Mendelian Genetics and the Seed Bank

During World War II, Nazis lay seeds to St. Petersburg where the seed bank has held. The scientists who worked with Vavilov barricaded themselves and cited in order to defend it from both the Nazis and from the people of St. Petersburg. Over a series of months in 1942 and 1943 a dozen of the scientists starved to death while guarding those seeds. Wave: Saving those seeds for future generations and helping the world recover after war was more important than a single person's comfort.