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- Title
Big Data in kleinen Dosen: Die westdeutsche Genbank für Kulturpflanzen ‚Braunschweig Genetic Resources Collection‘ (1970–2006) und ihre Biofakte.
- Authors
KARAFYLLIS, NICOLE C.; LAMMERS, UWE
- Abstract
The Braunschweig Genetic Resources Collection (BGRC) was West Germany’s national gene bank for crop plants. It is analyzed as a living collection of plant biofacts, i.e., semi-living seeds at the intersection between naturalness and technicity. At the BGRC, the fi rst IT-systems for gene banks worldwide was developed as well as the fi rst cryopreservation system for potatoes. The article introduces central actors (Hermann Kuckuck, Dieter Bommer, Lothar Seidewitz, Manfred Dambroth, Loki Schmidt), objects, and structures during the short history of the BGRC (1970–2006). In spite of the ‘death’ of the BGRC during Germany’s reunifi cation process, after which the seeds were integrated into the Leibniz Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) at Gatersleben (the gene bank of the former East Germany/GDR), the Braunschweig objects continue to live on in a latent state in other cooling chambers and cryovials (e.g., also at the Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands, CGN). Above all, the article expands the biofacts theory regarding the technical act of collecting and considers elements of a future theory of living collections.
- Subjects
GERMPLASM; NATURALNESS (Environmental sciences); PLANT gene banks; CRYOPRESERVATION of organs, tissues, etc.; AGRICULTURE
- Publication
Technikgeschichte, 2017, Vol 84, Issue 2, p163
- ISSN
0040-117X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5771/0040-117X-2017-2-163