How do you offset your carbon footprint? You plant trees. Right? Well, as we established in the episode on primary production, trees are actually not the major player when it comes to carbon offsetting. For that, we need to look at underwater “forests.” Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we shouldn’t save the trees.…
DetailsToday, I will attempt to convince all of us that plankton is cool and worth our attention. We’ll talk about what plankton is and why it’s so important for our climate. Plankton is cool. There, you can quote me on that. That established, I’m also pretty fed up with plankton. I’m more than half-way through…
DetailsYou would not exist without viruses. I cover the very basics of life and the not-so-alive viruses.
DetailsWhere did life originally come from? How did we get from rocks and gas to living animals and human beings? No one really knows but today, we’ll get closer to the answer of the origins of life.
DetailsWe’ve all heard of tree rings that allow us to determine the age of trees. Counting the lines on a cut-down tree allows us to figure out their age pretty accurately. Unfortunately, this only holds true for ring-forming trees, and even among those, it is necessary to damage the live tree for such age determination.…
DetailsWith humans overfishing the oceans, other creatures take over where fish are missing. Today, we follow a common shrimp on his journey through life—and through the journey to become our dinner. This is not a success story. The fight for the future of humanity seems to be filled with propaganda, misinformation, and contradicting facts. Even…
DetailsI used to think fish were disgusting and ugly. The truth is, I had only seen dead fish. Swimming with anything from Garibaldi (Hypsypops rubicundus), a bright orange fish that likes to attack the shiny hook that attaches my camera to my body, to barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda), silvery shine and terrifying teeth, has changed my…
DetailsCoral reefs are the basis for ocean life. A quarter of the ocean’s inhabitants depends on them—and so do millions and millions of humans. But with the warming ocean waters and more extreme weather events, coral reefs are struggling. The corals bleach. But what is coral bleaching? Coral reefs are cities underwater. About a quarter…
DetailsAll that carbon dioxide that humanity has been throwing into the atmosphere has to go somewhere. The ocean is an excellent buffer but it isn’t fast. The surface ocean becomes more and more acidic and organisms of all sizes suffer because of it. Global warming, sea level rise, desertification, green house gases, and today’s topic:…
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