Preserving an intact population of weed-eating fish may be vital to saving the world's coral reefs from being engulfed by weed as human and climate impacts grow.

When Patricia Manrique was told she needed her gallbladder removed she immediately thought about the classroom full of children who rely on her to teach them tap and ballet each day. The Chicago Park District physical instructor needed a way to get the surgery performed without being laid up for weeks so she opted for an innovative minimally invasive procedure called Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) that would allow surgeons to perform organ removal surgery without any visible incisions and have her back on her feet the same day. Northwestern Medicine physicians were among the first in the U.S. to perform several types of the procedure and are leading the charge in organ removal through the mouth or vagina.

Earth's biodiversity—the number of microorganisms, plants, and animals, their genes, and their ecosystems (such as rainforests and grasslands)—is declining at an alarming rate, even faster than the last mass extinction 65 million years ago. In fact, two thirds of the terrestrial species that exist today are estimated to be extinct by the end of this century. Humans are an integral part of this extensive network of life. We depend on biodiversity for goods and services; we impact biodiversity via rapidly expanding human population growth, consumption of resources, and spread of disease; and we study biodiversity in order to understand, conserve, and protect it.