US: Scientific breakthrough raises hopes for corals' future A team of scientists in the US have managed to reproduce coral in a lab setting for the first time ever, an encouraging step in the race to save "America's Great Barrier Reef" off the coast of Florida. "It gives us a lot of hope that we can continue this project into restoring not only reefs in Florida, but reefs all over the world potentially," Emily Williams, a coral biologist at The Florida Aquarium, tells AFP. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES