Frozen Hope

There are 8 billion people on the planet. By 2050, there will be nearly 10 billion. For other species, the future is less certain. The Center for Biological Diversity says about 30% of known species could go extinct by 2050. Now there might be a way to protect them, or at least preserve their genes × gene the information in a cell that determines a characteristic of a living thing (noun) . Then, if they vanish, scientists might bring them back.

On February 3, the Colossal Biosciences company made an announcement. It’s collecting millions of samples from more than 10,000 species. The samples will be stored at the Museum of the Future, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The project will focus first on the world’s 100 most at-risk species. These include the snow leopard (above), the savanna elephant, the great white shark, and the white rhino.

Savanna elephant

Great white shark

White rhino

Colossal aims to open the lab, or biovault, in 2027. “Ten thousand species is our aspirational × aspirational hoping for a high level of success (adjective) goal,” chief animal officer Matt James says.

Scientists at Work

The biovault won’t be just for storage. It will be a working laboratory. Researchers will have access to its data.

There are other biovault projects. But Colossal’s will be the largest. The company is working with 75 groups to collect samples from wild animals. Scientists will study the samples. They’ll store the data in a digital library. The samples will then be stored in freezers. “We are losing species at an alarming rate,” Colossal CEO and cofounder Ben Lamm said in a statement. “The world urgently needs . . . a true backup plan.”