Researchers have created genetically modified monkeys with a revolutionary new procedure that enables scientists to cut and paste DNA in living organisms.

The macaques are the first primates to have their genetic makeup altered with the powerful technology which many scientists believe will lead to a new era of genetic medicine.

The feat was applauded by some researchers who said it would help them to recreate devastating human diseases in monkeys, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The ability to alter DNA with such precision is already being investigated as a way to make people resistant to HIV.

But the breakthrough is controversial, with groups opposed to animal testing warning that it could drive a rise in the use of monkeys in research. One critic said that genetic engineering gave researchers "almost limitless power to create sick animals".

The work was carried out in a lab in China, where scientists said they had used a genome editing procedure, called Crispr/Cas9, to manipulate two genes in fertilised monkey eggs before transferring them to surrogate mothers.

Writing in the journal, Cell, the team from Nanjing Medical University reported the delivery of twin female long-tailed macaques, called Ningning and Mingming. Five surrogates miscarried and four more pregnancies are ongoing.

The Crispr procedure has been welcomed by geneticists in labs around the world because of its enormous potential. Unlike standard gene therapy, Crispr allows scientists to remove faulty genes from cells, or replace them with healthy ones. It can even correct single letter spelling mistakes in the DNA code.

More people are starting to look at what we've done to this planet, especially since the birth of the technological revolution. Our oceans have been suffering for a very long time, with countless oil spills and toxic waste dumped into them every single day from industrial practices and more. Despite having numerous ways to operate in a fashion that is more harmonious with the planet, we continue to choose to destroy our planet on a daily basis, and we can't afford to do that anymore. Despite how much our planet is suffering, people everyday are starting wake up and realize that we really do need to look at, question, and change the way we operate here on planet Earth. This shift in perception alone can help springboard us towards change, and creating a new experience for us and other beings who we share the planet with.

Whales have been showing up dead on multiple beaches, bringing us a message with stomachs full of plastic. This has happened multiple times. In the summer of july 2013, a sperm whale was stranded on Tershelling, a Northern island in the Netherlands. The whale swallowed 56 different plastic items that totalled over 37 pounds. In april 2010, a gray whale died after stranding itself on a West Seattle beach, it was found to have over 20 plastic bags, small towels, surgical gloves, plastic pieces, duct tape, and more in its system. In March of 2013 a dead sperm whale washed up on Spain's South coast which swallowed 17kg of plastic waste.

A rare beaked whale has been found on a Cornish beach - only the second time the species has been recorded in the UK.

The Blainville's whale, usually found in temperate and tropical waters, was discovered stranded on Kenneggy Beach, near Praa Sands.

Records from 1913 show the only other Blainville's beaked whale to reach UK shores was at Aberaeron in West Wales in 1993.

However, experts believe Blainville's will start stranding more frequently in Britain as water temperatures increase due to climate change.

A member of the public reported the stranding to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings Network as a porpoise on December 30 2013.

But when the Network's data officer, Niki Clear, received photographs of the animal, measuring 3.8m (12ft 5in) long, she recognised it as an elusive Blainville.

Necropsy planned for 3,000 lb. animal

A dead pilot whale was removed with heavy equipment from a Cape Cod beach on Wednesday.

The whale stranded on Hardings Beach in Chatham on Monday. Researchers tried unsuccessfully to return the whale to the water, but ultimately, it had to be euthanized.

IFAW officials said the 18-foot whale weighed about 3,000 pounds.

According to IFAW, pilot whale strandings are not uncommon on Cape Cod. Generally when a single whale comes ashore, it is likely sick or injured, IFAW said.

International Fund for Animal Welfare researchers brought the animal to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for a necropsy.

Teacher arrested after police find bins full of snakes stacked to ceiling in his reeking home, along with 'cannibal' rats and mice

A schoolteacher has been arrested after hundreds of living and dead pythons in plastic bins were found stacked floor to ceiling inside his stench-filled suburban California home.

As investigators wearing respirator masks carried the reptiles out of the house by the score and stacked them in the driveway, reporters and passers-by gagged at the smell. Some held their noses or walked away from the five-bedroom home to get a breath of air.

"The smell alone I feel like I need to take a shower for a week," said police Corporal Anthony Bertagna. "They're pretty much in all the bedrooms everywhere."

Officers said they found more than 400 snakes at least 220 of them dead as well as numerous mice and rats, in the Santa Ana home of William Buchman after neighbors complained about the smell. He was arrested for investigation of neglect in the care of animals, Bertagna said.

Mexico City - In winter, central Mexico's highland forests should be pulsing with orange and black. Not this year. Monarch butterfly colonies now cover less than a single hectare of forest, the smallest swath of land since data collection began in 1993, scientists reported at a press conference here today. The paltry figure highlights the uncertain fate of a natural wonder: the monarch's 4000-kilometer migration between North and Central America.

Each autumn, monarchs fly from their breeding grounds in the United States and Canada to Mexico, clustering by the thousands in pine and oyamel fir trees in Michoacán and Mexico states. Scientists had been bracing for bad news about this year's colonies since last spring, when few monarchs were tallied returning to their northern breeding grounds. A cold spring also pushed back the 2013 migration, interfering with the timing of monarch breeding, says Chip Taylor, an ecologist at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, and the director of Monarch Watch, which monitors U.S. populations.

The figure announced today - 0.67 hectares - means that the population wintering in Mexico is down nearly 44% from last year's previous record low of 1.19 hectares. Monarch experts lay much of the blame on the decline of milkweed plants in North America. Adult monarchs lay their eggs on milkweeds, which the caterpillars consume before spinning their cocoons. Milkweed - and the monarchs that depend on it - once sprang up widely between rows of corn or soybeans in the U.S. Midwest. But with more and more farmers planting herbicide-resistant versions of these two crops, they are able to spray their fields with powerful herbicides, killing off milkweed.

Vermont beekeepers face mite infestations, extreme temperature swings and the possibility of colony collapse. Last fall, a new threat emerged: zombie bees.

Beekeeper Anthony Cantrell of Burlington discovered zombie bees in his hive in October, the first time they'd been found in the eastern United States.

John Hafernik, a professor from San Francisco State University, discovered the first zombie bees in 2008. A fly called Apocephalus borealis attaches itself to the bee and injects its eggs, which grow inside the bee, Hafernik said. Scientists believe it causes neurological damage resulting in erratic, jerky movement and night activity, "like a zombie," Hafernik said by phone Tuesday.

These aren't undead bees doomed to roam for eternity. They often die only a few hours after showing symptoms, Hafernik said.

Hafernik and his team of colleagues and students have been tracking the zombie bee spread across the United States. California, Washington, Oregon and South Dakota all have confirmed zombie bees while this is the first time the bee has been found this far east, said Hafernik. The fly previously attached to bumblebees as hosts, not honeybees, according to Hafernik.

"Right now, we don't know if it's an isolated thing," Stephen Parise, Vermont agricultural production specialist, said Tuesday at the state's annual farm show.

Sea life in the Pacific Ocean is dying off at an alarming rate, and the peak of all this death and destruction coincides with a certain nuclear disaster that ironically occurred on the Pacific coast of Japan. Still, scientists analyzing what's referred to as "sea snot" point their finger at global warming, refusing to even mention the radiation from Fukushima. Normally, this snot covers about 1% of the floor. Now, it seems to be covering about 98% of it.

According to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, life at the sea floor 145 miles out from the California coast has been analyzed for a total of 24 years now. There, the researchers measure the amount of 'sea snot' on the ocean floor. Sea snot is the highly technical term they use to describe dead sea life including fish, plankton, feces, and other organic oceanic matter. As mentioned, this snot covers about 1% of the floor, but now it seems to be covering about 98% of it.

Tens of thousands of dead fish are now washing up on the shores of the Holston River in Grainger County. 6 News has been investigating this since viewer Chris Joyce first alerted us Monday morning by posting this photo on our Facebook page.The white spots in the picture are the fish. They are scattered downstream from Cherokee Lake, just off Tampico Road in rural Grainger County.

"It's just a shock to see it in your own backyard," Joyce said. After seeing thousands of dead fish near his home, Joyce turned to 6 News for answers. "I got to looking. There was a lot on the water, a lot on the banks. I took pictures of it and sent it in. This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this," Joyce said.

A junior doctor has recounted how he fended off a shark attack and stitched up his own wound on the beach before enjoying a pint of beer at a nearby pub.

James Grant was spearfishing with friends near Colac Bay at the base of New Zealand's South Island on Saturday when he was attacked by what he believed was a sevengill shark.

The 24-year-old was in about 2 metres (6ft) of murky water when he felt a tug on his leg, which he initially thought was a friend playing a trick on him. "I looked behind to see who it was and got a bit of a shock," he told Radio New Zealand.

He didn't see the shark and had no idea how big it was, he said, adding that he thought it could have been about 20cm (8in) across the jaw. However, he felt no fear. "[I thought] bugger, now I have to try and get this thing off my leg," he said.

He quickly made it on to rocks on the shore, where he took off the wetsuit - borrowed from a friend - and saw bites up to 5cm long.

Grant gave himself stitches using a first aid kit he kept in his vehicle for pig hunts. He and his friends then went to the Colac Bay Tavern, where he was given a bandage because he was dripping blood on the floor.

He already had a knife in his hand and stabbed at the shark. "I am not sure how effective it was. I guess it let go so something must have happened. [I] put a few nicks in it."