Suspending Death for an Uncertain Future: Banana Conservation at the Brink of Disaster

The International Musa Transit Center, a research facility in Leuven, Belgium, houses the largest collection of banana germplasm in the world. There, banana germplasm is frozen and preserved in tanks of liquid nitrogen, where it is kept inert until it is needed again. Into what future will these banana plants be revived? How do we square the irony of freezing bananas in a time of rapid warming, with the fear of losing a staple crop to extinction? 

Learn more about Carson Scholar Hea-Ream Lee

The Frontlines in our Future

As societies and the challenges they face grow increasingly complicated, the climate emergency sharpens the need to understand those challenges and tackle solutions that are just, equitable and doable. From hurricane damages to missing histories, from urban stormwater flooding to banana extinctions, this series from the Carson Scholars program explores problems and solutions in there here-and-now...and for the long tomorrow.

This talk is a part of the Spring 2020 Science Café series hosted by the UA College of Science in partnership with Borderlands Brewing Company.