Dr. David Vaughan is a Marine Biologist that accidentally broke a piece of coral into pieces, he thought it would die but it grew like ‘the dickens’…
What was an accident, actually turned into a happy mistake. Dr. David Vaughan is a Marine Biologist, he was working with a piece of coral when it broke. He placed it back into the water thinking it would die, only it didn’t die, it regrew into a handful of new coral pieces.
The coral pieces grew back to size within a few months instead of taking a number of years. After witnessing this Dr. David started regrowing coral which is being replanted into natural reefs.
“Most people don’t know this, but we have lost 25- 40% of the worlds coral. And if you wonder if that will make a difference or not? You should ask yourself, do you like to breathe?”
Using an ocean simulator, Dr. David can simulate what the water will be like in a hundred years and this makes it easier to work with the coral as they can forecast if the coral they are currently growing will survive. They then plant the coral that has shown the most resilience to change, back into the ocean.
Dr. David is also using his research to understand rapid growth in cells, in humans we call is cancer or tumors and with this understanding they could find solutions to fighting cancer.
“I’m not going to retire until I hit a million corals planted back on the reef. With the right conditions we can do it in the next 3 to 5 years. People think we have ruined this planet with technology but with technology we can bring it back!”
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