"norway" news and stories

The Norwegians are building a "doomsday vault" for seeds. Buried deep inside a mountain, deep in the Arctic Circle, scientists say that the seeds will be preserved indefinately at temperatures well below freezing. And, to prevent theft, as well as for safety's sake, "the mountains are patrolled by polar bears," though humans will most likely monitor the facility.

The seed depository is being created to preserve the various species of plants that currently exist on the planet, many of which will disappear with each passing year as selective breeding reduces diversity in favor of commercially popular crops. In theory, these seeds can be used to resurrect species of plants that may disappear in the future. Intriguing as this idea is, one must wonder if there would be a demand for such reconstructed species, or whether they would only be regrown for scientific curiosity. Would it be easier to simply alter existing strains of apples - through selective breeding or gene modification - than to rebuild it from a seed or two? And if it were necessary to rebuild agriculture from the approximately 2 million seeds in the vault as the result of something wiping out global plant life, it seems likely that most of humanity would be wiped out as well. Maybe the Norwegians would still be able to get there, though.

For all you food scientists out there, I recently came across a great web site/reading list called Molecular Gastronomy, Kitchen Chemistry and the Science of Cooking. The title pretty much says it all, and the list includes links to books and articles for both the lay-person and the scientist as well as plenty of web resources and other "light" reading. There are plenty of familiar names like Harold McGee, Alton Brown and Robert L. Wolke.

The list is maintained (last updated in November, 2005) by Martin Lersch at the University of Oslo's chemistry department. I wish I could give you more background, but little of the material on the surrounding sites is in English.