1
00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,520
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

2
00:00:06,559 --> 00:00:10,080
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren vog obam here. If you've never heard

3
00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:12,840
Speaker 1: of a seed bank, the basic idea is this, when

4
00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:15,600
Speaker 1: the apocalypse is over and the forests are nothing but

5
00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:18,840
Speaker 1: smoking ruins in the fields, barren of grain, fear not.

6
00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:21,640
Speaker 1: We can reboot the world thanks to our bank seeds

7
00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:26,400
Speaker 1: stored in bunker's strategically located from here to eternity. These

8
00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:29,480
Speaker 1: fall Bard International Seed Vault in Norway, for instance, currently

9
00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:32,159
Speaker 1: holds more than eight hundred and eighty thousand seeds and

10
00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:34,640
Speaker 1: has the capacity to hold up to two point five billion.

11
00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:39,040
Speaker 1: Seeds are pretty amazing forms of reproduction. All you need

12
00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:41,080
Speaker 1: to do is dry them out and freeze them solid,

13
00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:43,760
Speaker 1: and they can last for years. It's a comforting thought

14
00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:47,239
Speaker 1: and acep civilizations sleeve and the seemingly less and less

15
00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:50,600
Speaker 1: unlikely scenario that we self destruct. The u n's Global

16
00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,520
Speaker 1: Strategy for Plant Conservation plans to bank sev of all

17
00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:59,720
Speaker 1: plant species by but hold that arguably comforting thought a

18
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,360
Speaker 1: sing to a study from researchers at the Royal Botanic

19
00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:06,160
Speaker 1: Gardens Queue, there's a significant catch. They discovered that a

20
00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:10,760
Speaker 1: whole host of plant seeds just can't be banked, including avocado, cacao,

21
00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:14,280
Speaker 1: and mango. Their findings, which were published in a November

22
00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:17,440
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen issue of the journal Nature Plants, detail how

23
00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,360
Speaker 1: a full thirty three percent of tree species alone are

24
00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:24,119
Speaker 1: on this list, including oak and chestnut trees. We're still

25
00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:28,440
Speaker 1: thirty six percent of our critically endangered species are also unbankable,

26
00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:32,240
Speaker 1: and that's not even counting of the regular old endangered

27
00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:37,480
Speaker 1: plants or of the vulnerable ones. So why can't these

28
00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:40,839
Speaker 1: seeds be banked? Apparently not all seeds like the drying

29
00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:44,520
Speaker 1: out process, and for this they are labeled recalcitrant seeds,

30
00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:47,640
Speaker 1: which seems a little unfair calling a seed stubborn just

31
00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:50,240
Speaker 1: because it can't tolerate dehydration as a bit rich coming

32
00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:54,640
Speaker 1: from species that can barely last two days without water. Luckily,

33
00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:56,720
Speaker 1: there's a way out of this jam, and it involves

34
00:01:56,760 --> 00:02:00,280
Speaker 1: liquid nitrogen, which is always fun. Yes, to make sure

35
00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:03,440
Speaker 1: we've got all our seeds safely tucked away in indefinite storage,

36
00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:06,360
Speaker 1: we have to resort to cryo preservation, just like Ted

37
00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:08,680
Speaker 1: Williams and all the other immortals being kept on ice.

38
00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:11,640
Speaker 1: All one has to do is dissect the seed pry

39
00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:14,639
Speaker 1: out its embryo and plunge it into smoking cold nitrogen.

40
00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:18,120
Speaker 1: Instead of storing seeds at a conventional negative twenty degrees

41
00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:21,359
Speaker 1: celsius that's negative four degrees fahrenheit, going cry oh will

42
00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:25,040
Speaker 1: keep these finicky seeds in suspended animation at a subglacial

43
00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:28,000
Speaker 1: temperature of negative a hundred and ninety six degrees celsius

44
00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:33,960
Speaker 1: that's negative degrees fahrenheit. Some researchers advocate cryo preservation for

45
00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:37,120
Speaker 1: all seeds, even the cooperative ones, because they'll last longer.

46
00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:41,440
Speaker 1: Of course, a full aut apocalypse isn't the only reason

47
00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:45,160
Speaker 1: for banking seeds. Climate change, habitat loss, and the growing

48
00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:48,960
Speaker 1: threat of plant pathogens are already threatening biodiversity, so the

49
00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:52,120
Speaker 1: time to preserve seeds is now, though taking steps to

50
00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:55,399
Speaker 1: protect habitats and slow climate change would certainly be good

51
00:02:55,440 --> 00:03:03,040
Speaker 1: as well. Today's episode was written by Machine Karen and

52
00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:05,720
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of

53
00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:07,959
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more in this and

54
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,520
Speaker 1: lots of other super cool topics, visit our home planet,

55
00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:13,400
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com. And for more podcasts from

56
00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:16,320
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts

57
00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:18,040
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,