NYC Museum's Deep Freeze Lab Will Store Endangered Species' DNA
The American Museum of Natural History will receive endangered species samples from the National Park Service Freezing genetic samples from plant and animal species is all the rage these days, with projects ranging from San Diego's Frozen Zoo to the UK's Frozen Ark. But New York's American Museum of Natural History recently scored a scientific coup when the U.S. National Park Service signed an agreement to store endangered species samples in the museum's underground lab, which will be one of the largest such repositories in the country. The innocuously-named Ambrose Monell Collection for Molecular and Microbial Research was established in 2001 to provide free samples for geneticists. Eight cryogenic vats can store up to 1 million frozen tissue samples in racks cooled by liquid nitrogen at –256 degrees Fahrenheit (–160 degrees Celsius), and all samples are linked to a computer database. Related Articles