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Photographer Dornith Doherty has spent the past few years photographing "seed vault" facilites all over the world. These are exactly what they sound like: vast buildings devoted to preserving the seeds of as many plants as possible, partly for scientific research and partly to hedge our bets as more and more plants go extinct. Some of these vaults, like the Svalbard "Doomsday" Seed Vault in Norway, are designed to withstand global catastrophe, including wars and climate disaster. Sponsored in part by Monsanto, the Doomsday Seed Vault could also be the genetic tool set for future synthetic biologists looking to create better food crops, or even to design foods we could grow in space. More »
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In 1969, Chairman Mao began work on a giant bunker beneath the city of Beijing to house the city's population in the event of a nuclear attack. The underground city was never operational, but the tunnels and facilities still remain. More »
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Norway's "Doomsday Vault" will open tomorrow, just in time to safeguard our biodiversity against the apocalypse. Carved into the permafrost of a remote Arctic mountain, about 620 miles from the North Pole, the vault has been built to withstand nuclear missiles or a plane crash on top of it, but it's also far enough above sea level that it won't be flooded by melting icecaps. Click through for more images of the Doomsday Vault. More »
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