Scientists Want to Send 6.7 Millions of Sperm and Egg Samples to Moon for Lunar Gene Bank

 Earth’s increasingly precarious state of things has always worried scientists. And ever since space exploration began, colonizing other bodies in the solar system has been the underlying vision for humans to find permanent settlements in space. The science community’s perpetual fixation on building habitats on other planets of our solar system and our natural satellite, the Moon, have been in the works for a long time. While the moon among other space bodies may not be an ideal place for a permanent residence, it could serve as a storage unit for our invaluable resources.

According to a New York Post report, scientists have proposed to establish a lunar gene bank that could house a repository of reproductive cells, sperm and egg samples from 6.7 million of Earth’s species, including humans. The proposed bank or ‘ark’ to be built on the moon is seen as a ‘modern global insurance policy.’

At a recent aerospace conference, Mechanical and aerospace engineer Jekan Thanga, whose team at the University of Arizona submitted their report, proposed setting up a lunar gene bank by shipping millions of sperm and egg samples for safekeeping. Thanga, speaking at the annual Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Aerospace Conference on Saturday, said that as the planet’s growing instability, an ‘Earth-based repository’ would leave the collected specimen vulnerable. He wants to jumpstart a cross planetary of sorts by starting a human seed vault on the moon at the earliest.

According to his presentation, the so-called ‘ark would cryogenically preserve various species in the event of a global disaster. “We can still save them until the tech advances to then reintroduce these species — in other words, save them for another day,” he said.

The study he co-authored with five other scientists would store the reproductive cells in recently discovered lunar ‘pits’ from which scientists believe lava once flowed billions of years ago. And they think these pits also are the perfect size for cell storage, as they go down 80 to 100 meters underground and ‘provide readymade shelter from the surface of the moon,’ which endures ‘major temperature swings,’ as well as threats from meteorites and space radiation.

In his presentation, he also said that many plants and animals were ‘seriously endangered’ and cited the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Toba 75,000 years ago, which caused a 1,000-year cooling period. He connected the same to present-day parallel to ‘human activity and other factors that we fully don’t understand.’

However, Thanga’s concept of creating gene banks is not new, it is already being employed at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the island of Spitsbergen in the Arctic Sea that houses plant seeds among others at the facility. The unique seed vault currently houses close to 992,000 samples – each containing an average of 500 seeds.

INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE TRADE IS CAUSING OVER 60 PERCENT SPECIES ON EARTH TO GO EXTINCT

 International wildlife trade is causing declines of over 60 percent in the abundance of species on the planet, say scientists who call for more research on the impacts of this severe threat across the world. The scientists, including those from the University of Sheffield in the UK, found that wildlife trade is causing declines of around 62 percent in the abundance of species, with endangered species suffering losses of over 80 percent. Although there are policies managing trade, the study, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, warned that without enough research on the effects of wildlife trade these policies cannot claim to safeguard species.

According to the researchers, at least 100 million plants and animals are internationally trafficked each year and the international wildlife trade is said to be worth between USD 4-20 billion per year. Citing some examples, they said wildlife trade continues to impact the decline of African elephants due to the ivory trade and the demise of pangolin species across Africa and Asia.

The research called for better protective measures for threatened species and management of trade with trade still driving declines of 56 percent in protected areas.

"Thousands of species are traded for pets, traditional medicines, and luxury foods, but how this impacts species' abundances in the wild was unknown," said David Edwards, Professor of Conservation Science at the University of Sheffield.

While the declines in abundance are worse for species being traded as pets, the scientists said these are also caused by trade for bushmeat.

"Our research draws together high-quality field studies to reveal a shocking reduction in most traded species, driving many locally extinct," said Edwards, one of the corresponding authors of the study.

The scientists believe trapping drives particularly severe declines in species at high risk of extinction and those traded for pets.

"Such high levels of offtake suggests trade is often unsustainable, yet a lot of trade is conducted legally. As a society, we urgently need to reflect upon our desire for exotic pets and the efficacy of legal frameworks designed to prevent species declines," Edwards said.

According to the scientists, an understanding of how wildlife trade is impacting species is severely lacking in developed nations, and for many commonly traded wildlife groups, despite it being one of their biggest drivers of species extinction.

"Where extraction for wildlife trade occurs we found large declines in species abundances. This highlights the key role global wildlife trade plays in species extinction risk," said Oscar Morton, lead author of the research from the University of Sheffield.

Without effective management, Morton believes such trade will continue to threaten wildlife.

"For such a severe threat to global wildlife, we uncovered concerningly limited data on the impacts of wildlife trade in Asia, North America and Europe, as well as a lack of data for many amphibians, invertebrates, cacti and orchids, despite these groups often being traded," he added.