Hunting For Signs of Life at the Top of the World

As the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, Tracie Seimon develops cutting-edge techniques for the detection of pathogens that infect wild animals. She is also pushing the boundaries of conservation biology, employing eDNA (environmental DNA) collection and analysis to search for endangered species and assess biodiversity in some of the most remote ecosystems on Earth. In 2019, her team’s work on Mount Everest revealed surprising results about the wide diversity of species, which range across the tree of life, that call this hostile, high-elevation mountain environment home.
The Wildlife Conservation Society runs four zoos and the aquarium in New York City and supports conservation and research projects in more than 60 countries around the world.
Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: www.quantamagazine.org/she-tr...
00:00 Why protecting biodiversity important and the role of science
00:20 The Wildlife Conservation Society's Molecular Lab
00:50 How Dr. Tracie Simon ending up studying amphibians in the high Andes
01:39 How climate change is impacting high mountain environments
02:49 Researching environmental DNA (eDNA) in wild environments
03:27 Biodiversity eDNA analysis of life on Mt. Everest
04:16 Surprising results from the survey of the tree of life on Everest
05:45 Pushing boundaries of eDNA analysis to save the Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle
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Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation www.simonsfoundation.org/
#wildlife #biology #conservation #dna

[@QuantaScienceChannel]

Read the full written interview with Tracie Seimon on Quanta's website: quantamagazine.org/she-tracks-the-dna-of-elusive-species-on-everest-and-in-the-andes-20230417
Explore all of our scientist interviews here: www.quantamagazine.org/qa/

[@160p2GHz]

What a f'in baddie. I'm obsessed w her now. Thanks quanta for teaching me about so many scientists and bleeding edge projects I'd otherwise have missed.

[@ToriKo_]

Cool vid. I especially liked the sound design for that thunderous glacier part

[@vipahman]

Love this job profile. Good on you Tracie!

[@sydnerd]

What a powerful woman, very inspiring and such an important area of research.

[@jon-marcseimon8665]

Do I have the coolest, baddest-ass sister-in-law in the world? Tracie completely ROCKS!!!

[@salcanib]

I love your content! Thanks for sharing it.
Have you considered adding other subtitles languages to expand the impact of your publications? Like Spanish, for example

[@Thom-ex6oz]

Marvelous and inspiring video!

[@1.4142]

The best job ever

[@andrewsun4385]

Cool!!!❤❤🌟🌟💯💯

[@juniperglass-klaiber4954]

video description misspells *Seimon in first sentence

[@QuantaScienceChannel]

Thank you for catching that! It's fixed now.

[@ManishKumar-xx7ny]

👍👍👍

[@richross4781]

There are enough topics in the world for 2 shows per month, I fear.
In all honesty, I think I just hope for it.

[@tblb1]

DID YOU FOUND THE TURLE OR NOT?????? what the hell

[@mael1515]

😂😂😂

[@NavajoNinja]

Thought it was a survival lily video in my feed.

[@autonomous_collective]

Mimic nature. Its simple.

[@jesuslovesyoujohn314-21]

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.