Plants sprouted from seeds stored for decades in a disused Arctic mine

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Seeds cooled by the permafrost in Svalbard are being tested to see if they can still grow into plants after 100 years

Global Crop Diversity Trust

Several hundred metres down the dark, cold tunnel of an Arctic coal mine, a passageway leads off to a wooden door adorned with the image of a Nordic goddess of fertility, which guards precious treasure. There, the seeds of 17 crops were put in a metal container in 1986, in order to see how well the permafrost would preserve them far into the future.

The first results are mixed for the “100-year seed …

source: newscientist.com