Hagedorn and her collaborators have been in a position to cryopreserve larvae since 2018, however the course of was finicky, and thawing them required subtle lasers to warmth them at a fee of greater than 1,000,000 °C per minute. Now, Hagedorn’s workforce has devised and examined a simplified methodology. The larvae are dehydrated on a metal mesh, immersed in a cryoprotectant, and plunged into liquid nitrogen. To thaw them, the mesh is put in a room-temperature rehydration resolution. If all goes effectively, the larvae swim off inside two hours. “That’s been an enormous development,” Hagedorn says. “And what which means is that we will cease the extinction of species, and in a means that’s very user-friendly.” 

There has additionally been progress preserving grownup corals. In August, Powell-Palm, Hagedorn, and others introduced that they’d seen cryopreserved grownup specimens survive one or two days earlier than falling prey to micro organism. The method they used, known as isochoric vitrification, employs a small, confined chamber to stop liquids from increasing into ice. “I all the time describe it as low tech, excessive science,” Powell-Palm says. “The thermodynamic processes at play throughout the chamber are splendidly complicated … however technologically, it’s unbelievably easy.” 

If—and Hagedorn emphasizes the if—isochoric vitrification is perfected, it might be a sport changer. Reasonably than requiring researchers to attend for the few nights a yr that corals spawn to catch their sperm and larvae, this methodology will enable them to gather and cryopreserve corals each time it’s handy. Thawed fragments would develop into bigger colonies and at some point spawn as effectively, serving to to restart lifeless or struggling reefs.  

Essentially the most intractable downside, nevertheless, may be time. As excessive temperatures, acidic water, air pollution, and illness batter corals, they could develop too sickly to face up to the stresses of cryopreservation. Corals should be collected as quickly as doable, Hagedorn says, whereas their well being continues to be principally intact. 

On the similar time, she’s planning for a conservation program which will final for many years—even centuries, as a result of the oceans could proceed to heat for a lot of generations, even within the occasion of decisive local weather motion. Hagedorn is investigating the feasibility of storing coral and different animal tissues on completely cool elements of the moon. If some catastrophe had been to befall coral repositories on Earth, samples tucked in lunar lava tubes or shady craters might persist for hundreds of years. 

Allison Man studies on well being and the setting.