Insects outweigh every species on Earth—humans, cattle and fish included. Despite their minute size, insects—bees, butterflies, moths and more—play a vital role in the planet’s ecosystem. They’re responsible for a sizable chunk of our food chain and some species act as the world’s recyclers, scrubbing the ground floor from vegetal and wooden debris. But, according to a new study, 40% of insect species will be faced …
American scientist Ben Novak has spent the past six years working on a process referred to as de-extinction—with the goal of bringing back the passenger pigeon species that died off in 1914. In Melbourne, Australia Novak has used gene-editing to weave the Cas9 gene into the reproductive organs of common pigeons. Cas9 enables the use of CRISPR, a tool that acts as molecular scissors and …
From November 2016 to January 2017 (in other words, summer in Antarctica) Erik Gulbranson and John Isbell found 13 fossil fragments from trees dating back more than 260 million years. This more than hints at the continent’s green past—with a landscape that would have been densely forested with a network of resilient plants and trees capable of withstanding uninterrupted sunlight and then months of darkness. …
