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Case Study Biomedicine

Cryobanks store bioresources at temperatures that are cool and constant. From human oocytes to bull semen, from vaccines to viruses, a complex logistical infrastructure of cold underpins our food supply, medical services and biotechnical research.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agriculture Research Service (ARS) National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP) Cryogenic Storage Vault in Ft. Collins, CO on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. © USDA photo by Lance Cheung

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agriculture Research Service (ARS) National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP) Cryogenic Storage Vault in Ft. Collins, CO on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. © USDA photo by Lance Cheung

Modern medicine and biotechnology are fundamentally reliant on cooling technology. Reliable cold chains and infrastructure are essential for the distribution of vaccines, blood supplies, organ transplants, livestock sperm production, human reproduction, and biotechnological research involving bio-resources such as cells, tissues, pathogens, or DNA. Transnational fertility cryobank networks distribute human reproductive materials globally, while the beef and dairy industries depend on the industrial use of cryopreserved bull sperm.

This case study examines and maps the global network of cryobanks that store and transport reproductive bioresources, delving into the logistics of biomedical and cryobiological cold chain systems.

By investigating the logistics and norms involved in transporting bull sperm, human embryos, cell lines, and other bioresources across national borders between cryobanks, public health departments, biolabs, farmers, and fertility treatment clients, we aim to reconstruct the historical development of basic concepts such as (cryo)preservation, storage, life, and death. This analysis will help clarify how the specific value form of cryogenic artifacts and their social applications contribute to the expansion of the cryosphere and how this growth is related to neighboring concepts, particularly those of availability and reproduction.

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Food Supply Beef

Beef has been a paradigmatic cryogenic object since at least the late 19th century cold storages and meatpacking industry of Chicago. Today, beef is global, relying on resource-intensive cold chains that make this once rare commodity into a regular part of diets in almost every country in the world.

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Space Cooling Air-conditioning units

Air-conditioning is an unevenly distributed resource of comfort. Whether in an overload of air-conditioning units exasperating heat island effects in cities, or the transformation of normative ideas around freshness or productivity, our planet is increasingly engineered around thermal comfort.

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Computing Data Centers

Data and a transition to digitalization is often imagined to be an ecological triumph, but it relies upon data centers. Every bit of immaterial data computed produces heat: cooling is up to 40% of the electricity costs. The digital is cryogenic.

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