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IDS 4934 - Interdisciplinary Studies Capstone Experience (Korosy): Sample Search of Harper's Findings

1. Which issue of Harper's Magazine were you assigned?

2. Which research finding did you select to research?

"Norway unveiled plans for a new doomsday seed archive of the world's 1.5 million crop varieties; the archive, to be known as the Svalbard International Seed Vault, will he stored in a bunker at the end of a 120-meter tunnel bored into the center of a mountain on an island near the North Pole."

3. If you found an article in a scientific journal reporting the research findings, provide the citation:

Pearce, Fred. "Doomsday vault to avert world famine". New Scientist, Issue 2534, 12 January 2006, p. 1

4. List each of the resources you searched (even if nothing was found) and briefly describe how you went about the search, including the terms you used in your search.

Searched Google for "Svalbard International Seed Vault"

The first result was the Wikipedia entry for Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Within the entry, the first reference citation was for

  • Charles, Daniel (2006-06-23). "A 'Forever' Seed Bank Takes Root in the Arctic". Science 312 (5781): pp. 1730–1731. doi:10.1126/science.312.5781.1730b

The link for the doi connects to the full text online, accessible because the UCF Libraries subscribe to Science.

Backed up to the Google search results and switched to Google Scholar, and then to Advanced Google Scholar. Dropped the word "international" from the search. Limited the search to dates 2004-2007. Found additional citations to:

  • Hopkin, Michael. "Norway unveils design of 'doomsday' seed bank". Nature, 445, 693 (15 February 2007), doi:10.1038/445693a
  • Williams, Nigel. "A subterranean ark". Current Biology, Volume 16, Issue 13, 11 July 2006, Page R475
  • Pearce, Fred. "Doomsday vault to avert world famine". New Scientist, Issue 2534, 12 January 2006, p. 1

The February 2007 article in Nature seems to be closest in providing information matching the Harper's Magazine findings, e.g., 1.5 million crop strains and 120-metre tunnel. The January 2006 article in New Scientist mentions that Norway first proposed the project in the 1980's and that the scheme won UN approval at a meeting of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome in October 2005. The July 2006 article in Current Biology mentions that the Norwegian government and the Global Crop Diversity Trust have worked on the idea of building a global seed bank of last resort in the Arctic since 2004.

Switched to the UCF Library databases and searched Academic Search Premier for

  • svalbard seed vault

Search results identified 35 articles published between 2006 and 2010, published in:

  • New Scientist
  • Nature
  • Science
  • Scientific American
  • Discover
  • Bioscience
  • ENR: Engineering News-Record
  • Lancet
  • New York Times
  • Wall Street Journal
  • etc.