The London Zoological society is now in the initial planning stages of a world “coral cryobank”, a short hand reference for the cryogenic technology they’ll use to freeze numerous coral species to preserve them for the future. This is possible thanks to the work of Craig Downs of the Haereticus Environmental Laboratory who found a [...]
The London Zoological society is now in the initial planning stages of a world “coral cryobank”, a short hand reference for the cryogenic technology they’ll use to freeze numerous coral species to preserve them for the future. This is possible thanks to the work of Craig Downs of the Haereticus Environmental Laboratory who found a way to take small one to two millimeter pieces of coral tissue, freeze them at -330F and then later unthaw the coral and regenerate coral polyps. This move is in response to the demise of coral reefs around the world and a shared believe among some scientists hat in as little as 50 years coral reefs will be nothing more than dead skeletons.
Inside a cryogenic laboratory–each tank is filled with liquid nitrogen for temps at -200 degrees!
“Some reefs are already beginning to fail and many will die within a few decades. We need a plan B, and freezing them is the best option” said Dr. Alex Rogers of the ZSL. The initial proposal is to set up small warehouses that will house thousands of samples. The Times Online (UK) reports that The Smithsonian Institute is in talks of setting up a facility to help hedge any failure risk at these cryogenic freezer sites.
[creative commons : hawaiian sea]
