Some of the people who are reporting Science stories, yet lack the science knowledge to understand the story.

A current story goes thusly:-

Baby coral can clone, researchers say
By Natalie Poyhonen
Updated March 02, 2012 09:35:31

During the experiments, about half of the fertilised coral eggs broke into smaller fragments.

Marine scientists in north Queensland have discovered baby coral on the Great Barrier Reef can clone itself before developing into adult coral.

The team from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville set out to research what happens to fragile coral embryos when they fragment during different wave conditions.

Unlike most animal embryos, the coral does not have a protective outer layer.

Dr Andrew Negri says during the experiments, which mimicked wave heights during coral spawning, about half of the fertilised coral eggs broke into smaller fragments.

"If there are choppy conditions in the ocean, this would be enough to break the coral embryos apart and create smaller coral clones," he said.

Dr Negri says it is just one of the strategies used to reproduce and could help its long-term survival.

"By having such fragile embryos maybe this increases the number of larvae that are available to settle," he said.

"But it could be that producing a different size range or wider size range of different embryos and larvae may help them as well - may help them to get into smaller nooks and crannies and settle and attach and avoid predators."

Hereby endeth the story.

What has not been understood by the reporter is that corals, like their cousins the jellyfish and the hydras are not animals, but colonies of closely related beasties. If the fragment contains enough of all the types of beasties, it can grow into a complete polyp.

Lord save us from hemi-comprehension.

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