For five years, Boing Boing contributor Ariel Waldman, an artist-turned-science hacker developed the skills necessary to become a "wildlife filmmaker at the microbial scale." Finally, she spent more than a month in Antarctica documenting the strange, beautiful, and "invisible" creatures that live there. Her project, "Life Under Ice," was meant to be the subject of her TED2020 talk in Vancouver in April. Of course, TED2020 was changed to an entirely online event. Above is Ariel's wonderful talk about the incredibly curious and beautiful lifeforms she encountered in Antarctica. From TED:

In this tour of the microscopic world, explorer and artist Ariel Waldman introduces the charismatic creatures lurking beneath Antarctica's massive ice sheet, the largest on earth. From "cuddly" water bears to geometric algae made of glass, Waldman shows how this seemingly barren landmass is actually a polar oasis of life -- if we just know where to look.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/15/glass-algae-and-other-oddities.html