SUNDAY, December 10, 8PM @ the Bell House, FREE! Secret Science Club presents OCEANS OF WONDER with Marine Biologist Ed DeLong

SINK INTO THE HOLIDAYS . . . Dissolve into the ocean’s vastness and explore its multitudes of unsung, unseen life. Just a liter of water from the surface of the sea contains 10 billion microbes and as many as 20,000 species—all invisible to the human eye and unknown to science until recent decades.

Marine biologist Ed DeLong pioneered research on these "microscopic forests of the sea," unveiling new species with remarkable abilities and elucidating their genomes. Despite their vanishingly small size, ocean microbes are the engines of an enormous food chain. They produce a significant portion of the world’s oxygen and are the largest source of genetic diversity on Earth. Learning how microbes interact with ocean ecosystems—and each other—is leading to discoveries, not only about the nature of the planet, but also new ways of making fuels, treating disease, and predicting the impacts of climate change.

A professor of oceanography at the University of Hawaii Manoa, Ed DeLong researches the ocean microbiome and its metagenomics. He is the author of over 200 scientific papers, and his fieldwork has taken him to Antarctica, the Sargasso Sea, and the Drake Passage. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, the U. S. National Academy of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the European Molecular Biology Association. Dr. DeLong is co-director of the Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology (SCOPE) and president-elect of the International Society for Microbial Ecology.

BEFORE & AFTER

--Try our holiday cocktail of the night, the Ebb & Flow

--Sink into benthic grooves

--Stick around for the free-floating Q&A!

This deep-diving holiday edition of the Secret Science Club meets Sunday, December 10, 8PM @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Subway: F or G to 4th Ave, R to 9th St. 

Doors open at 7:30PM. Please bring ID: 21+. No cover. Just bring your smart self.