1 00:00:01,167 --> 00:00:02,625 Can you guess what this is? 2 00:00:04,083 --> 00:00:08,226 What if I told you there's a place where the creatures are made of glass? 3 00:00:08,250 --> 00:00:11,268 Or that there are life-forms that are invisible to us, 4 00:00:11,292 --> 00:00:14,309 but astronauts see them all the time? 5 00:00:14,333 --> 00:00:18,559 These invisible glass creatures aren't aliens on a faraway exoplanet. 6 00:00:18,583 --> 00:00:20,226 They're diatoms: 7 00:00:20,250 --> 00:00:23,893 photosynthetic, single-celled algae responsible for producing oxygen 8 00:00:23,917 --> 00:00:27,184 and helping seed clouds on a planetary scale 9 00:00:27,208 --> 00:00:30,893 and with intricately sculpted, geometric exoskeletons made of -- 10 00:00:30,917 --> 00:00:32,417 yeah, glass. 11 00:00:33,250 --> 00:00:36,684 You can see them in swirls of ocean-surface colors from space. 12 00:00:36,708 --> 00:00:37,976 And when they die, 13 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:40,476 their glass houses sink to the depths of the oceans, 14 00:00:40,500 --> 00:00:41,851 taking carbon out of the air 15 00:00:41,875 --> 00:00:43,226 and with them to the grave, 16 00:00:43,250 --> 00:00:47,726 accounting for a significant amount of carbon sequestration in the oceans. 17 00:00:47,750 --> 00:00:50,018 We live on an alien planet. 18 00:00:50,042 --> 00:00:52,518 There is so much weird life here on Earth to study, 19 00:00:52,542 --> 00:00:56,101 and so much of it lives at the edges of our world, 20 00:00:56,125 --> 00:00:58,934 of our sight and of our understanding. 21 00:00:58,958 --> 00:01:01,250 One of those edges is Antarctica. 22 00:01:02,083 --> 00:01:04,143 Typically, when we think about Antarctica, 23 00:01:04,167 --> 00:01:06,518 we think of a place that's barren and lifeless ... 24 00:01:06,542 --> 00:01:08,559 except for a few penguins. 25 00:01:08,583 --> 00:01:12,268 But Antarctica should instead be known as a polar oasis of life, 26 00:01:12,292 --> 00:01:15,000 host to countless creatures that are utterly fascinating. 27 00:01:15,875 --> 00:01:19,143 So why haven't we seen them on the latest nature documentary? 28 00:01:19,167 --> 00:01:22,101 Well, they lurk beneath the snow and ice, 29 00:01:22,125 --> 00:01:24,184 virtually invisible to us. 30 00:01:24,208 --> 00:01:25,768 They're microbes: 31 00:01:25,792 --> 00:01:29,226 tiny plants and animals living embedded inside of glaciers, 32 00:01:29,250 --> 00:01:30,559 underneath the sea ice 33 00:01:30,583 --> 00:01:32,934 and swimming in subglacial ponds. 34 00:01:32,958 --> 00:01:35,684 And they're no less charismatic than any of the megafauna 35 00:01:35,708 --> 00:01:38,292 that you're used to seeing in a nature documentary. 36 00:01:39,333 --> 00:01:43,684 But how do you compel people to explore what they can't see? 37 00:01:43,708 --> 00:01:46,518 I recently led a five-week expedition to Antarctica 38 00:01:46,542 --> 00:01:51,059 to essentially become a wildlife filmmaker at the microbial scale. 39 00:01:51,083 --> 00:01:53,018 With 185 pounds of gear, 40 00:01:53,042 --> 00:01:55,059 I boarded a military aircraft 41 00:01:55,083 --> 00:01:56,976 and brought microscopes into the field 42 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,143 to film and investigate these microscopic extremophiles, 43 00:02:00,167 --> 00:02:03,476 so that we can become more familiar with a poorly understood ecosystem 44 00:02:03,500 --> 00:02:05,042 that we live with here on Earth. 45 00:02:06,167 --> 00:02:08,559 To film these invisible creatures in action, 46 00:02:08,583 --> 00:02:10,684 I needed to see where they call home -- 47 00:02:10,708 --> 00:02:13,208 I needed to venture under the ice. 48 00:02:13,875 --> 00:02:18,476 Every year, the sea ice nearly doubles the entire size of Antarctica. 49 00:02:18,500 --> 00:02:21,268 To get a glimpse below the nine-feet-thick ice, 50 00:02:21,292 --> 00:02:24,893 I climbed down a long, metal tube inserted into the sea ice 51 00:02:24,917 --> 00:02:28,476 to witness a hidden ecosystem full of life, 52 00:02:28,500 --> 00:02:32,750 while being suspended between the seafloor and the illuminated ceiling of ice. 53 00:02:34,041 --> 00:02:36,184 Here's what that looked like from the outside. 54 00:02:36,208 --> 00:02:38,375 It was just absolutely magical. 55 00:02:39,667 --> 00:02:43,059 Some of the critters I found were delightful things like seed shrimp 56 00:02:43,083 --> 00:02:46,351 and many more beautiful, geometric diatoms. 57 00:02:46,375 --> 00:02:49,101 I then went farther afield to camp out in the Dry Valleys 58 00:02:49,125 --> 00:02:51,018 for a couple of weeks. 59 00:02:51,042 --> 00:02:54,268 98 percent of Antarctica is covered with ice 60 00:02:54,292 --> 00:02:58,102 and the Dry Valleys are the largest area of Antarctica where you can actually see 61 00:02:58,126 --> 00:03:01,643 what the continent itself looks like underneath all of it. 62 00:03:01,667 --> 00:03:03,518 I sampled bacteria at Blood Falls, 63 00:03:03,542 --> 00:03:07,601 a natural phenomenon of a subglacial pond spurting out iron oxide 64 00:03:07,625 --> 00:03:12,018 that was thought to be utterly lifeless until a little more than a decade ago. 65 00:03:12,042 --> 00:03:15,226 And I hiked up a glacier to drill down into it, 66 00:03:15,250 --> 00:03:18,726 revealing countless, hardcore critters living their best lives 67 00:03:18,750 --> 00:03:20,792 while embedded inside layers of ice. 68 00:03:21,583 --> 00:03:22,893 Known as cryoconite holes, 69 00:03:22,917 --> 00:03:25,851 they form when tiny pieces of darkly colored dirt 70 00:03:25,875 --> 00:03:27,559 get blown onto the glacier 71 00:03:27,583 --> 00:03:31,434 and begin to melt down into soupy holes that then freeze over, 72 00:03:31,458 --> 00:03:34,393 preserving hundreds of dirt pucks inside the glacier, 73 00:03:34,417 --> 00:03:36,309 like little island universes 74 00:03:36,333 --> 00:03:39,184 each with its own unique ecosystem. 75 00:03:39,208 --> 00:03:41,476 Some of the critters I found you may recognize, 76 00:03:41,500 --> 00:03:43,101 like this adorable tardigrade -- 77 00:03:43,125 --> 00:03:44,393 I absolutely love them, 78 00:03:44,417 --> 00:03:46,934 they're like little gummy bears with claws. 79 00:03:46,958 --> 00:03:48,684 Also known as a water bear, 80 00:03:48,708 --> 00:03:50,726 they're famous for possessing superpowers 81 00:03:50,750 --> 00:03:53,518 that allow them to survive in extreme conditions, 82 00:03:53,542 --> 00:03:56,018 including the vacuum of space. 83 00:03:56,042 --> 00:03:59,351 But you don't need to travel to space or even Antarctica to find them. 84 00:03:59,375 --> 00:04:02,018 They live in moss all over this planet, 85 00:04:02,042 --> 00:04:04,226 from sidewalk cracks to parks. 86 00:04:04,250 --> 00:04:08,268 You likely walk right by tons of these invisible animals every day. 87 00:04:08,292 --> 00:04:09,809 Others may look familiar, 88 00:04:09,833 --> 00:04:12,518 but be stranger still, like nematodes. 89 00:04:12,542 --> 00:04:14,101 Not a snake nor an earthworm, 90 00:04:14,125 --> 00:04:16,601 nematodes are a creature all of their own. 91 00:04:16,625 --> 00:04:20,018 They can't regenerate like an earthworm or crawl like a snake, 92 00:04:20,042 --> 00:04:22,976 but they have tiny, dagger-like needles inside their mouths 93 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:27,125 that some of them use to spearfish their prey and suck out the insides. 94 00:04:27,708 --> 00:04:29,684 For every single human on this planet, 95 00:04:29,708 --> 00:04:32,583 there exist 57 billion nematodes. 96 00:04:33,875 --> 00:04:36,434 And some of the critters you may not recognize at all 97 00:04:36,458 --> 00:04:38,393 but live out equally fascinating lives, 98 00:04:38,417 --> 00:04:43,184 such as rotifers with amazing crowns that turn into Roomba-like mouths, 99 00:04:43,208 --> 00:04:47,351 ciliates with digestive systems so transparent that it's almost TMI, 100 00:04:47,375 --> 00:04:51,958 and cyanobacteria that look like party confetti exploded all over a petri dish. 101 00:04:52,833 --> 00:04:55,059 A lot of times what we see in popular media 102 00:04:55,083 --> 00:04:58,976 are scanning electron microscope images of microorganisms 103 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:01,184 looking like scary monsters. 104 00:05:01,208 --> 00:05:04,601 Without seeing them move their lives remain elusive to us 105 00:05:04,625 --> 00:05:07,934 despite them living nearly everywhere we step outside. 106 00:05:07,958 --> 00:05:09,684 What's their daily life like? 107 00:05:09,708 --> 00:05:12,184 How do they interact with their environment? 108 00:05:12,208 --> 00:05:15,976 If you only ever saw a photo of a penguin at a zoo, 109 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:19,518 but you never saw one waddle around and then glide over ice, 110 00:05:19,542 --> 00:05:22,226 you wouldn't fully understand penguins. 111 00:05:22,250 --> 00:05:24,018 By seeing microcreatures in motion, 112 00:05:24,042 --> 00:05:28,101 we gain better insights into the lives of the otherwise invisible. 113 00:05:28,125 --> 00:05:32,476 Without documenting the invisible life in Antarctica and our own backyards, 114 00:05:32,500 --> 00:05:36,101 we don't understand just how many creatures we share our world with. 115 00:05:36,125 --> 00:05:38,476 And that means we don't yet have the full picture 116 00:05:38,500 --> 00:05:41,518 of our weird and whimsical home planet. 117 00:05:41,542 --> 00:05:43,250 Thank you.