There are billions of microbes in just a
handful of soil, but unfortunately we
haven't been able to grow most of these
in the laboratory and so we call this
uncultivated majority of rather elusive
microorganisms "microbial dark matter."
Our understanding of who these organisms
are and what they do is pretty limited,
yet they are critical to sustainability
of life on the planet. So the more we
learn about this microbial dark matter,
the more we'll be able to harness their benefits.
Speaker 1: Understanding the evolution of
life
Speaker 2: Better understanding of the carbon cycle
and how climate change is going to affect  it
Speaker 3: Discovering new
metabolic pathways
Speaker 4: Discovering life in surprising places
Speaker 5: New microbes
Speaker 6: Enzymes for
biotechnology or for medicine
Speaker 7: People think about life on other planets and what about life on our planet?
We just don't know.
