Brief pulses of electrical current can dramatically extend the lives of sea squirts, whose rapid stem cell regeneration and simple immune systems make them a useful analog for understanding aging in humans. The findings point toward new strategies for protecting species from environmental shifts, and mitigating age-related decline.

If you look at the trees as you’re driving on the Trans-Canada Highway toward Banff National Park, you will see Engleman spruce on the cooler, wetter northeast-facing slopes of the Three Sisters. Across the valley, on the warmer, drier southwest-facing slopes of Grotto Mountain, are white spruce.

The species typically crossbreed in central British Columbia and Northern Alberta, but those in the Bow Valley corridor west of Calgary remain distinct species because they are strongly adapted to different sides of the same valley.

Scientists at the University of Calgary who studied the two types of trees have determined that they use the same genetic tool kit whether they grow in the mountains or across vast northern latitudes.