At the HI-SEAS Mars program, six people spend up to a year living in complete isolation in a 12,000-square-foot geodesic dome on the side of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii. The simulation attempts to mimic what life would be like for humans on another planet — participants must wear spacesuits equipped with oxygen when going outside, cook with freeze-dried ingredients, and send emails to the outside world with a 20-minute delay.

The Henn-na Hotel near Nagasaki, Japan is staffed almost entirely by robots (some of which are dinosaurs). They work reception, carry luggage, and make wake-up calls.

The Global Seed Vault is located on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, holding 880,000 seed samples from 234 countries frozen at -27°F. The 479-foot-long “doomsday” vault safeguards precious agriculture in case of a catastrophe like nuclear war.

A woolly mammoth statue greets visitors at BGI, formerly Beijing Genomics Institute, in Shenzhen, China. Scientists hope to create a mammoth from the genes of long-dead specimens.

At the Eden Project biosphere in Cornwall, England, rubber trees, bananas, and cashews are spread out across a Malaysian paddy field as well as a waterfall in a 164-foot-high dome.

The Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, in Seoul, South Korea, is the only lab that clones dogs commercially. For $100,000, pet owners can buy a clone created from the DNA of their beloved dog.

Each night scientists at a base in Ny-Ålesund, Norway, send a laser into the stratosphere to study clouds.

Astrobiologist Cyprien Verseux explores the Mauna Loa volcano in a full space suit at the HI-SEAS Mars simulation on Hawaii.

The Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Phoenix, Arizona preserves the deceased in liquid nitrogen at sub-zero temperatures in the hopes of resuscitating them at some point in the future. For $200,000, you can preserve the whole body after death; for $80,000, you can preserve the head. Here, four bodies and heads are preserved in a stainless steel container dubbed a “bigfoot.”

Ny-Ålesund is a town in Svalbard, Norway, home to 11 research stations from 10 countries. In this photo, French scientist René Bürgi prepares to send a laser into the stratosphere to study cloud pollution.

The Eden Project biosphere in Cornwall, England claims to house the largest indoor rainforest in the world and is home to 1,185 varieties of plants.

At the Beijing Genomics Institute in Shenzhen, China, scientists produce a quarter of the genomic data generated in the world. So far, BGI has sequenced the genomes of over 50,000 people, plus the chickpea, giant panda, and a 4,000-year-old man named Inuk.

A Doberman is inseminated with a clone at Sooam Biotech in Seoul, South Korea.

The Proti-Farm, located in Ermelo in the Netherlands, produces Alphitobius diaperinus, an edible species of beetle. It sells the product in a variety of forms—whole dried larvae, ground protein powder, purified oil, fertilizer—to food and pharmaceutical companies.

At BGI in Shenzhen, China, visitors can purchase kits to search their DNA for genes related to fat and alcohol.