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
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 margaritas and Sun tanning on the
deck 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 tell to
your eyes on 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 see
firsthand really how much were impacting
the ocean as humans one night coming
down the straight
Malaka we stopped in a marina and we
couldn’t sleep all night because of this
constant knock knock knock these were
things hitting the hall all night and
there 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 seawater 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
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
to decode DNA were big about the size of
a fridge they cost the 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
and this is Bauer this is game-changing
imagine a world where every boat every
ship every fishing vessel even every
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 the 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
the microbes of the world’s oceans and
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]