Crossbreeding corals from Honduras could help protect Florida's coast
Warming ocean waters have had a devastating impact on the coral reefs of the Sunshine State. Efforts are underway to save the third-largest barrier reef system in the world, including the use of lab-grown corals and the removal of healthy corals, but scientists are now trying a method that they say has never been done before.
"It's the first time ever in the world that an international cross of corals from different countries have been permitted for outplanting on wild reefs," Dr. Andrew Baker, a marine biologist at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine Science, told CBS News on a boat ride near Miami.
There are dozens of stony coral species along Florida's 350 miles of reefs, from the Florida Keys up to the St. Lucie Inlet. Two of them are listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, one of which is the Elkhorn coral.
The Elkhorn species helps form the skeleton of a healthy reef, but according to Baker, more than 95% of the Elkhorn coral off Florida has been wiped out by a combination of factors, including rising temperatures fueled by climate change, increased coastal development and disease outbreaks
"Over the last 50 years or so, we've lost more of these Elkhorn corals, culminating in 2023 when we had this really warm summer," Baker said. "And in order for that population to recover, it was determined that we need more diversity from outside the Florida population."
So, scientists and conservationists started looking off the Caribbean coast in Honduras, specifically Tela Bay, where Elkhorn coral live in "the kind of conditions where corals have to be really tough to survive," Baker said.
To crossbreed the Elkhorns, scientists with Tela Marine, a Honduras-based aquarium and marine research center, carefully plucked coral from the reef in Honduras. Permits were then needed to transport the coral fragments into the U.S.
Once they arrived in Florida, scientists with the University of Miami and the Florida Aquarium in Tampa worked to create the "Flonduran" Elkhorn, as it was nicknamed by Baker.
Earlier this month, the crossbred species were planted for the first time in Florida, underneath protective umbrellas to deter predators.
"And if these corals can live through the next marine heat wave, then that is critical for our coastal protection on the coast of Florida," said Keri O'Neil, the director of coral conservation at the Florida Aquarium.
With robust and healthy corals, South Florida's coastal communities are better protected from flooding because the reefs help break up hurricane-fueled waves. The planting of the first Flondurans is just the start of what's needed to rebuild.
"We need to now scale this up and be out planting hundreds of thousands of baby corals all throughout the reef," Baker said. "And there are ways to do that, but we've got to gear up and get going."
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Business Journals
19 hours ago
- Business Journals
Building a greener, smarter future
San Leandro's Gate510 campus has quickly become a hub for companies shaping the future of multiple industries. Air Protein, Coreshell and Lyten are among the innovators leveraging the infrastructure and support for makers in San Leandro. Read on to discover how they're redefining what's possible. AIR PROTEIN NASA-inspired research drives sustainable food production A food production facility that once made such American breakfast innovations as Eggo Waffles and Pop-Tarts is aiming to change the way we eat once again, this time with a sustainable twist. Air Protein opened its first Air Protein Farm on San Leandro's Gate510 campus in 2023, where it does just what its name suggests: make high-quality protein out of particles in the air. Co-founders Lisa Dyson and John Reed were inspired by research from the early days of NASA, which explored ways astronauts could produce food on long space journeys. They built on that work, creating a method for growing protein in cultures, similar to the production of yogurt, cheese, and wine. The result is a neutral-tasting protein flour that can be turned into or used in any food. 'We and our investors believe we've cracked the code on making functional ingredients that have a great cost profile,' Dyson said. 'Many companies are also looking for ingredients that are resource-efficient, and that's what we do. We help CPG [Consumer Packaged Goods] companies make great products for consumers.' In choosing San Leandro, Air Protein put the company's headquarters in a location with a history of food manufacturing. Dyson said the Air Protein project team and the landlord worked closely with the City throughout the process to obtain the necessary permits for building out the facility. 'With this particular site and location, there is fermentation happening with other companies around us,' Dyson said. These include 21st Amendment Brewery and Drake's Brewing. 'That made this more appealing than some other options.' The San Leandro Air Protein Farm produces samples of its protein in large enough quantities for food product companies to use in their product development. Next up will be a larger commercial facility to support full-scale use of Air Protein in food for grocery shelves. 'That's the most exciting thing about 2025,' Dyson said. 'We're turning the science innovation that NASA started in the 1960s and 1970s, completing the mission and making it a reality.' LYTEN San Leandro lands new battery cell production facility Every once in a while, an opportunity comes along that is just too good to pass up. That's what happened to Lyten, a San Jose-based company specializing in supermaterial applications, which focuses on commercializing lithium-sulfur batteries as a high-performance, low-cost alternative to lithium-ion technology. The company was in the process of planning a gigafactory in Nevada and thinking about its next major production facility outside California when the perfect location popped up in San Leandro, said Chief Battery Technology Officer Celina Mikolajczak. A lithium-metal battery maker had closed, leaving behind a manufacturing space and equipment that was immediately of interest. Lyten snapped up the equipment and 119,000-square-foot lease at Gate510 that November. Mikolajczak expects to have a 100-megawatt-hour production line in San Leandro up and running in 2026. 'We were planning and tooling for a big factory, and then the opportunity to take over the lease in San Leandro occurred,' she said. 'We said, 'Wow, that's a big enough space. There's enough dry room capability there. There's enough power. We could get one high-volume production line running there and learn a hell of a lot and get a jump on being ready for a bigger factory.' Lyten's San Leandro site will deliver lithium-sulfur battery cells for multiple types of energy storage customers, including defense and drone applications. In doing so, the company will help U.S. manufacturers keep more of their supply chain close to home. 'With lithium-sulfur, we can develop the technology and commercialize it in the U.S. and be part of creating the next wave of manufacturing in this country,' Mikolajczak said. CORESHELL New battery anodes boost domestic supply chain Batteries have quickly become a crucial component in efforts to transition from fossil fuels to sustainable forms of energy. But the batteries most widely used in electric vehicles and other key applications today come with limitations. San Leandro-based Coreshell is one of the innovators working to change this. The company has developed a battery anode that uses 100% domestically sourced metallurgical silicon instead of graphite, allowing it to store significantly more energy without relying on a risky supply chain. 'We're replacing something that is produced only in China with silicon that is produced widely here in the United States and in Europe,' said Co-founder and CEO Jonathan Tan. 'It can be even more cost-effective.' Founded in 2017, Coreshell relocated its development work to the Gate510 campus in 2020 and opted to remain in the city when it was time to expand into the first stages of production in 2024. It moved across the street to another building on the Gate510 campus, where a team of approximately 50 people has a four megawatt-hour pilot production facility that produces its first battery cells ready for commercialization in electric vehicles. 'We're proposing a foundational change in battery chemistry by replacing graphite — one of the largest single materials in a battery — with silicon,' Tan said. 'It is imperative that we show the market how that will help people power their daily lives.' San Leandro was ideal because it offered a combination of the necessary infrastructure — including access to the heavy power Coreshell needs for manufacturing — and efficient permitting and other City support, Tan said. A San Leandro headquarters also gives Coreshell access to a strong talent pipeline from throughout the Bay Area's growing battery expertise. San Leandro Mayor Juan Gonzalez, and members of the City staff visited with Coreshell this spring. It was an opportunity for Tan and his team to share more about their work and talk about how the City can support the company's future growth. 'To have a receptive audience with the Mayor, the City Manager's office and others in San Leandro, it shows that they are invested in helping companies like Coreshell grow and be successful,' Tan said. 'We value that partnership and how they are actively working to find ways to support the success and growth of companies like ours.'


New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
‘Possibly hostile' alien threat detected in unknown interstellar object, a shocking new study claims
A mysterious intergalactic object could potentially be a 'hostile' alien spacecraft that's slated to attack our planet in November, according to a controversial new study by a small group of scientists. 'The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity,' the researchers wrote in the inflammatory paper, which was published July 16 to the preprint server arXiv, South West News Service reported. 3 Comet 3I/ATLAS streaks across a dense star field in this image captured by the Gemini North telescope's Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph, July 2025. NSF NOIRLab/ Ob et al. / SWNS Advertisement Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, the interstellar entity was discovered on July 1, rocketing toward the sun at more than 130,000 mph, Live Science reported. Less than 24 hours later, it was confirmed to be an interstellar object with initial observations suggesting that it could be a comet that measures up to 15 miles in diameter — larger than Manhattan. However, in the new paper, the trio of researchers suggested that it might be a piece of extraterrestrial spy technology in disguise. One of the researchers, Avi Loeb — a prominent Harvard astrophysicist known for linking extraterrestrial objects to alien life — previously made waves after floating the theory that 2017 interstellar object ʻOumuamua could be an artificial recon probe sent by an alien civilization, based on its odd shape and acceleration. Advertisement In this study, which he collaborated on with Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies in London, Loeb postulated that 3I/ATLAS's trajectory suggests a similarly alien origin. The trio felt the object's speed — which was significantly faster than ʻOumuamua and other objects — and the fact that it entered our solar system from a different angle than its predecessors offer 'various benefits to an extraterrestrial intelligence,' Loeb wrote in a blog post. 3 'The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity,' the researchers wrote in the inflammatory paper. ESA/Hubble/NASA/ESO/ / SWNS One benefit is that 3I/ATLAS will make close approaches to Jupiter, Mars and Venus, which could allow aliens to stealthily plant spy 'gadgets' there, Loeb wrote. Advertisement When the so-called undercover UFO reaches its closest to the Sun (perihelion) in late November, it will be concealed from Earth's view. 'This could be intentional to avoid detailed observations from Earth-based telescopes when the object is brightest or when gadgets are sent to Earth from that hidden vantage point,' Loeb declared. If this anomaly is a 'technological artifact,' this could support the dark forest hypothesis, which argues we haven't found signs of extraterrestrial entities because they are remaining undercover to shield themselves from predators or prey. Loeb warns that this could suggest that an attack is likely and would 'possibly require defensive measures to be undertaken.' 3 The Deep Random Survey telescope managed to capture images of interstellar object 3I/Atlas (pictured) in July 2025. K Ly/Deep Random Survey / SWNS Advertisement The problem is that 3I/ATLAS is traveling too fast for an Earth-based spacecraft to intercept it before it exits the solar system. 'It is therefore impractical for earthlings to land on 3I/ATLAS at closest approach by boarding chemical rockets, since our best rockets reach at most a third of that speed,' Loeb wrote. However, other scientists have thrown cold water on the so-called alien origins of the object, which they believe is a comet. 'All evidence points to this being an ordinary comet that was ejected from another solar system, just as countless billions of comets have been ejected from our own solar system,' added Samantha Lawler, an astronomer at the University of Regina in Canada who studies solar system dynamics, Live Science reported. In fact, even Loeb admitted in his blog that his alien spy probe theory is a bit far-fetched: 'By far, the most likely outcome will be that 3I/ATLAS is a completely natural interstellar object, probably a comet.' The researchers also warned the public to take the paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, with a grain of salt. 'This paper is contingent on a remarkable but, as we shall show, testable hypothesis, to which the authors do not necessarily ascribe, yet is certainly worthy of an analysis and a report,' they wrote. 'The hypothesis is an interesting exercise in its own right, and is fun to pursue, irrespective of its likely validity.' Advertisement However, critics have called their project a mockery of the work of other scientists, who have provided plenty of evidence that 3I/ATLAS is not evidence of a pending close encounter. 'Astronomers all around the world have been thrilled at the arrival of 3I/ATLAS, collaborating to use advanced telescopes to learn about this visitor,' Chris Lintott, an astronomer at the University of Oxford who helped simulate 3I/ATLAS's galactic origins, told Live Science. 'Any suggestion that it's artificial is nonsense on stilts, and is an insult to the exciting work going on to understand this object.'


USA Today
a day ago
- USA Today
Could this California company challenge SpaceX's Falcon 9? What to know about Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab has increasingly been in the news over mounting anticipation for the first launch of its upcoming Neutron rocket. Rocket Lab, a spaceflight company based in California, has spent years building up a reputation as a reliable launch service provider for small satellites. Now, though, the venture has its sights set on bigger targets: Procuring some of those lucrative government and commercial contracts that have long been the domain of Elon Musk's Texas-based SpaceX. Maybe you've heard about Rocket Lab's diminutive Electron launch vehicle, which the company bills as the second-most active rocket in the U.S. Or maybe you've heard about its next-generation Neutron spacecraft, which could soon be making its inaugural flight from Virginia. Whichever may be the case, here's everything to know for those interested in Rocket Lab and its future plans for spaceflight. What is Rocket Lab? Rocket Lab is a launch service provider and spaceflight company founded in 2006 and based in Long Beach, California. The company operates out of three launch pads at two launch sites, including one in New Zealand and two in Virginia at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. Rocket Lab Neutron launch date Rocket Lab has increasingly been in the news over mounting anticipation for the first launch of its upcoming Neutron rocket. The satellite launch vehicle is central to Rocket Lab's plans to shift from small satellite deployments to missions with heavier payloads. But when exactly the Neutron rocket could make its orbital debut has yet to be determined. Rocket Lab continues to work through a checklist of requirements before Neutron can get off the ground for its maiden flight. That includes integrating – or stacking – the rocket stages and getting its commercial launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration, according to the company's first-quarter earnings presentation provided to the USA TODAY Network. The good news? Construction on infrastructure at the launch pad is on schedule, according to the report. Earlier in July, Rocket Lab also announced that the company had awarded a contract to shipbuilder Bollinger Shipyards to support the build of a 400-foot ocean landing platform named "Return On Investment." But the challenge for Rocket Lab will be in transporting the components of the Neutron to the facility, according to the website TechCrunch. The vehicle must be shipped in segments to Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 3 in Virginia, where it will be fully mated as a rocket. Could Neutron challenge SpaceX, Falcon 9? Many space industry analysts have said that Neutron could emerge as a credible challenger to SpaceX's Falcon 9 in the medium-lift launch market. Rocket Lab is developing the Neutron rocket – which already has contracts with the Department of Defense – for commercial, civil and military space operations. That includes satellite constellation deployments, cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station and interplanetary missions. The arena is one that SpaceX, founded by billionaire Elon Musk in 2002, has dominated for years with its Falcon 9 rocket – one of the most active rockets in the world. The Falcon 9 is routinely the rocket of choice to launch NASA astronaut missions to the International Space Station and is the exclusive launch provider for Musk's Starlink satellite deliveries. At 141-feet-tall, Neutron is smaller in stature than SpaceX's two-stage, 230-foot Falcon 9. But like the Falcon 9, Neutron is designed to be reusable so that it can launch more frequently. Its design features an integrated system that brings Neutron's first stage and payload fairings back to Earth as a single stage. Capable of delivering about a 14-ton (more than 28,600 pounds) payload to low-Earth before landing, Neutron is powered by Rocket Lab's newly developed Archimedes engine. Rocket Lab's emergence also comes at a time of mounting public discord between Musk and President Donald Trump. What is Rocket Lab's Electron rocket? Rocket Lab has already spent years reliably launching its smaller Electron rocket to deliver small satellites and other payloads to orbit for civil and commercial contractors. At 59 feet tall, Electron is capable of carrying just 661 pounds of cargo to space, according to Rocket Lab. A version of the rocket is also tailored for Rocket Lab's hypersonic HASTE launches. One of the two launch complexes where Electron can launch is right next door to the Neutron's new launch complex. Since its first orbital launch in January 2018, the Electron has delivered more than 200 satellites to orbit and become one of the most frequently launched U.S. rockets, second only to the Falcon 9, according to Rocket Lab. In June alone, the Electron launched four times on both government and commercial missions, according to Rocket Lab. The most recent mission came June 28 when the Electron launched a single satellite to space for "a confidential commercial customer," Rocket Lab announced in a press release. The mission was the second of two launches from the same launch site in less than 48 hours, a new launch record for the company. Is Rocket Lab a good stock to buy? Whether to invest Unlike SpaceX, Rocket Lab is publicly traded. While Rocket Lab's stock is up 800% over the past year, according to Forbes, the company is not yet profitable. "A lot hinges on Rocket Lab's ability to evolve its revenue model and reach sustained profitability," Sasirekha Subramanian, an equity research content expert, wrote for Forbes. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@