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The Invisible Organism That’s Saving the Planet

The Invisible Organism That’s Saving the Planet

Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant vor 3 Jahren

Journey to a place so extreme and remote, that people once thought it was a myth.

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In a remote part of the Amazon rainforest in Peru, there’s a river
with water so hot, it actually boils. In fact, it's so extreme and
so remote that for a long time people thought the river was a
myth. Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza risked life and limb journeying to
this boiling river, called Shanay-Timpishka or La
Bomba, to explore some of the smallest microorganisms on Earth.
Why?? Because the untapped microbes that live in that extreme
environment could save our planet! There are more microbes on Earth
than stars in the galaxy, and yet only 1% of Earth’s microbe
species have been thoroughly studied. Considering that several
antibiotics, cancer treatments, and other medicines come from that
tiny percentage, Dr. Espinoza is on a mission to unlock the
potential of the remaining 99%. Microbes are a universe of
microorganisms hiding in plain sight, proving that even the
tiniest living things can have a huge impact. In fact, as the first
microorganisms released oxygen, microbes literally made our
existence on the planet possible. So what else can they do?
Thanks for listening to the first episode of season three
of Going Wild. We're really excited to share the rest of this
season with you! You can learn more about season
three HERE and catch up on seasons one and
two HERE. Follow Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza
on Instagram or on her website. Photo credit for
this episode's art is by Ana Sotelo. If you want to support us, you
can follow Going Wild on your favorite podcast-listening app. And
while you're there, please leave us a review. It really helps. You
can also get updates and bonus content by following me, Dr. Rae
Wynn-Grant, and PBS Nature on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and
Facebook. You can find more information on all of our guests this
season in each episode's show notes. And you can catch new episodes
of Nature, Wednesdays at 8/7 Central on PBS, pbs.org/nature, and
the PBS app. Going Wild is a new podcast by PBS
Nature. NATURE is an award-winning series created by The WNET Group
and made possible by all of you. Views and opinions expressed
during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and
do not necessarily reflect those of THIRTEEN Productions LLC/The
WNET Group.