole
'...A paper thin polycarbon screen unfurled.'
Oh Yes, We're Building The Rotating Tower In Dubai
'Give me an old-fashioned tetragon on a central pivot every time.'
Bioreactor Helps Legless Frogs Get Their Jump Back
'An alien drug... Used by an insect race... It can repair bones and organs. It can grow new tissue."
Xinhua AI Anchor Puts CGI Face To Automated News
'...a congeries of software agents.'
Wirewax Watching You Watch, Adjusting Your Experience
'He adjusted the n, the r and b knobs, and hopefully anticipated a turn for the better...'
LawGeex AI Beats 20 Top Lawyers
'The Law Society has strict rules on the use of pseudo-intelligent software - terrified of putting... its members out of work.'
ROAM Robotics Skiing Exoskeleton
'The real genius in the design is that you don't have to control the suit; you just wear it...'
MIT Headset Lets You Communicate Without Speaking
'The subvocal read nerve signals, letting her enter words by just beginning to will them...'
Exploring Oceans Across The Solar System
'Black liquid flashed past the turbot’s infrared eyes.'
SWEEPER Robot Peter Piper Picking Peppers
'... little machines, that went from plant to plant, apparently on caterpillar tracks, cutting off the ripe fruit.'
Oil from Algae - Can It Be Done?
'We dump everything that's waste into the tanks, pump the oil off the top.'
Moving Whole Planets, Revisited
There was a lot of work done on this idea over the years.
Disney Keeps Backups Of Star Wars Franchise Actors
'She is a personality-construct, a congeries of software agents...'
Farming In Space Starts With Mycorrhiza
'The inner leaves were beginning to curl faster than the outer leaves.'
