Biobanks are becoming ubiquitous infrastructures in zoology and other non-human life sciences. They promise to store frozen research samples for the long term for future use. That use remains speculative but nevertheless needs to be anticipated. Following the establishment of a physical and digital infrastructure for frozen samples in an animal biobanking project, this article explores how the future is anticipated to remember the past, and how frozen objects are shaped accordingly. Situating the biobank between mundane freezing routines in a research lab and the ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ collections of natural history museums, I argue that frozen research objects need to be conserved in two separate ways. The unavailability of cryo-objects in cold storage forces researchers to store materials independently of metadata, while retaining a link between them that allows for their reunion after thawing. The result is a split object, leading a double life at sub-zero and room temperature, linked only through the surface of special plastic containers. Following the making of such split objects, this article offers an elaboration of Radin’s ‘planned hindsight’ as well as a reflection on the universality and particularity of biobanks as standardized scientific memory.

中文翻译：

---

记忆中的素材：在动物冷冻库中规划后见之明


生物样本库正在成为动物学和其他非人类生命科学领域无处不在的基础设施。他们承诺长期储存冷冻研究样本以备将来使用。这种使用仍然是推测性的，但仍然需要预测。在动物生物样本库项目中为冷冻样本建立了物理和数字基础设施之后，本文探讨了未来如何记住过去，以及如何相应地塑造冷冻对象。我将生物样本库置于研究实验室中平凡的冷冻程序和自然历史博物馆的“干”和“湿”藏品之间，认为冷冻研究对象需要以两种不同的方式进行保存。冷库中的冷冻物体不可用，迫使研究人员独立于元数据存储材料，同时保留它们之间的链接，以便它们在解冻后能够重聚。结果是一个分裂的物体，在零度以下和室温下过着双重生命，仅通过特殊塑料容器的表面相连。在制作了这些分裂的对象之后，本文详细阐述了 Radin 的“计划后见之明”，并反思了生物库作为标准化科学记忆的普遍性和特殊性。