The mysterious microbes living deep inside the earth -- and how they could help humanity | K. Lloyd

The ground beneath your feet is home to a massive, mysterious world of microbes -- some of which have been in the earth's crust for hundreds of thousands of years. What's it like down there? Take a trip to the volcanoes and hot springs of Costa Rica as microbiologist Karen Lloyd shines a light on these subterranean organisms and shows how they could have a profound impact on life up here.
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[@singingmyblue8000]

This got to be my favorite TED talk ever. She's so fun and her narration is perfectly captivating. I could hear her explaining things to me for hours, she's so goodat it. So proud of her discovery and hard work. That's one smart lady.

[@tj7935]

SingingMyBlue she is my PhD adviser. An amazing person to work with!

[@swapnil8773]

Watch her another video it is fun as well

[@JJ-kl7eq]

I’ve never been openly proud of the microbes in my digestive tract. Although I do think I’ve appreciated them just through gut instinct.

[@tdreamgmail]

Badum tschh!

[@zanettarose]

"Gut" instinct. Ha, that's punny.

[@biggus6633]

J J LAAAME!!! lol

[@mmmk1616]

oof!

[@camilopedrosa6612]

I love when Karen Lloyd teach or explain something, because nobody can do better with the pasión and time that she puts in it.

[@leyubar1]

I really enjoy the tree analogy

[@fredfredrickson2312]

It was a great talk.

[@comment.highlighted]

Hmm... that tree analogy was actually very cool. It opened my mind to seeing things differently all together 🤔

[@michaelpisciarino5348]

0:14 Solid Earth: - Cracks filled with microbes 🦠 0:49 100,000 tons of microbes 🦠 40 Billion Tons 🦠 2:46 They haven’t divided in a very very long time 3:52 Dormant 4:09 Sealing up E-Coli, Survival of The Fittest, Fight vs Young Boys, Old Guys Win 4:45 Slow doesn’t mean unimportant (who ever said the reverse?) 4:56 Subsurface Living (1) Snacks from Above (2) Chill Chow Down 5:48 Praise The Sun ☀️ Who will make The Underground’s Food? 6:10 Chemolithoautotroph • Chemicals From Rocks to Make Food Rust, Pyrite, Limestone Biology 🧪 or Geology? 7:46 Volcanoes 🌋 🌋 9:12 Exit Strategy Oh Carlos 9:30 KA-BOOM! 10:24 Costa Rican Hot Springs 11:56 Could Underground Help Surface Level Co2 Problems 12:48 The Discoveries/Possibilities Are Endless

[@tdreamgmail]

Very nice. TY

[@suvd2483]

Thank you for your work :).

[@mkpenimkeekanem4873]

Thank you for sharing this. The discovery of other things that are happening in the .....

[@1b0o0]

Escanor-sama praises the ☀️

[@SimonRichardMasters]

Best TED I've seen in a while

[@pthomasgarcia]

Excellent talk. Soil and subterranean microbiology seems an exciting field of study. Thanks for sharing.

[@BhagyashreeURao]

exactly!

[@foysalmahmud1936]

You never know where the solution is coming from. But Chemolithoautotroph? Didn't see that coming.

[@cherriemckinstry131]

What about Hortas?

[@cecibrazilian]

I know right?! I was amazed when chemosynthesis was the answer for organism living in the deep sea, but this blew my mind!!

[@robertwalker41]

Fantastic presentation! I showed this to my undergrads and they loved it - thank you.

[@Woollzable]

Great presentation. The latest IPCC report states that we will probably not be able to keep the global avg temperature from rising 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels without the help of Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS). These are processes by which the CO2 is literally sucked out of the air and stored underground. One of the biggest worries about CCS has been the possibility that the CO2 will resurface via cracks & fissures etc. This could be really helpful in keeping it below the surface.

[@nv3981]

This is very interesting

[@summwaw]

@@JK_JK_JK_JK yes it it

[@aylaramazanli6815]

@@JK_JK_JK_JK are you BTS ARMY?

[@SimonRichardMasters]

@@JK_JK_JK_JK wrong imho

[@aylaramazanli6815]

SUPER TOPIC AGAIN!

[@AceofDlamonds]

2:45 this was always the most mind blowing thing to me about these deep biosphere organisms. Some scientists call them the "undead" because they apparently live so long without reproducing. The timescale is totally different from surface critters.

[@BhagyashreeURao]

yeah!

[@roboodonnell3224]

Very informative and most interesting. You are appreciated

[@bakkerem1967]

This ROCKS ! Mind blowing..

[@fredfredrickson2312]

Interesting one. This seams like both an enlightening and promising field.

[@OldWorldNY]

Interesting! My mind, blown. 🤯

[@ayman-hosny1]

I've translated this TED's piece into Arabic that I want everybody speaking Arabic to enjoy with it. Thank you TED!

[@dbarra-]

Well done.

[@ramanantheidoctor2817]

Stunning

[@ShinkaTV]

the chemolithoautotroph bit was fascinating!!

[@HitmanMaul]

Highly informative.

[@SipanTseliker]

THIS IS SO FUCKING INSPIRING IT MADE ME CRY TEARS OF JOY!!!

[@shintsu01]

The planet is one big living entity and we are mere pests walking on the surface not knowing this is the case. Super interesting talk opened up a new world for me :)

[@jackbelk8527]

I consider us a challenge to the natives to overcome or adapt. They seem to do both.

[@dkelban]

Very interesting talk

[@rosagapi]

Thank You

[@pearlheartful]

Awesome 👍

[@mmmk1616]

The longevity of these microbes intrigues me!

[@rickharold69]

Fascinating

[@borisbrian6082]

*Chemolithoautotrphs* *I KNEW IT*

[@samantony70]

This is an excellent study not useless mapping of skys and stuff this is to helo humanity thanks

[@willperryman4559]

My daughter just met Karen at a conference in Tennessee and is working on this study at UNCA ❤

[@ellyzza95]

great talk

[@michaleandmore5111]

Life is amazing, it finds a way , no light no problem, life still happens

[@DarlinMarleneVeVo]

thank you

[@hannahf4584]

imagine combining the power of chemolithoautotrophs with cyanobacteria to kind of filter the atmosphere from CO2 excess

[@AceofDlamonds]

i wish lol

[@johnfree2833]

Got my x- Ray vision glasses on and HS,great talk...

[@Cingearth]

Amazing

[@truthseekermedia]

Something about helping and not hurting Humanity, I'm all ears !!!

[@shariarrahman7562]

Fantastic

[@DanielVerberne]

Tommy Gold and the Deep Hot Biosphere were seminal moments in science, from what I've read. The idea that anything could live deep under the Earth's crust was not believed at first - it just hows how much the habitability zone for life has been stretching out in all directions for years. Of course, then there was the discovery of a whole ecosystem living off the 'black smokers' in the mid-atlantic ridge.... life is amazing.

[@Steven-ty5hv]

Who knew?? So Cool!

[@aminebelhoucine]

Super cool

[@stuslater9506]

What's the coolest thing about geology? Me: earthquakes Her: volcanoes Me: dang she's right

[@francescos7361]

Thanks , interesting .

[@Biskawow]

this woman is awesome

[@lalalafamille]

Beautiful presentation loved it. keep on the good work

[@2garv2]

I like this!

[@EsraaBassiouni]

Thanks for sharing this

[@JohnCalebWarren]

I was teaching my kid to ride a bike without training wheels, gave them a push and noticed this video pop up in my feed. Im watching it right now & so drawn in! Kid should be ok

[@darcidecaesaria9071]

I love her!

[@MrPetaluma]

Thank you!! TED!! Thank you very much, much love and gratitude for all you do... I love all your videos, we are learning so much nothing is going's going to stop us now. We are reaching for the stars. Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen. Blessings to all.

[@G11713]

Interestingly, this also affirmatively answers the question of whether rock eating aliens can exist. I was expecting her to also mention geothermal energy as a food source for these microbes.

[@unstoppable-ar3292]

Amazing speaker, beautiful mind and a great presentation. Well done.

[@josephabbate6315]

Damn that's actually tea

[@muthukumaranl]

AWESOME!....Chemolithoautotrophs...learnt something important today...thanks to the amazing Karen Lloyd!

[@l0_0l45]

Wow!! As a mechanical engineer, the field of green engineering interests me a lot. Now these scientists would have to prove that chemolithoautotrophs are more energy efficient than industrial carbon sequestration techniques to be a viable option to reverse climate change. Also the environmental impact of excess carbonates needs to be assessed for side affects of using chemolithoautotrophs.

[@user-bk4px1xu2q]

지렷...

[@craigkeller]

What a mind!

[@buggyboy2849]

Umbrella Corp would gladly research these critters!

[@idontthinkso2431]

Las plagas spore!

[@NathanOkun]

This is interesting. I thought this would be true a few decades ago. My bottom was more like 25 miles down and I originally I thought that they would only be single-cell organisms. However, recent info shows that there are even a few multicellular organisms in this mix, which is amazing. It would seem that only the temperature that literally burns up the organic materials is the limit for such organisms. There would even be collective behavior over this entire biom. I am just speculating and may be wildly wrong, but I would assume that such organisms have formed an entire planet-spanning network where they interact with each-other to form a kind of "super-organism" that has major effects on ALL of the other living things on this planet. They are numerous enough and have had enough time to do such a thing and it would absolutely guarantee that they could keep their own environment to their liking. Things like the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs would merely be a local "incident" to such a thing.

[@kalakritistudios]

"What if these deep surface organisms are just waiting for their version of summer?" Fcking scary that was!

[@DemLottBoyz]

5:43 "but in the subsurface, *it's free real estate* "

[@iangrant9675]

What an awesome talk! Thank you!!!! ❤️

[@fourletterwords1826]

These microbes could be a double-edged sword. While they could help us, who's to say that we wouldn't get a new disease or the side effects that could incur.

[@KoffyGG]

The conditions in which the microbes discussed in the talk thrive are totally different than a human body. The human body doesn't have the right physicochemical parameters for them to grow and harm it.

[@idontthinkso2431]

Yeah like crawling deep into the skin and eating our bones... Or teeth

[@Massab9]

They probably would eat away on our private parts within 500 years while jumping through sexual intercourse and control us to do evil things to one another until we were no more.. Now THAT would be a shame!

[@smartcatcollarproject5699]

My theory is that people controlled by their lower instincts, like narcissists and psychopaths, are possessed by the little guys' archetypes...

[@spider4628]

probably the woman with a doctorate in microbiology, dipshit.

[@a.inception1094]

12:01 wow.

[@iwasborntosurvive5396]

마치 아바타의 시고니위버가 맡은 박사같네요 굉장히 멋진 강의였어요

[@eklim2034]

thanks for the geobiochemlecture

[@jamesedgelake7333]

I love you Karen

[@mohammedsajid2109]

Super Beautiful Lady. Amazing Fittness (Speaker)

[@SabaDhutt]

There’s nothing sexier than an intelligent woman with a sense of humor. Great presentation.

[@ayman-hosny1]

I've translated this video into Arabic for TED, and hoping to be useful for all Arabic speakers and others who are interested in.

[@blogutoma4679]

Dont know why but this seems like something Araki would use.

[@divyamurugesan5557]

Hey yeah! I am living everywhere - Microbes 🥴😉

[@endingobject5200]

Fantastic Work :)

[@willowwisp357]

I have to wonder how much of our petroleum is produced by this underground life.

[@tomcampbell8059]

All of it. There is no such thing as "fossil fuels".

[@willowwisp357]

@@tomcampbell8059 I can't agree due to some clear evidence that's easy to look up, but I'm certain there's a mix of both kinds. Right or wrong we still have to find alternatives or face accidentally turning Earth into Venus, another fact that's easy to look up. Unless you trust unscrupulous "experts" like Kent Hovind.

[@gerhardhermann1571]

Karen Lloyd, always a top 10 TED event.

[@surbris]

would adding the little guys to water kill them?

[@anahitawilson8889]

Very interesting talk!

[@ghughumaal3284]

How does yeast work under 5km?

[@quecksilber457]

Wait a second. Does that mean those Chemolithoautotrophs are able to make something physical (food) from electricity? They make matter out of energy? Or do they use electricity AND for exaple minerals to get a chemical reaction running? Sorry i am not a native English i hope i understood that correct.

[@3rdrock]

What are the microbes metabolising the CO2 into?

[@jaredmitchell1302]

I wonder then if lightning is an all you can eat buffet for them?

[@kalakritistudios]

Lol, chemoliTHORautotrophs.

thanks for this super talk. This could possibly a solution to the odds of climate change (AGW)

[@TheGesox]

So with this knowledge could it be that Dr. Thomas Gold on his deep hot biosphere hypothesis was right ?

[@alexanderoekr]

These kind researches we as humans should approach instead of fighting with each other and arguing about religions.

[@benedictngang8668]

The thing is mankind is overestimated. We think we're the crown of all existence. Yet, we all die with two centuries. See how hard it is to study one little planet: Earth! Chemolithoautotrophs... Surely, this is novel. The scope is now open for exploration! Thanks...

[@olavobelintani9432]

Please. Excuse me. Congratulations Mrs. Karen. Professional researchers like you who make a difference on the planet. My sincere respect, admiration and gratitude. Thank you very much. São Paulo State. Santos City BRZ

[@anahitawilson8889]

I’m guessing that you can only account for microbes that can be grown in Petri dishes, how do you account for those that can be grown in a dish?

[@ghughumaal3284]

Rock solid lava rum

[@victormcbride4556]

Best way to explain climate change

[@invox9490]

Wow... And WOW!

[@Karma47227]

lots of new things to fear.

[@MaxWeinhold]

How thought? There's nothing inherently dangerous about bacteria: you wouldn't be alive without all the gut bacteria that coexist with you and help break down your food. Approaching new scientific discoveries with a mindset of fear is not a good way to look at the world.

[@DW-vl2wi]

The beginning of the end.

[@colelightfoot4651]

Wow she is beautiful

[@markrosstomlin]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@BohemianKitsch]

hey, here's a thought: how about trees?

[@michaelgonzalez9058]

Can't carbon dioxide be transformed to carbin oxigen then to hydrogen Can it be fuel

[@BOZ_11]

I love her...enthusiasm

[@NikkiTrudelle]

She’s fantastically nerdy