Aliens of the Deep Page #7

it's gonna be coming from somebody

who had to bore up through ice

and set their transmitter

out on the ice?

Statistically, isn't that indicated

by what we're talking about here?

There's a flaw in that statement,

and that is:
Ice worlds are most common,

We have no idea

about that right now,

We got one liquid water planet

in our solar system,

and we've already identified

three potential hydrospheres

- that are ice-covered and far from the sun,

- Right, But...

Based on our own immediate experience,

it's a three-to-one ratio,

Sure, sure,

Do we know if any of them are habitable?

- We don't, but we gotta go look,

- Right,

We may find that

icy little worlds like Europa

are where the bulk

of liquid water exists in our galaxy.

And, in fact,

that's where the bulk of life may exist.

Who knows?

But it is really interesting

to think about the evolution of intelligence

in an icy world system.

Would you evolve to intelligence?

Would you wonder about

the bottom of that ice shell?

Our primary focus at this site

will be for the mussels and the crabs,

OK, And you need mussels and crabs, and

we're gonna do the crabs in a crab trap?

We're gonna do crab traps,

So we're hoping that whatever we fix

in the crab trap will trap these guys,

Now, do you care

where we put the crab trap?

Preferably where there's crabs,

Yes, we're currently at

X coordinates minus 106,

Y coordinates minus 76. Over.

The story of the vents

is really the story of the microbes.

This is it, right here,

Bottom of the food chain,

Waving fields of bacteria,

The vent fluid is a kind of liquid sunshine,

powering the whole

food chain down here.

Some of the animals

are eating the bacteria,

some of them are preying

on the ones that eat the bacteria.

It's kind of ethereal, huh?

Who would have thought

that bacteria could be beautiful?

The animals

are eating the bacteria,

but there's something else

going on here too.

It's symbiosis, a dance of life

between partners of different species.

Vent animals,

like the shrimp and the mussels,

have formed

symbiotic relationships with microbes

that can live off of

the chemicals in the vent fluid.

Oh, we're near

something big, guys,

Large mussel beds,

This is the jackpot,

I study the metabolic

and molecular physiology

of mussels and crabs

that live at these deep sea vents.

I'm focusing on their ability

to withstand variations,

large variations, in temperature.

The genus Bathymodiolus

is the scientific name

for the mussels that we study.

We've got a mussel mound

over to the right, Genya,

I think this will be a perfect spot

to do our mussel collections,

- Yes,

- You see what I'm talking about?

I think these are mixed sizes,

Or can you get some small ones?

- We will take small and big also,

- But I need small,

- Only small?

- Only small,

- OK,

- Malinky. Yeah? Is that small?

- Yes,

- OK,

All right,

Keldysh, Keldysh, MIR One,

We have collected a full batch

of mussels in the clam bucket,

X minus 487, Y minus 64,

Oh, yeah! Bingo, baby,

Looks like you got your crabs,

Yes. We got crabs.

Big time. It's, like, full.

You did it, you did it!

Bio box is closed,

We have crabbage,

We have crabbage.

- Wanna open that?

- Yeah,

My PhD advisor is Jim Childress.

He's been studying

hydrothermal vent communities

since their discovery

in the late 1970s.

And he has years of experience

going to sea and doing science

in these extreme environments.

So the Childress lab

is one of the only labs in the world

that's able to keep

these animals and maintain them

in an environment similar

to what they come from.

As fast as we can,

we take the animals that were collected

and bring them into our lab,

where we place them

in a maintenance respirometry system.

We call this thing "the condo."

We put the animals in

these little condos,

we repressurize them up to

the pressure that they were collected in,

and we make sure that

we have them back at the temperature

that is optimal for their survival.

Then we pick some of the animals

to use for our experiments,

and we transfer them

into another system

that's called

the high-pressure respirometry system.

Now, this system

is extremely unique and special,

because here we can manipulate

the environmental conditions,

and we look at

the metabolic rates of the animals

as we vary their environmental condition,

and that's what I love to study.

By looking at mussels,

you can gain a better understanding

about temperature adaptation,

and that might help us in the future

when it comes to

the warming of our planet.

Global warming is real.

It's putting our planet at risk,

life as we know it, not just species.

I mean the whole food chain,

the whole ecosystem.

And at some point

we're gonna have to deal with it.

I think I got into the ocean

because it's mysterious to me,

it's unknown.

It's not explored,

it hasn't been conquered,

and I appreciate it,

and I have respect for it.

Did you ever think

you'd end up here?

Oh, God, no.

But I guess this is the path

of questions that I tried to answer,

which has led me on a path

that ended up here,

And so now the question

that I'm trying to answer

has me taking submarines

down to the bottom of the ocean,

OK, let's, uh...

Let the meeting come to order,

The dive will be Snake Pit,

The pilots will be Dr, Anatoly Sagalevitch,

MIR One, Genya Chernaiev, MIR Two,

We find a structure

that we can work the 'bot,

So we'll land at the base and we'll just

try to work up through the structure,

ideally up all the way to a chimney,

There is not supposed to be

too much hot venting on the wall,

some shimmering water,

but I don't think the hot vents happen

until way at the top, is that correct?

The best way to visualize this stuff

is wherever you see something black,

that's like a blowtorch,

That's, you know,

a blowtorch made out of water,

OK, there's MIR One,

They're coming up

with us, aren't they?

You're about halfway

up the structure right now,

so if you just work your way

forward along the wall.

Copy that.

There's an antler-shaped stone

bowl that's filled with juvenile "Rimicaris."

Roger that,

All right, This is, I think,

the structure he was describing,

and I think I can get in

a little closer to it,

That's it,

You should see 'em now, Over,

- Got it,

- Oh, wow,

Copy that, We see it,

These little shrimp are different,

Are these related?

Yes, Juvenile and adults,

The vent shrimp, "Rimicaris exoculata,"

are grazing on the bacteria

growing all around them.

- Are you seeing this crab?

- I sure am,

Look at 'em, They're eating the bacteria

that's growing all over that crab,

Oh, he almost got that guy,

Look at that,

He's all covered with this bacteria,

He doesn't know it, he just thinks

the shrimp are picking on him,

It's like crab-fu here

at the bottom of the ocean,

- The shrimp colony, There you go,

- There it is,

- Let's check that guy out,

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