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?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 18 2015, @09:41AM
However, who has access? Who owns the seeds? Who owns the genes? Can you own a gene?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 18 2015, @10:27AM
2025: The Pirate Bay Launches "Genetics" Category For DNA Downloads
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 18 2015, @04:24PM
What would take ten years?
They can do it now:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/ [nih.gov]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 18 2015, @04:56PM
Because there's no use for it to most people. Hopefully in 10 years we'll be able to plug downloaded DNA into bacteria and wait for the results, you know, something like making a tub that produces endless morphine or mescaline. ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 18 2015, @05:08PM
LSD-excreting yeast/bacteria
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 18 2015, @09:48PM
We previously discussed a related topic.
Seminis (Monsanto) Uses Open [Broccoli] IP and Shades the Original Innovators' Work [soylentnews.org]
-- gewg_