Svalbard Global Seed Vault Turns Four

If you ever visit Spitsbergen, Norway, one of the islands of Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Circle, you might come across coal mines, snowmobile traffic, glaciers, polar bears and reindeer. Or a giant metal box sticking out of a mountain.Four years ago this week, researchers erected the sturdy, if homely, box called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, or less formally, the Doomsday Vault, to store a variety of frozen seeds in case of disaster. Nearly 25,000 new samples will be added to the cave this week, bringing the total inventory to more than 740,000 specimens. Covered in rock and permafrost, the vault will stay chilly even if the electricity goes out. It is, its backers say, “the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply.”Read more at...Smithsonian's Surprising Science, February 2012.