Diving for Cyanobacteria in Lake Huron | National Geographic

Water carries so much information in just one drop. [Music] Today, we're in Lake Huron. We came specifically to explore cyanobacteria, which is also known as blue-green algae, which were the first organisms to start producing oxygen on our planet. There is this unique kind of cyanobacteria known as purple cyanobacteria. We don't know much about their chemistry, what kind of molecules they could be making. Are they toxic? Are they beneficial to us? So we came to get some samples and uncover their genetic makeup as well as their chemical profile to try to get to some of these sensors.

The bottom of Lake Huron is actually old ocean floor, and so this is just as prized as things that we see in Yellowstone hot springs and Arctic lakes, so that we can study how Earth became habitable. My work as an explorer and a scientist relies on water transportation. Sometimes I cannot go to a space if I'm in a big boat, and I need something more personal and smaller. Riding a Sea-Doo allows me to get closer to the wildlife that I'm studying.

[Music] I go back to when I was really young. I actually used to be very scared to go into deep water because I semi-drowned when I was a kid. I grew up in Peru, in between the city, the jungle, and the Andes. To go visit family in remote areas in the jungle, we had to be in water; that was the only method of transportation. So it was an inherent need to want to overcome that. It went from being a fearful experience to being a very nurturing one.

[Music] Once we collect samples, we immediately want to take a look under the microscope so we can understand how they live in their natural environments, how they behave. Then we can take those samples into the lab and do more complex experiments to gather more information from them. Oh, look at that one! The samples we collected today are just one piece of a much bigger puzzle. Based on previous experience, we predict the novel molecules found in purple cyanobacteria might lead us to breakthroughs in medicine and sustainability. Taking the dive into the unknown is the only way we can discover more about where we came from as a species and how we can protect our planet.

[Music] Remember that everything is connected. What you do impacts life on the other side of the world, sometimes even though you may not see it. That's what drives me—just unlocking all of that knowledge. I really think that has been the missing key in better conserving Earth. Water connects everything.

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