Years Of Human Genome Data Lost In UCSC Fire 44
dsavitsk links to a New York Times article which reports that several years of data related to the human genome project have been lost in a fire at the University of California at Santa Cruz, seemingly with no backup.
Read the damn art, data NOT lost!!! (Score:5, Informative)
The Article (Score:2, Informative)
Years of Data Lost in Fire at University
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
[S] ANTA CRUZ, Calif., Jan. 12 (AP) -- A fire tore through university laboratories here and destroyed genetic research that took years to develop, officials said today.
The fire began early Friday and destroyed the top floor of a laboratory at the University of California at Santa Cruz. It later flared up twice more and destroyed the interior of a second laboratory, said Charles Hernandez, the university's fire chief.
Prof. Manuel Ares Jr., chairman of the Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology Department, said, "It's a devastating situation," and added, "I don't know how far it has set me back."
He said many of the genetic strains in his laboratory had taken 14 years to develop and could take that long to replace. His work was related to the Human Genome Project, a national effort to identify the tens of thousands of genes in human DNA.
Chief Hernandez said the building did not have a sprinkler system because it was built in 1987, before fire codes required one.
The cause
Re:Read the damn art, data NOT lost!!! (Score:3, Informative)
The original story was off base enough, but Slashdot managed to blow it far more out of proportion. Yes, the human genome sequence is backed up, securely and globally.