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Risking Your Life for Science

posted by martyb on Saturday April 18 2015, @07:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the do-not-store-all-your-seeds-in-one-basket dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

When civil war broke out in Syria, scientist Ahmed Amri immediately thought to rescue the seed bank that sat in cold storage in Aleppo:

Specifically, 141,000 packets of them sitting in cold storage 19 miles south of Aleppo. They included ancient varieties of wheat and durum dating back nearly to the dawn of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, and one of the world’s largest collections of lentil, barley, and faba bean varieties—crops that feed millions of people worldwide every day. If these seeds were decimated, humanity could lose precious genetic resources developed over hundreds, or in some cases thousands, of years. And suddenly, with the outbreak of violence, their destruction seemed imminent.

It's rare that people consider stores of human knowledge more precious than their own lives. What knowledge would Soylentils sacrifice their own lives to save?

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by davester666 on Saturday April 18 2015, @08:04AM

    by davester666 (155) on Saturday April 18 2015, @08:04AM (#172332)

    Syria was the best place to build this installation when?

    Why? The West Bank refused to have it?

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 18 2015, @03:13PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 18 2015, @03:13PM (#172425)

    The "best place" is as many places as possible. Therefore the fact that it was Syria does not make it a bad choice.

    • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Sunday April 19 2015, @03:06AM

      by davester666 (155) on Sunday April 19 2015, @03:06AM (#172694)

      Yes, IF the seeds were in "as many places as possible", that would be ideal for the survival of the seeds.

      However, if that were true, then why would someone risk their life trying to save a single cache?

      Anyway, trying to pick a good, fixed site for these seeds in that region doesn't really seem possible, at least given the history since WW II. And then with WW II, it would be a crapshoot having them anywhere.

      Maybe have them in some geosynchronous satellites, and then fire some to the moon...

      • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday April 20 2015, @08:06PM

        by Freeman (732) on Monday April 20 2015, @08:06PM (#173258) Journal

        Since they will obviously be useful on the moon?

        --
        Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"