Animals on ice: how conservationists use freezers to ‘biobank’ wildlife

By James Edward Brereton, PhD student, Nottingham Trent University

What’s lurking in your freezer: a lasagne or deep-frozen pizza? Conservationists rely on freezers too – but they run much cooler than your model, with the thermostat set to a frosty -196°C, the temperature of liquid nitrogen. You won’t find any burgers in there.

Conservationists use these freezers, known as “biobanks”, to store animal cells including oocytes (egg cells), sperm and somatic cells (for example, skin cells). In the future, lost genetic diversity could be safeguarded in this way. This could be vital for the preservation of endangered species – and species that are not yet…

Read complete article

~	Cycling Event Can’t Override Rwanda’s Abuses

~	Trump Administration Seeks to Rewrite Global Refugee Rules

~	Gestational diabetes linked to autism and ADHD in new study

~	AI use by UK justice system risks papering over the cracks caused by years of underfunding

~	Running out of wardrobe space? Maybe you should follow the growing trend for clothes you can’t actually wear

~	AI and credit: How can we keep machines from reproducing social biases?

~	A Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger could give Trump even more influence over US media – shaping the news and culture Americans watch and stream

~	Egypt: Prisoner of conscience Alaa Abdel Fattah granted presidential pardon after six years of unjust imprisonment

~	Soaking up the storm: Sponge cities and the future of flood-resilient Southeast Asia

~	The Mediterranean: Both a graveyard and a bottomless money pit due to EU border policies