What if I told you there's a place where the creatures are made of glass?

猜猜這是什麼？

Or that there are life-forms that are invisible to us,

如果我說有個地方的生物 都是玻璃做的，你信嗎？

but astronauts see them all the time?

還有一些我們肉眼看不見的生物，

These invisible glass creatures aren't aliens on a faraway exoplanet.

但太空人卻總能看到，你信嗎？

They're diatoms:

這些看不見的玻璃生物並非 太陽系以外的外星生物。

photosynthetic, single-celled algae responsible for producing oxygen

它們是矽藻：

and helping seed clouds on a planetary scale

一種單細胞藻類， 能行光合作用產生氧氣，

and with intricately sculpted, geometric exoskeletons made of --

也有助於全球各地的雲層降雨，

yeah, glass.

看似精細雕刻的 幾何形狀外殼的成份是──

You can see them in swirls of ocean-surface colors from space.

沒錯，正是玻璃。

And when they die,

從太空中所看到海面上 深淺不同的渦流，就是矽藻。

their glass houses sink to the depths of the oceans,

矽藻死亡時，它們的 玻璃外殼沉入海洋深處，

taking carbon out of the air

同時將大氣中的碳 一起帶入墳墓，

and with them to the grave,

海洋中的碳封存量 絕大部分是它們貢獻的。

accounting for a significant amount of carbon sequestration in the oceans.

我們的星球非常奇特。

We live on an alien planet.

充滿許多未知的奇怪生物，

There is so much weird life here on Earth to study,

其中許多存在於世界的邊緣、

and so much of it lives at the edges of our world,

我們視線的邊緣 及人類知識的邊緣。

of our sight and of our understanding.

其中一個就是南極洲。

One of those edges is Antarctica.

通常，提到南極洲時，

Typically, when we think about Antarctica,

想到的就是貧瘠、沒有生命的地方……

we think of a place that's barren and lifeless ...

頂多就是幾隻企鵝。

except for a few penguins.

但南極洲其實應該被視為 物種的極地綠洲，

But Antarctica should instead be known as a polar oasis of life,

擁有無數令人著迷的生物。

host to countless creatures that are utterly fascinating.

那為甚麼大自然紀錄片從沒拍過？

So why haven't we seen them on the latest nature documentary?

因為它們潛伏在雪和冰底下，

Well, they lurk beneath the snow and ice,

肉眼看不見。

virtually invisible to us.

它們是微生物：

They're microbes:

活在冰川深處的微小動植物，

tiny plants and animals living embedded inside of glaciers,

在海冰下方，或冰川以下的 地下儲水層中活動。

underneath the sea ice

它們的魅力可不輸那些 大自然紀錄片中常見的大型動物。

and swimming in subglacial ponds.

問題是怎樣鼓勵人們 去探索看不見的生物呢？

And they're no less charismatic than any of the megafauna

我最近帶了一個 為期五週的考察團去南極，

that you're used to seeing in a nature documentary.

這趟旅程讓我簡直成了 微生物的野生動物影片製作人。

But how do you compel people to explore what they can't see?

帶著 185 磅的裝備，登上軍機，

I recently led a five-week expedition to Antarctica

我帶了顯微鏡去實地拍攝，

to essentially become a wildlife filmmaker at the microbial scale.

調查研究顯微鏡下的「嗜極端生物」，

With 185 pounds of gear,

希望能對這個與我們並存在地球上，

I boarded a military aircraft

但所知極少的生態系統 有進一步的了解。

and brought microscopes into the field

為了拍攝這些 看不見的生物的活動，

to film and investigate these microscopic extremophiles,

我必須先找到它們的家──

so that we can become more familiar with a poorly understood ecosystem

我必須探索冰層底下。

that we live with here on Earth.

每年，海冰的形成會讓 南極洲面積增加幾乎一倍。

To film these invisible creatures in action,

為了到九英呎厚的海冰底下一窺究竟，

I needed to see where they call home --

我得爬入一根穿入海冰中的 金屬管狀通道，

I needed to venture under the ice.

懸於海底與上方反射日光的海冰之間，

Every year, the sea ice nearly doubles the entire size of Antarctica.

去親眼目睹一個不為人知、 充滿生命力的生態系統。

To get a glimpse below the nine-feet-thick ice,

從外面看起來是這個樣子。

I climbed down a long, metal tube inserted into the sea ice

真的是一段很神奇的經驗。

to witness a hidden ecosystem full of life,

我發現一些很可愛的浮游生物，

while being suspended between the seafloor and the illuminated ceiling of ice.

像是種蝦（藍眼淚）、 還有美麗幾何形狀的矽藻。

Here's what that looked like from the outside.

我也去了更偏遠的麥克默多旱谷， 在那紮營了兩週。

It was just absolutely magical.

南極洲有 98% 被冰覆蓋，

Some of the critters I found were delightful things like seed shrimp

麥克默多旱谷是南極唯一 沒被冰雪覆蓋的地方，

and many more beautiful, geometric diatoms.

顯露出這片大陸的真實樣貌。

I then went farther afield to camp out in the Dry Valleys

我在南極血瀑採了細菌樣本，

for a couple of weeks.

血瀑是由於地下儲水層 噴出氧化鐵的自然現象，

98 percent of Antarctica is covered with ice

直到十多年前，大家都還 認為那裡沒有任何物種。

and the Dry Valleys are the largest area of Antarctica where you can actually see

我爬上一條冰川，向下探鑽，

what the continent itself looks like underneath all of it.

發現無數生命力強韌的生物， 悠遊自在地活在冰層中。

I sampled bacteria at Blood Falls,

我們所知的冰塵穴，

a natural phenomenon of a subglacial pond spurting out iron oxide

來自於細小的深色灰塵 被吹到冰河表面，

that was thought to be utterly lifeless until a little more than a decade ago.

塵埃處的冰融化，形成濃湯似的坑， 之後表面又再度結冰，

And I hiked up a glacier to drill down into it,

在冰川中留下幾百個灰塵冰球，

revealing countless, hardcore critters living their best lives

就像是小型的島嶼宇宙，

while embedded inside layers of ice.

每個都有自己獨特的生態系統。

Known as cryoconite holes,

你可能認得某些我發現的生物， 例如這類可愛的緩步動物──

they form when tiny pieces of darkly colored dirt

我好愛牠們，看起來就像 有爪子的小熊軟糖。

get blown onto the glacier

牠們也叫做水熊蟲，

and begin to melt down into soupy holes that then freeze over,

具有能在極端的條件下生存的超能力，

preserving hundreds of dirt pucks inside the glacier,

包括密閉真空的環境。

like little island universes

但你無須親自造訪太空 或南極洲去看牠們。

each with its own unique ecosystem.

牠們遍布地球各地的苔蘚中，

Some of the critters I found you may recognize,

從人行道裂縫到公園都有。

like this adorable tardigrade --

很可能你每天經過的路邊就有 一大堆這種生物，卻視而不見。

I absolutely love them,

另外有些看似眼熟 卻不認識的生物，例如線蟲類。

they're like little gummy bears with claws.

線蟲類既非蛇也非蚯蚓， 牠們自成一類。

Also known as a water bear,

牠們沒有蚯蚓的再生能力， 也沒有蛇的爬行方式，

they're famous for possessing superpowers

但牠們的口中有匕首般的小針，

that allow them to survive in extreme conditions,

那是牠們用來刺穿、捕殺獵物 並吸光內臟的工具。

including the vacuum of space.

地球上人類與線蟲的比例 大約是 1: 570億。

But you don't need to travel to space or even Antarctica to find them.

還有一些你可能完全不知道， 但同樣迷人的生物，

They live in moss all over this planet,

例如，頂著漂亮的冠的輪蟲， 它的冠可變成像掃地機器人般的嘴巴，

from sidewalk cracks to parks.

以及具有透明消化系統的纖毛蟲， 胃裡的食物一覽無遺，不想看都不行，

You likely walk right by tons of these invisible animals every day.

以及培養皿上到處都是的藍綠藻， 看起來就像派對上的彩色紙屑。

Others may look familiar,

大眾媒體上常見到的此類生物

but be stranger still, like nematodes.

多是直接掃描電子顯微鏡下的影像，

Not a snake nor an earthworm,

看起來很像恐怖怪物。

nematodes are a creature all of their own.

光靠靜態圖片還是無法理解這類生物，

They can't regenerate like an earthworm or crawl like a snake,

即便在戶外的環境中 牠們幾乎無所不在。

but they have tiny, dagger-like needles inside their mouths

牠們的日常是什麼樣子？ 跟環境的互動又是如何？

that some of them use to spearfish their prey and suck out the insides.

如果你只有在動物園看過企鵝的照片，

For every single human on this planet,

卻從未看過在冰上搖擺、滑行的企鵝，

there exist 57 billion nematodes.

那你就無從完全地了解企鵝這種生物。

And some of the critters you may not recognize at all

藉著看到活生生的微生物，

but live out equally fascinating lives,

我們才能清楚了解 這些本來看不見的生物。

such as rotifers with amazing crowns that turn into Roomba-like mouths,

透過記錄南極，甚至自家 後院中那些看不見的生物，

ciliates with digestive systems so transparent that it's almost TMI,

我們才能得知有多少生物 和我們共存在這個世界上。

and cyanobacteria that look like party confetti exploded all over a petri dish.

換句話說，我們尚未全面了解

A lot of times what we see in popular media

我們所居住的這個 不可思議、奇妙的地球。

are scanning electron microscope images of microorganisms

謝謝。

looking like scary monsters.

Without seeing them move their lives remain elusive to us

despite them living nearly everywhere we step outside.

What's their daily life like?

How do they interact with their environment?

If you only ever saw a photo of a penguin at a zoo,

but you never saw one waddle around and then glide over ice,

you wouldn't fully understand penguins.

By seeing microcreatures in motion,

we gain better insights into the lives of the otherwise invisible.

Without documenting the invisible life in Antarctica and our own backyards,

we don't understand just how many creatures we share our world with.

And that means we don't yet have the full picture

of our weird and whimsical home planet.

Thank you.