There’s sad news of much damage, and some loss of life, in the wake of Typhoon Rammasun as it travels across the Philippines. You may or may not be able to see this set of photos from Facebook (I don’t understand how permissions work on Facebook) showing some of the effects of the storm on the campus of the University of the Philippines at Los Baños. The area is home to both the national genebank of the Philippines, already much damaged in a previous typhoon, and also the International Rice Research Institute and its global collection. Both collections are substantially duplicated in Svalbard, should anything bad happen. But of course we hope it doesn’t. Our thoughts are with the people of the Philippines.