In 2008, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault was established on a Norwegian island in the Arctic to serve as a conservator of biodiversity and food security. In other words, they keep seeds safe in case we need them in the future. It seems that future starts now.

Damage to a gene bank near the city of Aleppo in Syria caused by the ongoing civil war has caused Middle Eastern researchers to request replacement samples of dry region-suited seeds. This marks the first time that the "doomsday" vault has been cracked since its inception. But this is basically what it was designed for: To ensure the protection of these seeds against the worst that humans and natural disasters can throw at them.

According to Reuters, the request comes specifically from International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), which had been headquartered in Aleppo prior to moving to Beirut in 2012. Out of the 860,000-plus samples the vault houses from all over the world, ICARDA wants 116,000 of those. That accounts for 130 of the 325 boxes that the center had previously given to the vault. The process hasn't been completed just yet, but there doesn't appear to be anything stopping them from receiving the requested samples, beyond paperwork.

Left undisturbed, and without the need for power, the vault is designed to stay frozen for 200 years. Let's hope things don't get so bad that we need it again.

Source: Reuters via The Verge

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io