The world’s most studied rainforest is still yielding new insights
Even after a century of research, Barro Colorado in Panama continues to shed light on natural life
CONSERVATIONISTS GENERALLY disapprove of flooding species-rich habitats. But the law of unintended consequences works in mysterious ways. For it was just such a flood, in 1913, that created Barro Colorado Island in central Panama. Gatun, the lake surrounding the island, was, at the time of its birth, the largest artificial body of water in the world. It formed the middle passage of the Panama Canal. Barro Colorado, meanwhile, has become the most intensively scrutinised scrap of tropical rainforest on Earth.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “One hundred years of plenitude”
From the July 6th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
Deforestation is costing Brazilian farmers millions
Without trees to circulate moisture, the land is getting hotter and drier
Robots can learn new actions faster thanks to AI techniques
They could soon show their moves in settings from car factories to care homes
Scientists are learning why ultra-processed foods are bad for you
A mystery is finally being solved
Scientific publishers are producing more papers than ever
Concerns about some of their business models are building
The two types of human laugh
One is caused by tickling; the other by everything else
Scientists are building a catalogue of every type of cell in our bodies
It has thus far shed light on everything from organ formation to the causes of inflammation