Crop diversity (多样性）is important to feed the increasing population of our planet. Agricultural experts say having a large variety of plants also helps to protect crops against possible diseases and future risks. Hundreds of thousands of different plants now exist. But many experts say the number has decreased sharply during the past century.

One of the world's largest seed conservation projects has predicted further losses. The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership is warning that up to one hundred thousand plant species could permanently disappear. The rich collection of genes that decide their qualities would disappear with them.

For those who regard it as a major risk, they blame climate change and loss of habitat, normal growth area, for damaging plant life. They note human activities also contribute to the problem. Besides, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says modern business farming is responsible for loss of farmers’ traditional crop varieties. Some scientists and others blame patenting for what they say are losses of crop diversity. A patent is the legal right of an inventor to a process or a product, even a plant. To get this right, the inventor has to demonstrate the qualities that make the patented plant different from other plants.

But the study led by Professor Paul actually failed this assumption. Professor Paul said, “People tend to believe what they want to believe. But as a scientist, I must believe the study results. ”

To save endangered arctic wolves (北极狼), the Beijing-based Sinogene Biotechnology Company cooperated with Harbin Polarland on cloning (克隆) the arctic wolf. As a result, after two years of hard efforts, the arctic wolf was cloned successfully. It is the first case of its kind in the world.

Born on June 10, 2022, the wolf, named Maya, is energetic and in very good health. Her donor (供体) cell came from a wild female arctic wolf from Canada. However, her oocyte (卵母细胞) was from a female dog, and her surrogate mother (代孕母体) was a beagle. The scientist chose a dog as Maya’s surrogate because they are similar in genes (基因), and it’s more easily to succeed through cloning technology.

“This is our new try and it has been a development in protecting and producing wild and endangered animals. The birth of Maya is an event for the development of cloning technology and is of great value to biodiversity (生物多样性), the protection of wildlife, and the restoration (恢复) of endangered animals in the world,” Mi Jidong, the company’s general manager, said.

Cloning technology is a breeding method different from natural reproduction (繁殖). Some gave opinions about the cloned arctic wolf. Sun Quanhui, a scientist from the World Animal Protection organization, said that cloning technology is still in the exploratory stage of research, and there are many technical and ethical (伦理) problems that need to be treated properly. Sun believed cloning should be considered only for endangered wild animals whose species are extinct, or whose captive populations (圈养种群) are very limited.

Maya now lives with her surrogate mother in a lab, and later she will be sent to the Harbin Polarland and displayed to the public, Maya would live by herself in the park at first because she may not be able to fit for original arctic wolf groups. However, it is reported that the technology of cloning arctic wolves has gained strong value in its application, and another male cloned arctic wolf will come into this world in the near future.

A group of scientists have studied the fossil (化石) of an animal, called Kongonaphon kely, which they said is an ancestor of the dinosaurs. The four-legged animal can even fit in man's hand. Scientists say it lived about 237 million years ago in what is now Madagascar, an island country off the east coast of Africa.

The researchers believe the animal came before dinosaurs. The study notes that much remains unknown about the history of dinosaurs and their winged relatives, pterosaurs (翼龙). Scientist Christian Kammerer of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, who led the study, told a news agency that based on the body size suggested by the fossil, “we argue that dinosaurs and pterosaurs evolved from a modest-sized ancestor. " John Flynn, of New York's American Museum of Natural History, was a co-writer of the study. He said the Kongonaphon's teeth showed signs of use in a way that suggested this animal ate insects.

The team examining the fossil also found evidence of soft skin coverings, including feathers. Usually, animals use fur or feathers to hide themselves from enemies or help to hunt for food. To some, fur or feathers even protect them from insect bites. But the researchers said feathers of Kongonaphon would have been especially important in the extreme climate of the early part of the Mesozoic Era (中生代). The days were hot, and the nights cold.

“Some of these things would have been quite cute animals,” said Kammerer on the light side. Looking like a dinosaur that could be held in a person’s cupped hands, it “would probably make a great pet”. Of course, no humans were around when Kongonaphon was wandering in the wild, jumping around with its strong legs and hunting for food Kammerer said.