approximately 20 drops safety first were
attend to you after all but if you
thought that this was not that much of a
of a problem think again
in fact in those 20 drops there is the
health of the world’s oceans if we were
to zoom in those drops we would see an
incredible variety of forms and
functions these are diatoms you’re
seeing here and four to zoom in even
farther in the incredible world of
microbes we would not see a great
variety of forms but we would see an
incredible variety of functions there’s
millions of these or every milliliter of
water and if we were to take the global
oceans would have one thousand three
hundred billion billions of billion
microbes that’s a hundred million times
more microbes than there are stars in
the known universe and the smaller dots
you saw in the picture before those are
viruses there’s about ten to a hundred
times that number and despite the fact
that they’re extremely small if we were
to string them head to tail into a tiny
little string we would be able to have a
string so long that we could wrap it
around our solar system eight thousand
five hundred times but you know numbers
are not everything right and so microbes
are also extremely important I want you
to do an experiment with me I want you
to take two deep breath right now
one take another one feels good right
well without microbes in the ocean he
would have been able to take only one
more than half of the oxygen you breathe
comes from microbes in the ocean and
without microbes in the ocean you
wouldn’t have the Pyramids of Giza which
are built on blocks that are nothing
else than the bodies of microbes that
drain to the bottom of the ocean and if
you drove here well you wouldn’t have
been able to do that because oil is
nothing else than the dead bodies of
microbes that got converted into oil
over millions of years and if you like
fish well microbes are the basis of the
food chain
so without microbes you wouldn’t have
fish on your plate my passion for the
ocean started at an early age I’ve been
a sailor all my life and that little boy
over there the blond one is me in 1973
with the sailing national champion of
Italy and as a sailor I see every day
the damage were doing to the ocean I see
the pollution were throwing into the
oceans so in 2013 together with my wife
rachel has passionate ocean advocates we
decided to see what we could do to
actually look at what’s the impact on
the microbes and so we decided to build
tools and find out how much science
could be done on a sailboat going around
the world’s ocean so in 2013 we bought a
boat we had these grandiose ideas of
suntanning
and having fun and margaritas on deck
etc in reality most of the time the
situation was a little bit more hairy
there were squalls and there were wind
puffs and all sorts of conditions that
were well not making it so easy to drink
Marguerite
suntanning on the dick rachel is the one
helping me take control of the boat here
after a major squall and if you don’t
think this condition is hairy well let
me tilt your eyes and straight for you
okay so that wasn’t exactly what we were
looking for but we did experience
something a lot worse we did experience
and and see firsthand really how much
were impacting the ocean as humans one
night coming down the Strait of Malacca
we stopped in a marina and we couldn’t
sleep all night because of this constant
knock knock knock these were things
hitting the hull all night and they were
nothing else than pieces of plastic that
were coming down the river where the
marina is built and hitting our hull now
while it’s particularly evident at the
macroscopic level what’s happening we
don’t know what’s happening at the
microscopic level how is this plastic
impacting the microbes of the ocean but
not only the micros might hold the key
to degrade some of that plastic for us
so it’s very important that we
understand how this works
in 2013 we also travel to some of the
most pristine coral reefs out there they
were beautiful they were incredible
nobody else was there we were the only
ones allowed there to take samples and
dive the water was crystal clear there
were lots of fish there were fantastic
colors just three years later we went
back to the exact same coral reef and we
found a completely different condition
the colors were all but gone the water
was murky the fish were not there the
only difference was two degrees increase
in sea water temperature because 2016
was the worst El Nino condition in
recorded history and while the impact
once again is quite evident at the
macroscopic level we know nothing about
what’s happening to the microbes and the
microbes are driving these ecosystems
so how do we know what microbes are
doing since they are so small and so
many well the way we go about studying
them is by decoding their DNA all we do
is take a bucket of water take it back
to the lab and look at what’s happening
and by decoding their DNA we’re able to
see not only who is there but what they
are doing this then becomes a big data
problem because we can collect this data
for sure but can we collect enough and
how can you collect this data on a
constant basis so that we can build
ocean health model year after year this
is why in 2013 we went out together with
Rachel we pioneered citizen oceanography
as a way to involve full-time sailors to
collect vital data about the world’s
oceans sailors are the ideal platform
for doing this because they go in the
same places year after year after year
and they have to go in the same places
because they follow the prevailing winds
and currents they’re also passionate
about the ocean so they are really keen
to do it and that’s fantastic and
there’s another advantage modern ocean
sailboats are extremely fast a modern
ocean racers travels three times the
speed of an oceanographic vessel and by
taking this data really quickly we’re
able to take time out of the equations
that we use to build ocean health models
another thing that’s making this
possible and that this revolution
possible in the past few years is the
fact that until a few years ago machines
do the code DNA were big about the size
of a fridge they cost hundreds of
thousand dollars today the situation is
completely different
third generation DNA sequencing machine
can be plugged into a laptop can be
taken in the middle of the Indian Ocean
on a sailboat can be taken on a remote
beach
in a pristine coral reef in fact they
are so small that I could walk out of my
house with one in my pocket on a TEDx
stage and I have one right here
that’s the size of a modern DNA
sequencing machine but advantage is also
that we’re able to teach in a matter of
hours or a couple of days to anyone to
do this and this is power
this is game-changing imagine a world
where every boat every ship every
fishing vessel even every kayak can go
out there and collect data imagine a
world where this data about the world
the health of the world’s oceans can be
shared in public repositories for the
benefit of mankind imagine a world where
this data can be used to build ocean
health baselines where this data can be
used to protect marine reserves with
this can be used even to restore damaged
ecosystems and who knows in there is the
secret to the great plastics in the
world’s oceans so if you’re a passionate
about the ocean if you have a boat but
also if you don’t have it and you just
want to you know participate in this why
don’t you join the adventure
why don’t you embark with us in this
incredible new world of understanding
if you’re wondering what happened to
that little kid in the picture well he
grew up he ended up winning the same
national sailing champion 20 years later
and a couple of others but most
importantly him me well I ended up being
and the problem here is that even more
now I feel passionate about the ocean
because of that will my son be able to
see pristine coral reef will my son be
able to see fish in the ocean will my
son be able to see a ocean without
plastic we need to understand the oceans
better at the most basic level that of
the microbes and together we can thank
you very much [Applause]