Craig Venter's yacht Sorcerer II is helping PML scientists identify new marine micro-organisms.
Craig Venter visits Plymouth Marine Lab
21 May 2009
Possibly one of the world's best known geneticists, Craig Venter, has visited scientists at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory on his Sorcerer II yacht.
Famous for mapping the human genome, Venter is in the middle of a massive expedition which he hopes will build a complete genetic map of the ocean. Since 2003, he's travelled the world's oceans collecting samples of sea water every 200 miles in a search for unidentified microbes.
The expedition has already discovered thousands of new organisms and identified more than 20 million new genes. Scientists estimate there may be as many as 100 million organisms yet to be discovered.
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Although invisible to the naked eye, we wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for the millions of viruses, bacteria, plankton and other microbes in the planet's oceans.
Science writer and broadcaster Richard Hollingham talks to Venter as well as Plymouth Marine Laboratory ecologist Jack Gilbert about how the two organisations will work together.
Keywords:
Biodiversity,
Environmental change,
Natural resources,
Oceans,
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