USFWS Is Creating a Frozen Library of Biodiversity To Help Endangered Species

Kiley Price writes via Inside Climate News: In a new initiative announced on Tuesday, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is working with the nonprofit Revive & Restore and other partners to create a "genetic library" of the country's endangered species -- before it's too late. Through a process called biobanking, FWS field staff are gathering biological samples such as blood, tissues and reproductive cells from animals to be cryogenically preserved at extremely low temperatures (at least -256 degrees Fahrenheit) and stored at a USDA facility in Colorado. The samples will also be genetically sequenced and this information will be uploaded to a publicly available database called GenBank, where researchers can study them and compare their genomes to other members of their species.

that looks right

[bob_jenkins]

Preserving data a very long time is hard, but cryogenically storing originals plus sequencing the genes and different groups storing copies of the database in at least three different countries looks like a good start. It could avoid most fat fingered deletes.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Yeah, it'd have to be "congress extremists holding the country to ransom" resistant so when the lights go out every year because they didn't get the cuts to the poor & the breaks for the rich they wanted, the samples don't defrost.

The Chill Way to Save Endangered Species

[Press2ToContinue]

Looks like the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is taking 'backing up your data' to a whole new level. Here's to keeping our biodiversity cool.

Human

[RitchCraft]

Better add a human to that list. Our days are numbered. :)

Dr. Evil

[Latent Heat]

Are they starting with placing the frozen Dr. Evil into Earth orbit?

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Yeah, great idea select the most representative samples of billionaire & congress arseholes to be preserved for the future. You know, the kind of people who assume they're better than everyone else.

Optimism

[backslashdot]

Will future humans even give a shit? The way things are going I don't know.

Forty years late

[topham]

Seriously, done better elsewhere.

\o/

[easyTree]

Noah's Ark ftw!

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion