Scientists Propose Lunar Biorepository As 'Backup' For Life On Earth 46
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: With thousands of species at risk of extinction, scientists have devised a radical plan: a vault filled with preserved samples of our planet's most important and at-risk creatures located on the moon. An international team of experts says threats from climate change and habitat loss have outpaced our ability to protect species in their natural habitats, necessitating urgent action. A biorepository of preserved cells, and the crucial DNA within them, could be used to enhance genetic diversity in small populations of critically endangered species, or to clone and create new individuals in the worst-case scenario of extinction.
The proposed lunar biorepository, as described in the journal BioScience, would be beyond the reach of climate breakdown, geopolitical events or other Earth-based disasters. The moon's naturally frigid environment means samples would remain frozen year-round without the need for human involvement or an energy source. By taking advantage of deep craters near the polar regions that are never exposed to sunlight, the moon is one of few places that can provide the ultra-low temperature of -196C necessary to preserve the samples in a way suitable for future cloning. [...] Besides those facing the imminent risk of extinction, the proposed repository would prioritize species with important functions in their environment and food webs. Through careful selection, those housed could be used to re-establish an extinct population on Earth or even to terraform another planet. Dr Mary Hagedorn of the Smithsonian's national zoo and conservation biology institute and the proposal's lead author believes the biorepository proposal will come to fruition, although perhaps not in our lifetime: "We know how to do this and can do this and will do this, but it may take decades to finally achieve," she said.
The report says the next steps "will be to develop packaging for the cryopreserved samples that can withstand the conditions of space, and to work out the logistics of transporting samples to the moon."
The proposed lunar biorepository, as described in the journal BioScience, would be beyond the reach of climate breakdown, geopolitical events or other Earth-based disasters. The moon's naturally frigid environment means samples would remain frozen year-round without the need for human involvement or an energy source. By taking advantage of deep craters near the polar regions that are never exposed to sunlight, the moon is one of few places that can provide the ultra-low temperature of -196C necessary to preserve the samples in a way suitable for future cloning. [...] Besides those facing the imminent risk of extinction, the proposed repository would prioritize species with important functions in their environment and food webs. Through careful selection, those housed could be used to re-establish an extinct population on Earth or even to terraform another planet. Dr Mary Hagedorn of the Smithsonian's national zoo and conservation biology institute and the proposal's lead author believes the biorepository proposal will come to fruition, although perhaps not in our lifetime: "We know how to do this and can do this and will do this, but it may take decades to finally achieve," she said.
The report says the next steps "will be to develop packaging for the cryopreserved samples that can withstand the conditions of space, and to work out the logistics of transporting samples to the moon."
Needed grant money (Score:3, Insightful)
So when we fuck up this planet and it's all gone to shit and civilization is in the last throes of desperate collapse, we will... go to the moon to get bio samples to revive the planet...?
Wut?
It doesn't even make for a bad sci-fi plot.
Re:Needed grant money (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah I wouldn't watch the film based on this one.
I get that various "snart" people trying to make a name for themselves come up with wild ideas that will never be done because they generate headlines, like the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid, or a hydroelectric dam to be built across the Strait of Gibraltar, and those are often cool to think about but this one is just stupid.
Re: Needed grant money (Score:2)
Damned those snartiepants scientific dummies. Their ruining it for everyone!
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You'd better not get snart with me, kid.
Need money from wealthy researcher orginizations (Score:2)
I'm expecting hard money numbers for the scientists as to how much their wealthy institutions can directly pay to fund this project for the next 20 years.
The researchers all are from world class wealthy research organizations.
- Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC,
- United States of America and Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, Kaneohe, HI
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC
- Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, Smithsonian National Air
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So when we fuck up this planet and it's all gone to shit and civilization is in the last throes of desperate collapse, we will... go to the moon to get bio samples to revive the planet...?
No. Instead it will allow those interstellar beings who visit this solar system in a few million years to recreate the bio-system, and then realize this plant was too stupid to exist, so nuke it all from orbit, as it is the only way to be sure nothing will ever survive.
Re:Needed grant money (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, but...
A species that advanced wouldn't need a bunch of inbred DNA samples, all they need is the DNA sequences as digital data,
The moon is a stupid place to put it. If the Earth goes kaput then the moon probably does too. Much better to simply broadcast them into space on laser beams.
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It depends how the Earth goes kaput. An asteroid strike that kills most life probably wouldn't do too much to the far side of the moon.
Runaway climate change, nuclear annihilation, there are lot of scenarios where the moon survives pretty much unscathed.
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It depends how the Earth goes kaput.
hows a post apocalyptic human with a wooden spear meant to get their then you donut
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I don't think it's intended for the pre-historic level survivors of the human race.
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if you can travel between planets without the support of your terrestrial ecosystem, i doubt youd need a seedbank at that point
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I agree about how we should just record the DNA sequences. I've been saying we should be gathering genomes for decades. And I think that WE are almost advanced enough at this point to be able to recover the recorded species from those genomes.
However, if we then broadcast that data into space as EM radiation, we won't then be able to get that data back, unless the beam happens to bounce off of something. Instead, we should put the data on an array of Voyager-style probes and have it radio it back to us.
E
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...Either that, or we as a species could, you know, grow up and stop acting like a swarm of thoughtless idiots, so that we might not have to restore the biosphere at all.
so voyager style probes it is!
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However, if we then broadcast that data into space as EM radiation, we won't then be able to get that data back, unless the beam happens to bounce off of something. Instead, we should put the data on an array of Voyager-style probes and have it radio it back to us.
OK, but putting the data on a satellite that broadcasts it is still more sensible than putting actual samples on the moon.
I'd sooner give the money to mine shaft research. (Score:2)
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makes more sense than creating Utopia Elonia on Mars
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I hear there is a staging area in Texas.
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Yes, looks like a publicity stunt.
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I love how we always come up with technical "solutions" to avoid fixing the root cause. "We've made a better bandage to deal with the constant stabbing."
Too much time on their hands (Score:1)
Re: Too much time on their hands (Score:2)
Who is paying them not to something something?
Just make sure (Score:2)
Just make sure NOT to include human DNA in the samples. 100 million years from now when ET finds the repository Earth can be properly reseeded.
Many lifeforms cause suffering (Score:1)
Why resurrect on Mars the Earth species that live their entire life causing suffering of other species? I am talking about centipedes, king cobras, rats, mosquitos, etc. Why should we preserve them? If Jesus wants them around for some purpose I can't figure he'll make sure they survive. For science, we should keep a copies of their full-ome (proteome, genome, epigenome, lipidome, metabolome, etc.) But why resurrect them in anything but history documentary VR form?
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What have centipedes done? They've been on this earth for something like 4000x as long as we have and they didn't fuck it up. As for rats, well, who else is going to inherit the earth when we're gone?
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Those are Fox news hosts. You can make them go away if you leave a rainbow out.
How to "restore"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Who hasn't heard of stories of companies regularly taking backups of their data, only to find out it cannot be restored because of reasons.
A backup strategy without restoration tests is flawed. A backup strategy to could easily cost millions of dollars without a restoration plan or tests is a huge waste of money.
Moon is a bit too close - Mars/Titan... (Score:2)
Moon is a bit too close. The Sun will increase its size and Earth/Moon will be destroyed...
Mars is a better choice.. something even further should be better
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Silent running? (Score:5, Insightful)
Nobody likes doing maintenance, I get it... (Score:2)
Sure, on earth it's considerably more likely that a given vault might get scrapped when the collapsing government of wherever slashes funding to the sciences
Thoughts (Score:2)
IT 101 is "If you haven't tested a backup, i.e. if you can't get to it, have the hardware to restore it, and proven it can be restored, it doesn't exist." That feels applicable here, at least in part.
I agree with the general sentiment that it's silly to back up life where we can't reach it. For this to be practical, we also have to back up the means to deliver and restore that life. QED, we need to also back up the delivery system (rockets) and people to fly them. That's colonization, a goal I support.
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I agree with the general sentiment that it's silly to back up life where we can't reach it.
Why can't you reach it? It's only 3 miles from Moonbase Delta, and perfectly safe from the effects of the planet killing asteroid.
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If we fuck things up that badly, (Score:2)
....do we really 'deserve' a repository or any second chance?
I mean, just as decent odds some awful spacefaring race decides "oh look, more samples for our genetic testing labs!".
And besides, "threats from climate change and habitat loss" are mostly about very slight levels of inconvenience for *humans*; they mean nearly nothing to the biosphere of this planet which has cheerfully weathered (several) actual cataclysms.
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Hell no, we don't deserve it. We owe it to the species we wiped out along the way. American buffalo and giant sloths paid the ultimate price to get us to the point where we could travel off this rock. We owe it to them to carry their legacy to the stars.
Will it look like a monolith? (Score:2)
I hope so.
right (Score:2)
Right. The moon is a great place for life. Will someone please just pay these people off so they shut up.
Plot Twist (Score:2)
We find the ideal location on the Moon and then find out there's already one there.
DNA isn't enough (Score:2)
DNA isn't the entire story, you also need to record all of the epigenic markers, maternal RNA and mitochondrial DNA found in the eggs that determines how you use the DNA.