Gold, lasers, and antifreeze help reanimate deep-frozen fish
Using a combination of lasers, gold particles, and antifreeze, scientists have successfully reanimated frozen zebrafish embryos. This new technique could one day help biologists bank the embryos of species at risk for extinction or preserve the genetically modified fish that scientists use to study human diseases. But first, researchers have to make sure more of the embryos can actually survive this new process.
Deep-freezing eggs, sperm, and embryos to save them for later is called cryopreservation. We’ve been cryopreserving sperm since the 1950s and human embryos since the 1980s. But fish embryos have been frustrating scientists for almost 60 years. With sea life threatened by warming and acidifying oceans, figuring out how to...