Scientists Proprose to Preserve Species on the Moon

It never hurts to be prepared. That’s why humans have created multiple projects to store away seeds, DNA, and other biological samples in freezers and bunkers around the world. Now, researchers are considering building a vault on the Moon. Let’s take a look.

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#science #sciencenews #space #moon

[SabineHossenfelder]

Btw, you can now create your own quizzes on my website. Just create an account and a creator profile. (It's free)

[kellylucyglostott]

Here's an additional concern: Assume we can build the storage facility and get the samples there. Assume they're safe from meteor strikes. Assume we can access the samples again when we need to. How do we know the ecological niche for those species will be available? The reason a lot of them are endangered is because of habitat destruction. Why go to all the trouble of going to get the samples, growing them in stem cells, and creating a population, just to have it collapse due to the same reason that originally led to its extinction? Even if future humans do a better job of protecting habitat, it's likely that another species will have taken that niche before we can reconstitute the species in question.

[salganik]

To be fair, Spitsbergen is the 36th largest island in the World, and 38, 000 sq. km cannot be referred to as a "tiny island". It is one-third of Iceland and larger than Taiwan, Sicily, Netherlands, or Belgium.

It is also a part of the Svalbard archipelago, which is even larger, 62, 000 sq. km, one of the 10 largest archipelagos.

[davidwatson]

Could store it in a giant black monolith.

[pedrosmith]

I work in IT and you ALWAYS need to have the backup in a different place.

[jessemartin]

Dear Sabine Hossenfelder.... never stop your humor!

[meierandre]

What about radiation? Over time it could destroy the samples.

[Blindbrick]

And when they get there to install the DNA vault, they discover that there already is one from a previous ancient civilization.

[cebo]

"No natural disasters on the moon" - Where do they think all the craters came from?

[chrimony]

We should build the equivalent of Aztec lines on the moon, that can be seen from space. Then plant a timecapsule in the center. If we go back to the stone age, the next wave could have something to aim for.

[Wesley-eurn]

I went to the Georgia Guidestones to help a friend do a Youtube video on them shortly before they were damaged. You'll have to read the text on the stones to really get an idea of what they were about. The people who put them up remained anonymous. The creators of the stones were really enthusiastic about limiting the population to a fraction of present day. From the Guidestones "Maintain humanity under 500, 000, 000 in perpetual balance with nature." And, "Unite humanity with a living new language." It seemed that a one world government was the goal of it's builders and apparently not everyone was a fan. Clearly some serious force would be required to get world population down to that number.

[HcVRGbyOBCHKchBKaX]

6:28 The Moon has no atmosphere to burn up incoming projectiles. And so it has innumerably more craters than I have grey hair. The vault itself may be built in a crater. Do we know if there are plans for it to be buried safely away from impactors?

[brianhopson]

Wonderful anectdote about your mother. It gave me a good giggle. Love your channel.

[orionspur]

🌒 PRO-TIP: If you have a condo on the moon, put carpet on the ceiling so your cat can walk upside down and say "WEOM".

[haraldmilz]

The main issue I see is that it seems not enough to save the screws from extinction. You must also save the construction plan of the entire car, respectively the ecosystem these species are supposed to live in. Mankind is really bad at understanding the complexity of entire ecosystems (or at least, it pretends to) so I am not going to hold my breath about this idea.

[davidbell]

Cryogenic is an old idea. When I was a kid, we had one such business in our town. They froze sick people until a cure from them. Odd that right next door was a dog food factory.

[hellixdiscord]

Storing cells on the moon to rebuild society is the plot of the videogame Nier: Automata (2017). So we know what videogames this scientist group played.

[bartho]

new subscriber and grateful that i followed, its not like those other science channels where the video will be 20 minutes long talking about the same bullshit over and over and using click bait to get views. Sabine you are to the point, and you make it simple enough for non- science background people to understand. Keep up the good work !

[scytaleghola]

I remember a time when people with severe allergies were sent to Arizona for relief. It seemed like a good idea and it was working for a time. The problem was that Arizona was not pretty. So people started importing non-native plants and putting in lawns and gardens. Things started to look nice, but of course all of that stuff brought with it allergens. Years later, it seems like Arizona is one of the worst places to live if you have allergies.
My point is, if you put your biological archive on the moon for safe keeping and then you put settlements on the moon, those people are going to want to start terraforming to create atmosphere and pretty soon your vaults are no longer safe from the elements.
There is no place that is safe from human "progress".
By all means, put the vaults on the moon. Just don't let humans go. Instead, use robotics and other automation to handle repopulating the Earth

[donovan]

I like store cells for future and assume humanity having lost all life still has the tech to breed stem cells from cell samples. Pure genius.