Bringing dead coral back to life!

Scientists at Stanford just accidentally discovered something crazy! A way to bring dying, bleached coral back to life. It started by accident, when two bits of coral fell against each other in a lab tank. One was healthy, one was bleached and dying. But where they touched, the colour came back. So researchers Danny Collins and Steve Palumbi, from Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability, tested it properly. They placed bleached coral against a healthy one from the same colony, and the two fused together. The healthy coral then fed its life-giving algae straight into its dying neighbour. Within seven weeks, it had fully recovered! It's early days, and it only works with genetically identical corals for now. But with reefs vanishing around the world, it's a brilliant glimmer of hope of bringing coral reefs back to life! #goodnews #coral #ocean