Next week, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway will open so scientists can add 60,000 new seeds to the collection. The vault serves as a kind of Noah’s Ark for the globe’s seed biodiversity, to have a backup of plant species in case of natural disaster or famine.
But this modern-day, futurist institution actually has its roots in Russia during World War II. Ben Brock Johnson (@TheBrockJohnson), host of the WBUR and Reddit podcast Endless Thread, has the story.
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