Journey Into Amazing Caves Page #3

source of new medicines ...

due to its biological diversity.

A great variety of cave life ...

is starting to prove

just as productive.

I wanted more biological diversity,

but the arrival of the rainy season

meant that time was running out ...

we needed to find

the halocline fast.

We saw a chain of cenotes,

perhaps connected by

an underground river.

I got GPS coordinates on the

biggest cenote in the chain,

a good starting point

for the next dive.

We decided to use scooters ...

to give us more range in

our hunt for the halocline.

As the sunlight

disappeared behind us,

I felt what all scientists

feel in their guts ...

"here I go again,

into the black void".

There was already a dive

line for us to follow,

toward the ocean.

Someone had been here

before us, but when?

It was spooky when the

dive line ran out.

This must be where our mystery

trailblazer turned back.

We made an educated guess as to where

the underground river comes out.

That's where I'm headed with my GPS.

Still no halocline,

but the cave was getting deeper,

so I had a good feeling about our

chances as we continued downstream.

The elusive halocline.

When we got our glimpse

of it downstream,

we anchored our scooters ...

to keep the propellers from

disturbing the halocline.

I knew from the blurry layer,

that it was definitely it,

a well-defined and

uncontaminated halocline.

Anything living in this boundary

between the salt and fresh water is,

by definition, an extremophile ...

with a unique system for survival.

I made sure to collect from

different levels of the halocline,

to increase the variety

of the samples.

My samples from the halocline

are very precious.

Who knows what cures may be waiting

in the samples I collected today.

Unfortunately, I will have to

wait a long time to find out ...

because it can take years to

approve and test a safe new drug.

For the moment,

all I know is that

I am very, very happy.

I got it. You got it?

It may seem I'm this

free-spirited scientist,

but I'm really part

of the research team.

My colleagues count on me to

bring back unique microscopic life.

Often I don't find what

we were looking for,

but I find something else,

totally unexpected,

and just as it useful.

Life is full of surprises.

A powerful microscope can reveal a

whole universe in a drop of water.

In just six short years ...

the search for extremophiles ...

has produced a potential

new treatment for leukaemia,

and added 12 new kingdoms

to the tree of life.

Each kingdom is distinct

from the others ...

as, say, a cabbage

is from a dolphin.

Just when we think we have

seen every inch of our planet,

we find somewhere

else we haven't looked.

Remote, mysterious places

of extreme potential,

places where the

horizon turns inward ...

and waits for cavers to

expand it for us all.

I am going to be caving until

my body completely falls apart.

I'm going to do everything possible ...

that I can contribute

to the world of caving,

in my wheelchair if I have to.

I'm always going to be

caving in my heart, always.

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