In September 2019, a man named Anuchit was riding his motorcycle down a highway in Thailand. He spotted a sad-looking dog sitting on the side of the mud. The poor dog seemed to be waiting for someone.

Later that day, Anuchit rode by that exact same spot and found the same dog still sitting there. After stopping his bike to see if the dog was OK, Anuchit happened to meet a local person named Saowaluck, who told him the animal's backstory. Saowaluck kept finding the dog at that same corner in 2016. She brought him to the vet, named him Leo and adopted him. But days later, Leo disappeared. Sanwaluck found him at the same corner along the highway and returned every day to give him food and water. She loved him, but he wasn't ready to accept her as his new owner.

After the motorcyclist shared Leo's story on the Internet, the dog's former owner came forward. An elderly woman named Noi said Leo jumped out of her pickup truck back in 2015. She and her husband looked everywhere but couldn't find him. When Noi arrived at the corner to reunite with Leo in 2019, he ran over to her and was greeted with rubs and pets — but he refused to go home with her!

Saowaluck begged Noi to keep the dog herself because she had become so attached to him and had already tried to adopt him once before. Leo has reportedly been with Saowaluck ever since — no longer sad, and no longer waiting.

If you sit at a beach and stare at the stars, you can see the sky suddenly light up and then the water turn a beautiful, electric blue. What you are seeing is a natural phenomenon known as bioluminescence(生物发光). Bioluminescence is a process by which sea creatures give out light from their bodies. Trying to catch sight of this phenomenon has in fact become a tourist attraction in places like New Zealand.

Bioluminescence is shown by many organisms, such as specific kinds of fish, squid, jellyfish, as well as fireflies. The light is caused by a chemical reaction involving a molecule(分子) called luciferin that reacts with oxygen to produce light from within an animal's body.

Animals can choose the amount and the color of the light depending on whether they are running away from predators(捕食者), attracting a possible mate, or hunting. The colors are typically a bright blue or green--- this is because colors that have shorter wavelengths such as blue and green travel easily through the water.

In the waters off the coast of New Zealand, plankton(浮游生物) produces neon-blue when it senses the presence of smaller fish that eat it. Its light causes the waves to shine, the water to flash, and the fish to swim away as they swim through the ocean.

It is important to research before visiting as bioluminescence is not guaranteed. The animals have a built-in sense of time that allows them to only shine in darkness. Also, wet weather increases the chance of bioluminescence taking place, as the water from the cloud provides nutrients that help stimulate the algae(藻类植物).

On the other hand, too much wind can cause the organisms to sink and swim away in different directions. During the day, red tides and little pockets of algae are indicators that there might be a bioluminescent show later.

Bioluminescent waves are truly one of the most unique and beautiful sights to see. They remind us of the many foreign creatures that live on our planet and our responsibility to protect them for future generations.

You may have heard of the Tasmanian tiger — but you most certainly have never seen one. Along with many other species over the past hundred years, this creature became extinct because of humans. Now, scientists in Australia and the US are trying to bring it back to life.

Bringing species back from the dead is known as de extinction. Though it sounds like something from a science fiction movie, new technologies have made de-extinction a very real possibility. To “bring back” an extinct species, scientists take stem cells from a closely related living animal and edit the genes. Then, the cells grow into a new animal. This new animal is not an exact copy of the extinct one, but it’s very close. In theory, scientists could create entire populations of animals and set them free in the wild.

If successful, the de-extinction project in Australia could have a favorable impact on the environment. Tasmanian tigers could help bring balance to Australia’s remaining forests by hunting and killing animals that are harming the trees. Indeed, something similar happened when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone Park in 1995, with deer and plant populations rebalanced as a result.

De-extinction is not a perfect solution, however. For one thing, it won’t change the human behaviors that cause animals to become extinct in the first place. If we continue polluting and destroying the environment, animals will continue to die out. The only way we can truly protect them is by changing our habits. Bringing extinct species back to life won’t magically make us respect nature more.

Also, the money that we spend on de-extinction would probably be better spent on other conservation projects. Or, as those against de-extinction would put it, it’s better to spend money on the living rather than the dead. The reason for this is that, compared to other efforts, de-extinction is extremely expensive. In fact, for the cost of bringing one extinct species back to life, traditional conservation efforts could save up to eight threatened ones.

The power of science is amazing, but it might be time for us to stop and decide whether de-extinction is something we really want to achieve. With the technology we currently have, the question is no longer “can we?” but “should we?”