Svalbard Global Seed Vault: Sixth best invention of 2007

Svalbard Global Seed Vault: Just beaten by the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and ahead of a new generation of hybrid engines from Chevrolet, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault sneaks onto the list of the world's best inventions in 2007 - selected by Time Magazine. Minister of Agriculture and Food Lars Peder Brekk is very proud.

"This demonstrates that Norway did the right thing when we offered the world a vault to preserve backup copies of our genetic heritage of crops," says Brekk.
"Superman was right," declares Time Magazine.

"If you want to keep something safe, build a mountain fortress above the Arctic Circle." The magazine has named the Svalbard Seed Vault the sixth best invention of 2007 - beaten by the particle accelerator in Switzerland and ahead of a new electric car engine from Chevrolet.

• More on the award in Time Magazine
• More on seed depositing at the Seed portal

The year's winner is a "personal gene test", a test costing USD 399 that can reveal the genetic code of live matter – including human beings. The Svalbard mountain cave was also beaten by the new generation of unmanned mooncraft, an electric sports car, a TV show website and the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

• More on the invention of the year

The vault is filling up
Minister of Agriculture and Food, Lars Peder Brekk, has the responsibility for the invention that the whole world has taken an interest in, both in connection with its inauguration and also later on.

So far, 320,000 seed samples have been deposited in the mountain cavern just outside Longyearbyen on Svalbard.  The vault has a capacity to store more than ten times as much. The idea is that it is easier to store live material frozen in the permafrost. The freezing system keeps the temperature at a constant minus 20 degrees Celsius. The normal temperature without freezing system is approx. minus 4 degrees Celsius. 

Seeds packed in boxes. Photo: The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria (IITA).

Seed boxes stacked in the vault. Photo: Mari Tefre

Svalbard Global Seed Vault: Just beaten by the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and ahead of a new generation of hybrid engines from Chevrolet, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is sixth on list of the world's best inventions in 2007 - selected by Time Magazine.