The Flowing of the Dao

A “must have.”

In an effort to preserve the biodiversity of Hawaiian coral species, scientists at the University of Hawaii have created the first frozen coral cell bank — similar in concept to a seed bank for plants….

“Because frozen banked cells are viable, the frozen material can be thawed in one, 50 or, in theory, even 1000 years from now to restore a species or population,” said biologist Mary Hagedorn of the University of Hawaii in a press release. “In fact, some of the frozen sperm samples have already been thawed and used to fertilize coral eggs to produce developing coral larvae.”

Summer interns, Malia Paresa and Kelly Martonrana, place coral into the frozen repository….

A team of Danish volunteers has built a rocket capable of carrying a human into space, and will be launching it in a week’s time. The project, which has been funded entirely by donations and sponsorship, is led by Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen.

The rocket is named HEAT1X-TYCHO BRAHE, and its first test flight will carry a crash-test dummy, rather than a human, so that the safety aspects of the design can be analyzed…..

When microscopic marine organisms known as phytoplankton multiply into a dense population at the ocean’s surface, massive blooms can spread so far that they can only be seen from space. These algal blooms create beautiful patterns that can stretch for hundreds of miles and trace the ocean’s swirling currents….

New measurements of an old rock show that the solar system may be up to 2 million years older than scientists previously thought…..