Microbes drive the chemistry of life. They affect the global climate. They do most of the recycling that keeps the world habitable. This hour follows scientists as they explore our reliance on this invisible world for our planet's health and well-being.
Dr. Dan Janzen and Dr. Ignacio Chapela catalog both the larger and microbial life forms inside a single ecosystem in Costa Rica, finding that neither plants, animals, nor microbes would be able to exist without the others.
Dr. Steven Giovannoni finds microbes in the most unusual places in the ocean and attempts to grow a mystery microbe in the lab.