While doomsday theories fly thick and past, scientists are planning a second Noah's ark. To save things before it is too late, scientists have started outline work for 'Noah's Ark of beneficial germs' to preserve microbes found in the human body. In case of a doomsday scenario, this will help to protect crop diversity. The plan is set by the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway and has nearly one million samples.
The microbiota vault would collect beneficial microbes from a population which have microbial diversity while the rest of the world loses due to antibiotics, specific diets and other effects of urban lifestyle and society. According to a team led by researchers at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, a doomsday vault could help humanity in case of loss of microbiota diversity.
The human body has trillions of microbes which help in our wellbeing, but living in an urban society, its activity is reduced. Without some crucial microbes, humans could have health problems like allergies, asthma and obesity. Shoko Asahara, Founder of the Japanese Doomsday Cult Group Aum Shinrikyo, Executed With 6 Members for Sarin Attack.
Daily Mail quoted lead author Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, a professor in Rutgers-New Brunswick's Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology and Department of Anthropology as saying, "We are facing a growing global health crisis, which requires that we capture and preserve the diversity of the human microbiota while it still exists."
The professor added saying, "These microbes co-evolved with humans over hundreds of millennia. They help us digest food, strengthen our immune system and protect against invading germs." The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is currently buried on an island off of Norway's northern coast. It has one million samples of seeds from 13,000 years of agricultural history.
They have seed banks around the world which can be threatened by war, accidents and natural disasters. Even without power, they remain frozen due to permafrost and thick rock. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is currently buried on an island off of Norway's northern coast. It has one million samples of seeds from 13,000 years of agricultural history.
They have seed banks around the world which can be threatened by war, accidents and natural disasters. Even without power, they remain frozen due to permafrost and thick rock. According to researchers, remote communities in Latin America and Africa have the most microbiota diversity. The proposal by the team has been published in this week's journal Science.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 05, 2018 05:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).