Category Archives: Human Genetic Engineering

In his 2001 book, The Botany of Desire: A Plants-Eye View of the World, author Michael Pollan challenges the conventional anthropocentric view of the world and encourages his readers to look at life from a plants perspective. Are humans or plants really calling the shots? Perhaps were not controlling plants for our survival as much as theyre controlling us for theirs. Pollan highlights how several plants appeal to basic human desires, and throughout history we have been selectively breeding different crops for certain traits and spreading them around the world seemingly for our benefit. These crops include apples (for sweetness), tulips (for beauty), marijuana (for intoxication) and many more.

Similarly, microbes have been co-evolving with humans, forming a symbiotic relationship over millions of years. In fact, each human is colonized by trillions of microbes. The food we eat feeds beneficial microbes that live in our guts, and in return they outcompete pathogenic microbes and produce metabolites that modulate our immune systems. Additionally, microbes have been aiding humans in one of the oldest methods of food processing fermentation whereby microbes transform food from one form into another, four thousands of years. In the late 20th century, we began engineering microbes to produce drugs, such as insulin, and other ingredients via industrial fermentation a process akin to brewing beer. Since then, we have been harnessing this technology for numerous applications across the agriculture, energy, food, and healthcare industries.

Today, were accelerating our joint venture with these nifty little creatures. Were engineering and evolving them, feeding and growing them, and protecting and spreading them all over the world. The question is, are we doing all this work for our benefit or for theirs? Perhaps its not the humans or plants, but rather the microbes calling the shots.

Source: Global Engage.

As the cost of technologies such as genome sequencing and cloud computing have been exponentially decreasing over the last several years, scientists have been increasing their research on microbes, leading to several discoveries around the functions of microbes and their interaction with other organisms. Industry is harnessing this research for a variety of commercial applications, such as using microbes as mini factories to produce animal-free proteins, healthy crops, and medicines. As part of this movement, three startups, enEvolv (Cultivian portfolio company), Ginkgo Bioworks, and Zymergen, have collectively raised over $1.5 billion in venture capital to engineer and evolve microbes for several of these applications. Leveraging tools such as next-generation DNA sequencing and machine learning, these innovators are vastly increasing the volume and diversity of useful microbes and, compared to prior technologies, significantly reducing the time and cost required to commercialize bio-based products for our benefit.

In his 2011 article, Software is Eating the World, technology venture capitalist Marc Andreessen demonstrates how software companies have been taking over some of the worlds largest industries. Today, it seems like microbes are eating the world (sometimes literally) as microbial fermentation is becoming the go-to manufacturing process for proteins, medicines and other products.

To design microbes for these processes, we utilize in silico modeling and computer code (0s and 1s) to modify the genetic code (As, Cs, Ts, and Gs) of microbes to engineer certain strains that nourish us and, to some extent, other strains to produce the sugars that nourish them. According to some estimates, the probiotics (live microbes that nourish us) and prebiotics (sugars that nourish them) markets are forecasted to reach $77 billion and $7 billion, respectively, by 2024. In anticipation of rising demand, venture capital investment in the microbiome space has exploded in recent years.

Several startups are leveraging microbes and their derivative products for commercial applications. These use cases help demonstrate the symbiosis that exists between humans and microbes. We engineer and evolve microbes, and then we feed and grow them; in return they generate products that benefit us. Our relationship with microbes has also unlocked new value propositions and reduced our reliance on the natural world, such as the need to harvest animals for food, drugs and other products. Geltor (Cultivian portfolio company) for example, is an emerging leader in the field of producing animal-free proteins via fermentation. The companys initial focus is collagen protein, which historically could only be extracted from animal skin, bone, and connective tissue. Geltor recently announced a major partnership with GELITA to launch the worlds first animal-free collagen protein in 2020.

Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment. Credit: Franois-Joseph Lapointe, Universit de Montral. CC BY

Like the variety of plants Pollan highlights in his 2001 book, humans have been protecting and spreading microbes all over the world ostensibly to suit our needs. Recently, consumer preferences for the reduction or elimination of antibiotics and pesticides in the food supply chain are beginning to transform agriculture. As a result, increasing demand for and adoption of bio-based products are protecting the beneficial microbes in our crops, in our livestock and, consequently, in our guts. In fact, companies like Eligo Bioscience, Folium Science and General Probiotics are engineering microbes that selectively destroy pathogenic microbes while keeping beneficial microbes intact as an alternative to broad spectrum antibiotics that wipe out both beneficial and pathogenic microbes kind of like a well keep you alive if you do the same for us quid pro quo.

Additionally, we have been spreading beneficial microbes around the world. As certain microbes demonstrate their usefulness to humans in developed countries, Gates Foundation is investing in and partnering with venture-backed startups, such as AgBiome (for crop health) and Evolve BioSystems (for infant nutrition), to deploy these same microbial products in developing countries.

These are just a few examples of our ability to leverage microbes apparently for our advantage. Today we are domesticating microbes just like we have domesticated plants in the past. Like apples, tulips and marijuana, humans are harnessing the genetic potential of microbes and art of fermentation to produce chocolate (for sweetness), collagen (for beauty), and wine (for intoxication). Although they are far from a panacea, investing in microbial-related technologies holds tremendous promise for humans, plants and the rest of the natural world.

As I wrap up this article, I begin to wonder if my purpose was to promote investments in this space or if I was subconsciously hired by these nifty little creatures for their PR campaign? Now that I think about it, I think theyre the ones calling the shots!

Continued here:
The Microbiology of Desire: A Microbe's View of the World - SynBioBeta

Not only is it the end of a year this month, but its also the end of a decade. After ten long years, we can say goodbye to the 2010s and hello to the 2020s.

Along with looking at data pulled by other companies on the top movies, songs, artists, and more of the last ten years, I asked people what their opinions were on the last ten years. I was surprised at their responses.

Majority of the respondents were on the younger side and female. 89.47% of voters were female, leaving the remaining 10.53% as male. (And yes, I did allow people to not answer their gender, but nobody clicked that.) 5.26% of voters are 65 or older, 52.63% are 18-24, and the remaining 42.11% are under 18 years old. All responders were left anonymous.

I askedrespondentsthe following questions:

-How old are you now?

-How old were you at the beginning of the decade?

-What is your preferred gender?

-What was your favorite song from 2010-2019?

-What was your favorite movie from 2010-2019?

-What was your favorite memory from 2010-2019?

-What big accomplishment happened between 2010-2019 for you?

-What was your favorite meme from the decade?

-What was your favorite show from 2010-2019?

-What is your favorite thing that has come out in the last decade (food, drink, toy, clothing item, brand, etc.)

And the answers ranged from cute, to sad, to funny, to serious. But as people answered, it made me realize how many things did happen in the last decade. Like ten years ago we didnt have Alexa, Google Homes, tablets, Curiosity (the space vehicle on Mars), Augmented Reality, human like robots, genetic engineering, hoverboards, smart watches, drone delivery, Spotify, and as one responder from the survey said, Noodles Zoodles. Could you imagine a world where you couldnt get your Top Artists of the Year data? Yeah, me neither.

Album covers including newer and older artists.

Want to take a wild guess at the top songs over the last decade? Well here it is:

5) Girls Like You by Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B

4) Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey

3) Shape of You by Ed Sheeran

2) Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett andGoonRock

And the number one song of the decade is none other than Uptown Funk by MarkRonsonfeaturing Bruno Mars.

You can find the other 95 hits over the last ten years athttps://www.billboard.com/charts/decade-end/hot-100

However only one survey respondent said their favorite song was a part of the top five. Other people commented that their favorites included Lights Up by Harry Styles, 22 by Taylor Swift, Juice by Lizzo, Need You Now by Lady Antebellum, Flicker by Niall Horan, Hurts Like Heaven by Coldplay, and more.

Now moving on to TV shows and movies of the last decade. Everyone knows how Marvel has taken over Hollywood with 23 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the MCU in the last decade. They also beat out Avatar this year with Avengers: End Game. But those movies werent the only ones people enjoyed (although they were personally my favorites). People also enjoyed Baby Driver, The Greatest Showman, Tangled, IT Chapter One and Two, Into theSpiderverse, Frozen and Frozen 2, Shutter Island, and Love, Simon.

I bet you forgot that the last three Twilight movies, the last two Harry Potter movies, and all the Hunger Games movies came out in the last ten years. In all honesty, it feels like it was a lot longer than that.

Image via Charles on UnsplashJust a glance at what you can view on Netflix a streaming platform that has grown in the last decade.

Survey respondents also gave their favorite TV shows over the last year and they really pushed to have some shows count as part of the last decade. Especially the numerous amounts of people who put Hannah Montana which started in 2006 and ended in 2011, but they argued it technically was airing in this decade. So, well let it slide. People also put down The Vampire Diaries, The 100, The Office, Supernatural, Stranger Things, The Goldbergs, American Horror Story, Oak Island, and Criminal Minds.

And although lots of things have happened in the last decade, like people graduating, people getting married, people came out, people started working, and people retired, there was one thing nobody could escape. And those were the memes.

I asked people to submit their favorite memes and well Im pleased to say the least. (Although side note there was someone whosaid and I quote None. I think memes are dumb ) However those memes included: The Area 51 Raid, Im Fine (Dog on Fire), You Almost Made Me Drop My Croissant, The Lady Screaming at the Cat, Gabe the Dog, Grumpy Cat, Blinking White Guy, and the Good vs Bad Kermit. It was a beautiful decade for memes. Vine was even a thing from 2013-2017 before it shut down and TikTok took over.

If youre curious about some of the top songs, tv shows, movies, or anything else that has happened in the last decade, you can check out the Billboard 100 (https://www.billboard.com/charts/decade-end/hot-100), IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/list/ls026040906/), or Buzzfeed has some funny articles and quizzes where you can figure out how much you remember from the last decade (https://www.buzzfeed.com/)

Hopefully this last decade was memorable and you had a great 2019! Heres to a new decade and a new year! 2020 here we come.

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The Final Moments of the 2010's - Pinnacle

On the anniversary of an ill-fated monkey's journey into space, there's a growing belief that genetic engineering could hold the key to exploring the universe.

Seventy years ago today, a monkey named Albert IV was strapped into a small spacecraft, hooked up to monitors and propelled into orbit.

The US launched a series of V-2 rockets carrying monkey astronauts throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s as a precursor to the space race.

Albert II became the first monkey in space on June 14 1949, a year after the original Albert suffocated before his rocket could make it past the Karman line - the 100km height above Earth marking the beginning of space.

Albert II survived his flight, which reached a height of 134km, but died on impact after his parachute failed.

He was followed by Albert III, who made it just 10km up before his rocket exploded.

On December 12, 1949, Albert IV was launched from New Mexico and successfully made it into space. He stayed safe and well throughout the flight until it was time to land, when yet another parachute failure killed him on impact.

Albert IV was the last of the V-2 monkeys, but the experiments continued in other forms.

Eventually, advances in space technology meant that the US and the Soviet Union were able to send animals into space and bring them back alive.

But the enormous stress of space travel had a huge impact on them, with many suffering heart attacks brought on by dehydration.

The weightlessness also affected their bodily functions: when the European Space Agency sent crickets into space for 16 days in 1998, the insects failed to develop the organs needed for balance that they would on Earth.

Human astronauts suffer a huge range of side-effects as well, from muscle atrophy to congestion to eyesight problems.

The rise of the animal rights movement means that even as space agencies look to Mars as the next destination to conquer, they may refrain from testing the technology on animals due to public pressure.

But Elon Musk may have found a way around it. Last week SpaceX sent a 'crew' of genetically modified mice and worms into space.

The rocket docked at the International Space Station where its precious cargo will be used in a variety of experiments investigating how to improve space travel.

Of the 40 mice onboard the 'Dragon' capsule, eight have been genetically engineered to have twice the muscle mass of a normal mouse. They're known as 'mighty mice', and they'll be able to better cope with the muscle-shrinking and bone density-decreasing effects of space.

Scientists hope these results will help them to understand how to limit muscle and bone loss in humans while they're in space.

SpaceX intends to send humans to Mars in 2024, with the eventual goal of colonising the red planet into a "self-sustaining civilisation".

It would take between six and eight months for a spacecraft to travel from Earth to Mars. That's a long exposure to space radiation, which has been proven to have devastating effects on humans including an increased risk of cancer.

But if scientists were able to strengthen our cells to better withstand the radiation, astronauts could stay healthier in space for longer.

US geneticist Chris Mason recently spoke about the possibility of changing human DNA to allow us to explore the universe further than we are currently able to.

One potential method would involve splicing human DNA with that of tardigrades - tiny micro-animals capable of surviving extreme conditions including direct exposure to deep space.

While genetic engineering is controversial, Mr Mason says in the future it may be more unethical not to enhance our DNA.

"In terms of a question of liberty, you're engineering it [a future human] to have lots more opportunities, again assuming we haven't taken away opportunities," he told Space.com.

"If we learned that, in some way, when we decided to try and prove the ability of humans to live beyond Earth, and we take away their ability to live on Earth, I think that would be unjust."

In his words: "It's not if we evolve, it's when we evolve."

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Modifying DNA 'will get humans on Mars' 70 years after monkey in space - Daily Star

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Newswise The microbes populating the human body play an important role in health and disease, but with few exceptions, how individual microbial species affect health and disease states remains poorly understood. A new study by Princeton researcherMohamed Abou Doniaand his colleagues, appearing in the Dec. 13 issue of the journalScience, gives scientists new tools to explore and understand the human microbiome.

Using a massive dataset drawn from the genomes of hundreds of people, the researchers identified two microbes that function as powerful antibiotics, said Donia, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, "as potent as their clinically used relatives against neighboring microbes in the oral microbiome." Finding novel antibiotics is important because pathogens are evolving resistance to antibiotics currently in clinical use.

The human microbiome -- the identity and balance of bacterial species on human skin and mucosal surfaces -- influences a variety of disease conditions, from digestive ailments to halitosis, bacterial vaginosis and eczema. The microbiome also aids immune development and the fight against pathogens. However, the human microbiome is incredibly diverse; the communities of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other tiny organisms differ according to the tissue where they live, and across human populations and individuals. It's unclear what constitutes a normal, healthy microbiome, much less how one might go about bringing a sick one back into balance.

A common approach to solving this problem is to culture an individual microbe in the lab and explore how it contributes to health or disease states. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to identify and isolate very rare species, or find the conditions necessary to support their growth outside their natural niche. To do this with every species would be a daunting task. Alternatively, scientists can examine the microbiome in situ, with the aim of describing its individual components and how they interact.

One way microbes communicate -- and do battle -- with each other and with human cells is through biologically active small molecules.

"Our long-term goal is to define the chemical space of the human microbiome," explained Donia. His group set out to identify the set of genes that manufacture such chemicals (termed a biosynthetic gene cluster, or BGC) directly in clinical samples. This would allow scientists to listen in on the chemical conversation taking place, and discover who is speaking and when.

Led by co-first authors Yuki Sugimoto, a postdoctoral research associate, and graduate student Francine Camacho, the researchers developed computer algorithms that can detect BGCs by analyzing and interpreting data sets known as "metagenomic sequencing data," genetic sequences obtained from the tissues or excretions of hundreds of human subjects. Some metagenomic data sets are drawn from clinical samples taken from diverse populations, including persons in different states of health or disease, or people in different geographical locales. Intensive analysis is needed to make sense of the rich but often fragmentary information contained in these data sets.

Donia's team began by identifying genes essential for the synthesis of a particular molecule or chemical of interest, then using computational algorithms to sort through metagenomic data for similar (homologous) genetic sequences, and grouping these sequence fragments together. They then assessed the prevalence of each group in the human population, and used the grouped sequences to piece together full-length BGCs. Importantly, this approach allowed identification of novel BGCs even if they are extremely rare.

To validate this approach, the researchers investigated whether they could detect BGCs involved in the synthesis of type II polyketides. This class of chemicals, which includes the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin and several antibiotic drugs, was previously found in soil bacteria but had never before been found in bacteria of the human microbiome.

"To our surprise, we discovered 13 such gene clusters, which are widely distributed in the gut, oral and skin microbiome of people all the way from the U.S. to Fiji," said Donia. To test if these newly identified BGCs actually make type II polyketides, the researchers selected two of the BGCs and inserted their genes into bacteria that can be easily grown in the lab, then used mass spectrometry to detect any new chemical products. These compounds were then purified and tested for antibiotic or anticancer activity.

"Two of the five new molecules we discovered are potent antibiotics," said Donia, "revealing a potential mechanism for niche competition and defense against intruders and pathogens." More work will be needed to discover the biological activity of the other three molecules, and the role of all five in human health or disease. Such studies may uncover new pathways for interaction between microbes, or between the microbiome and its human host.

With this technology, it is now possible to mine our own microbiomes for drug discovery or novel biological interactions. What other treasures might this type of analysis reveal? As Donia observed, "This was only one clinically important class of molecules that we went after -- there are dozens more to do, and we can't even start to predict what we will discover!"

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"A metagenomic strategy for harnessing the chemical repertoire of the human microbiome," by Yuki Sugimoto, Francine R. Camacho, Shuo Wang, Pranatchareeya Chankhamjon, Arman Odabas '17, Abhishek Biswas, Philip D. Jeffrey and Mohamed S. Donia, appears in the Dec. 13 issue of the journalScienceand was released online Oct. 3 (DOI: 10.1126/science.aax9176). This work was supported the National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award (1DP2AI124441), the Pew Biomedical Scholars Program, and a Focused Research Team on Precision Antibiotics Award by the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University. The researchers are all at Princeton University, in the Department of Molecular Biology, the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, or Princeton Research Computing.

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Eavesdropping on the human microbiome uncovers 'potent' new antibiotics - Newswise

And speaking of both Disney+ and Star Wars, that combination resulted in the most-watched show of any of the streaming services, The Mandalorian. Oh, and then there's Baby Yoda. Which brings us to the most recent reason Iger is having a good year: he was just named Time's Businessperson of the Year. Make no mistake, Baby Yoda is a perfect example of why that honorwas well-earned.

The Time article tells a brief story of how Iger knew immediately Baby Yoda would be an enormous hit with fans. For Disney, by the way, enormous hits are the standard operating procedure. In fact, the entire strategy looks something like this:

Create a story with adorable characters. Mass market both the story and the characters. Manufacture merchandise featuring adorable characters. Stuff more cash than you can imagine into the bank account.

In the case of Baby Yoda, Iger not only knew that the character would lead to huge sales, but also that the best play was radio silence until after the first episode of The Mandalorian streamed, so as not to spoil the reveal.

He wasright, of course.

Look, regardless of what you think of the mysterious green alien that has become the star of the Disney+ service and the mascot of the internet, there's really no arguing that from a business standpoint, Baby Yoda is brilliant. And it's a great lesson for entrepreneurs.

Here's why: Bob Iger isn't a storyteller--at least not in the classic sense of someonewho writesa scriptor directs a film. That isn't his role.But he has one thing that might be even more important--a sense of how stories connect with audiences. I'm not sure anyone would disagree that Iger knows his audience, and knows how to steward both the Disney brand as a whole, as well as the individual stories within it (Star Wars, Marvel, etc.)to make sure they resonate with that audience.

But Iger didn't create The Mandalorian or its most famous character. He didn't invent streaming video. He didn't dream upthe Star Wars universe. He isn't a comic book illustrator.

The puzzle that makes up Disney has an extraordinary number of pieces, none of which originated with its CEO. Instead, Iger's job is to see how all of those pieces fit together, and sell the resulting picture tothe rest of us.

And, just because you aren't running the world's largest media and entertainment company, doesn't mean that you don't have a story to tell.And, it doesn't mean you can't learn from what made Bob Iger so successful this year.

In most of the areas Disney competes, it is the apex predator. It's the biggest player in theme parks. It's the biggest licensor of toy characters. It's the biggest sports broadcaster. It's the biggest animation studio. It's the biggest family-friendlymovie producer.

It is not the biggeststreaming video service. It isn't the biggest player--Netflix has over 150 million subscribers--a number that dwarfs Disney+. But it made a huge bet that owning its own platform to stream its own library of content would pay off in a big way.

So far it has. And the lesson here is that when you align your story with your audience, you will win.

That's one of the most important qualities in any marketer, but also in every entrepreneur. Your primary job, at least at first,is to figure out how to tell the story of your brand, and then tell it to the right audience.

And you don't even need Baby Yoda for that--but it can'thurt.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Disney's Bob Iger Was Just Named Time's Businessperson of the Year and Baby Yoda Is Exactly the Reason Why - Inc.

In the last, wrenching episode of BBCs Blue Planet 2, theres a distressing moment when a young Australian diver, expert in his patch of the Great Barrier Reef, admits I cried in my mask as he swam over an ossuary of recently bleached-out coral bones. Professor Callum Robertss memoir of a life devoted to the study of our oceans, and in particular their coral reefs, is a ravishing, alarming account of these underwater palaces of wonder, and the existential threat they face from humanity and our warming climate.

Reefs take up just 0.1 per cent of our planets surface, yet provide home and breeding grounds for more than a quarter of all sea life. They are also the canaries in the carbon dioxide coal mine. As ocean temperatures rise, corals bleach and die, the tiny organisms that feed them (zooxanthellae) expelled from their chalky hosts. Further, the acidification of the seas weakens the very structures the coral relies on for support and reduces the amount of calcium carbonate available in the seawater to make new coralline homes.

Robertss first student dives in 1982 were made off the Saudi coast of the Red Sea, counting reef fish with a waterproof whiteboard. He writes of the traditional Arab attitude towards the desert as an endless waste disposal and how one of his heroes, Jacques Cousteau, saw the sea the same way. Cousteau regretted this much later, writing: Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.

The chief pleasure of this book is Robertss rich descriptive power. He was an adviser for Blue Planet 2, and his writing does more than justice to those stunning films. Natures throne rooms are thrown open by Robertss prose. Here he describes a dive in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve off Belize:

Coral outcrops rise through the canopy like Mayan temples above rainforest A group of batfish swim past, their bodies like pewter plates. Passing into the channel, fish coalesce into shoals of hammered copper, slate and sulphur, liveried with royal blue.

Roberts visits some of the most idyllic places on earth, and finds them under threat from mining, tourism and war. Most human development seems to spell doom. He surveys reefs in Egypt and sets up a marine centre, before being shunted off for the massive Sharm-el-Sheikh resort. He inspects Arab reefs hit by Saddams deliberate release of oil in Kuwait in 1991 and finds that local fishing fleets have inflicted even more terrible damage.

Flying back to Kuwait City, he looks out of the window to see the aftermath of Saddams obscene tactic:

In the suns glare, the spills shine like pools of water on the dry earth. Thousands of migrating birds fell for the same illusion, alighting on the waters surface only to find themselves mired in oil.

Shadows cast by burning wells cause the sea temperatures to fall and blot the sun so the coral struggles to photosynthesise.

One Saudi fertiliser plant flushes 5.8 million cubic metres of water poisoned with ammonia and heavy metals into the sea every year. The Saudi city of Al Khobar expels ten million cubic metres of raw sewage into the gulf annually. In Bonaire, a Caribbean island off the coast of Venezuela, Roberts finds a massive wipe-out of the coral, up to 99 per cent. The culprit: human gut bacteria from sewage sloshed into the sea. Fertilisers and spillage from land developments and the overfishing of grazing fish cause seaweed to explode, smothering reefs and boosting the numbers of Crown of Thorns starfish, who feast on corals corpses like looters after a massacre.

Extreme weather events like El Nio, their frequency and impact aggravated by the climate crisis, also play a part. By the end of 1998, roughly 70 to 95 per cent of all corals had perished across a vast swathe of the Indian Ocean from the Seychelles to Sri Lanka, Kenya to the Maldives. This catastrophe had no historical precedent. One Australian professor Roberts quotes believes all is lost: reefs have become a zombie ecosystem set to collapse by the centurys end.

Roberts and his colleagues rake through the ashes of a desolate future, looking for embers of hope. Some corals have been found that can live in acidified water, and perhaps natural selection will throw up heat-tolerant corals, although the adaptation might be slower than the oceans rate of warming. Perhaps there will be less diverse, but more resilient reefs, like the hardier corals Roberts encountered in the Arabian Gulf.

Maybe technology could use molecular or genetic engineering to make heat-proof corals. Theres also evidence in the Caribbean that the manageable stresses of pollution, overfishing and development are hurting coral more than the climate crisis, and the creation of marine parks could help mitigate this. Reducing fishing, fertilisers, pulling development back from the coasts these would all be local actions not hamstrung by the inertia of global agreements on greenhouse gas reduction.

Roberts is wary of putting a capital value on reefs, despite the services reefs provide being worth billions of dollars worldwide: the risk of monetising nature is that markets will assume that the loss of habitats is just a cost of doing business. For Callum Roberts, its the moral argument that we have a duty of care to preserve as many species as we can: What right do we have to rob future generations of their chance to revel as we do in the sheer joy of what is, arguably, the greatest show on Earth?

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The Great Barrier Grief and countless other marine disasters - Spectator.co.uk