Alien Ocean AnthropologicalVoyages in Microbial Seas STEFAN HELMREICH University ofCalifornia Press BERKELEY LOS ANGELES LONDON Contents ({JflNN .<~ ;I! ' Qh I ('fI /Of.t; I . \( ) " ,riLlS " ~ ListofIllustrations VII UniversityofCaliforniaPress,oneofthemostdistinguisheduniver sitypressesintheUnitedStates,enricheslivesaroundtheworldby Moorings IX advancingscholarshipinthehumanities,socialsciences,andnatural Acknowledgments sciences.ItsactivitiesaresupportedbytheUCPressFoundationand XIII byphilanthropiccontributionsfromindividualsandinstitutions.For INTRODUCTION: LIFE AT SEA 1 moreinformation,visitwww.ucpress,edu. UniversityofCaliforniaPress 1- THE MESSAGE FROM THE MUD: MAKING MEANING BerkeleyandLosAngeles,California OUT OF MICROBES IN MONTEREY BAY )1 UniversityofCaliforniaPress,Ltd. 2. DISSOLVING THE TREE OF LIFE: ALIEN KINSHIP London,England AT HYDROTHERMAL VENTS 68 ©2009byTheRegentsoftheUniversityofCalifornia }. BLUE-GREEN CAPITALISM: MARINE BIOTECHNOLOGY IN HAWAI'I 106 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData 4· ALIEN SPECIES, NATIVE POLITICS: MIXING UP NATURE Helmreich,Stefan Alienocean:anthropologicalvoyagesinmicrobialseasIStefan AND CULTURE IN OCEAN O'AHU 145 Helmreich. 5· ABDUCTING THE ATLANTIC: HOW THE OCEAN GOT p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ITS GENOME 171 ISBN978-0-520-25061-1(cloth:alk.paper) 6. SUBMARINE CYBORGS: TRANSDUCTIVE ETHNOGRAPHY ISBN978-0-520-25062-8(pbk.:alk.paper) 1.Marinemicrobiology-Research. 2.Marinebiologists. 3. AT THE SEAFLOOR, JUAN DE FUCA RIDGE 212 Humanecology. I.Title. 7· EXTRATERRESTRIAL SEAS: ASTROBIOLOGY AND THE QR106.H45 2008 NATURE OF ALIEN LIFE 250 578.77-dC22 200802°955 ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Notes 285 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 Bibliography )29 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Index Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirements )65 ofANSI/NISOz39.48-1992 (R1997)(PermanenceofPaper). ---------------; \i Illustrations 1. DeLong's PowerPointingVitruvianMan 3 2. Chisholm'smarinebiologicalseachange 8 }. Frontpage, Salinas Californian, June 12,:1998 :lO 4· ROV Ventana, launching 34 5· The Point Lobos destination,March7, 200} 38 6. Oceanicsublimemeetsmathematical,mediasublime 43 7· VICKIframe grabofVentana's vantagepointas the ROV armgraspsatubeworm 45 8. EdDeLong,lookingthroughadish ofclonedcolonies 56 9· Hydrothermalventsystem 70 :10. Darwin'sdiagramofdivergenceoftaxa, :1859 77 :1:1. Threedomains oflife 79 12. "Currentconsensusorstandardmodel" ofthe "universal treeoflife" 83 :1}. "Reticulatedtree,ornet,which might moreappropriately representlife's history" 84 :14· "SynthesisofLife" 90 :15· Fenicalin Discover 11.1 16. MarBEClogo 1.17 :17· CMMEDlogo 1.19 18. Cyanobacteriacollection 3 12 19· WestCoastBallastOutreachflyer 14 6 VII VIII / Illustrations 20. Logo forWaikikialienalgae cleanupevent Moorings 21. Venteron Wired 174 22. Studentsondeckgatheringwatersamplesfrom the CTD-rosette 180 2}. Microscopeimageofmicrobes from BermudaAtlantic Time-Series studysite 24. Theauthoratsea, squeezing Sargassovirusesintocryovials 25. PlayingGodin the Galapagos 199 26. EnvisionedNEPTUNEnetworkandsensors 27. WorldExclusiveEconomicZones 28. Ovoidforms insideMartianmeteoriteALH84001 29. Photomosaicofregions onthe surfaceofJupiter's The ocean is strange. For those of us settled in down-to-earth common moon Europa sense and facts-on-the-ground science, the ocean symbolizes the wildest kind of nature there is. It represents a contrast to the cultivated land and even,sometimes,tothesolidorderofcultureitself.Althoughmanypeopl~ havetriedtocapturethissea-whalers,painters,poets,politicians-marine biologists have offered some of the most authoritative accounts of the ocean andthe lifeit sustains, particularlyfor publics compelledand capti vatedbytheexplanatorystories ofscience. Marine biologists' visions ofthe ocean are today in transformation. These scientists are learning to see the sea not onlyas the home medium for marine mammals, fishes, and seaweeds but also as a realm inhabited, maintained,andmodulatedbyanextraordinarymixofmicrobes,manyof which live at astonishing extremes oflight, temperature, pressure, and chemistry.Using molecularbiologicaltechniques, gene sequencing,bioin formatics, and remote sensing, marine biologists are coming to view the ocean as aweb ofmicrobiallifejoining the sunniest surfacewaters to the dimmest depths ofthe sea floor. Novel configurations oftechnology and theory are leading them to conceptualize the ocean as a site in which the object ofbiology-life-materializesas anetworkedphenomenonlinking the microscopic to the macrocosmic, bacteria to the biosphere, genes to globe.Microbesarekeyfigures inthis newscientificocean,pointers tothe originoflife,climatechange,andpromisingbiotechnologies. This book offers an anthropological account of how one cluster of marine biologists, marine microbiologists, are making such microbes meaningful-to themselves, to other scientists, and to broader publics. It examineshowmarinemicrobesarebecomingitemsofinterestandcontest among such varied players as environmentalists, biotech entrepreneurs, IX .:' .'.. , I···:···.· .':. ); x I. Moorings Moorings / XI life, helpful monitors ofclimate control, raw material for new life-saving indigenous peoples, maritime nation-states, the United Nations, and even drugs,and,ontheother,beingsalwayserasingthetraceoftheirownorigins, scientists searchingfor life on other planets.At issue are scientific narra entities indifferent and adaptable to human ecological disaster, vehicles of tives aboutlife's beginnings,the empiricalfoundations ofecological senti seaborne disease. New knowledge in marine microbiology reproduces, ment,the shapeofglobalmarketeconomies,andtheverydefinitionoflife reinforces,butalsoreconfiguressuchdoublevisionsofthe ocean.Thecon itself.The marine microbiologists featured in this bookhope their knowl stantly shifting quality of such images, I argue, reflects a concern and edge canbe usedto craftethicallycompellingportraits ofthe sea, pictures uneaseaboutthefuture oftheoceanandhumanity'srelationtoit.Atstake toencourageresponsiblestewardshipoftheocean;indeed,somearebegin for marine microbiologists is the question of how they and their publics ning to call their field microbial oceanography to argue that their enter should imagine links between the natural life forms they study and the prise offers a new mapping ofthe seaitself.These scientists want their cultural forms oflife-scientific, environmental, economic, religious descriptions to awaken people to their ecological connectedness to the withinwhich those organismsmightbecomemeaningful. ocean while also demanding that we recognize and respect the sea as an The dual ocean ofsuch marine biologyis haunted by the figure ofthe entityapart.Theocean,theybelieve,andIagree,willhaveasayinwhether alien-a sign of uncertainty about what the sea can tell us about life on humanitysurvivesinits currentform. Earthandtheplaceofhumansinthisrealm.Thealieninhabitsperceptions Anthropologists study how beliefs and practices come into being and oftheseaasadomaininaccessibletodirect,unmediatedhumanencounter. shape people's experience ofthe world. I consider the ocean a natural as Thealienappears indescriptions ofthe lifestylesofdeep-sea, heat-loving, well as a cultural object-a material thing that becomes meaningful only methane-eating microbes.The alien informs discussions of"alien genes" through perception, belief, and action.Tracking how marine microbes are traveling across gene-exchanging marine microbial lineages. Marine squeezedintoscientificandsocialsignificancerequires understandinghow biotechnology's dream ofgenetically engineering microbes into commer marine microbiologists engage their subjects of study through field and cial products is predicated on the alienability ofthe properties ofliving laboratorytechniques; esotericand everydaylanguages;academic, regula things.Thealienmaterializesinworriesaboutaquaticinvasivespecies.The tory,economic,andlegalstructures;andhistoricallyparticularconceptions alien disturbs the vision ofscientists studying marine viruses floating in ofnatureasatoncewithinandbeyondthegraspofrationalrepresentation. the open sea.The alienlies beneath contests overwho owns the microbial In this book, I report on several years of ethnographic research among diversityexistingoutsidenational territory,inthehighseas.Andthe alien marinebiologistsintheUnitedStates,fromMassachusettstotheHawaiian takes centerstageinastrobiologicalstudiesofextrememarinemicrobesas Islands-work I conducted aboard boats both surface and submarine, in analogsforlifeonalienworlds,liketheplanetMarsandJupiter'sicymoon labs, at conferences, in the virtual territories of cyberspace, and in such Europa. quotidian places as classrooms and movie theaters. I offer not merely an Allied with the alien, the marine microbe stands todayfor the strange analyticdescription-thoughthereisplentyofthat-butaninterpretation nessofthesea. Neitherfully selfnorother,themarine microbeisan alien ofcontemporarymicrobial oceanography.Thatis, this text is anchoredin whose purposes we do not know-a strangerwho may be friend or foe, boththesocialsciencesandthehumanities,thatinterdisciplinaryzonethat who may offer the unexpected commtinion ofkinship or the irreversible culturalanthropologyhas inhabitedsinceitsinception. rescripting of life as we know it. The alien is a channel for exchange Ihavediscernedtwoparallelvisionsoftheoceanorganizingaccountsof between the oceanic and the human, a transfer point between an alter theseadeliveredbymarinebiologists.Ontheonehand, theyseetheocean natelyembracingandenigmaticoceanandus.Iuse thephrasealien ocean asintimatelyconnectedtothe humanworld,providingtheecologicalcon bothto diagnoseascientific, social,andculturalimaginationaboutthesea text within which we and other living things originated and persist. I observedin myanthropological studies and to suggestthe limits ofrep Alternatively,theoceanexistsforthemasanultimateother,anentitywith resenting this sea, for both oceanographers and social scientists.After all, aforceandlogicthatmightendlesslyoverwhelmorwashawayourattempts the alien, as countless science fiction films have instructedus, is often a torepresentorcontrolitfully.Iarguethatthisoscillationbetweentheocean fugitive trace,aconstellationofuncertainevidencein motion. as familiar and strange, as us andnot us, shapes theway marine biologists apprehendmarine microbes-as, onthe one side, potentialancestors ofall Acknowledgments Mydebts aredeep. I embarked on myethnographicworkat the MontereyBayAquarium ResearchInstitute (MBARI),whereJudithConnor,directorofinformation andtechnologydissemination,mademypresencepossible.Iamgratefulto EdDeLongfor invitingme toparticipatein theworkofhis MBARIlab, to StevenHallamfor leadingme through the technicaland ethical seascapes oftoday's marinebiology, and to Pete Girguis for directing me aboard the research vessel Point Lobos. I also thankAaron Cozen, Jose de laTorre, Shana Goffredi, John Graybeal, George Matsumoto, Chris Preston, Chris Scholin, and BobVrijenhoek. Kim Solano, Nathan Sawyer, and J.P. made me feel at homein the hamletofMoss Landing, andMattMcCarthypro videdaretreatin Santa Cruz. DuringmytimeonA'ahu,MichaelCooneywasanincisiveguideintothe worldofmarinebiotechnology.BobBidigare,MarkGoldman,Jo-AnnLeong, PatTakahashi,GeorgiaTien,andJianYuhelpedmeunderstandcyanobacte riapast,present,future.DaveKarlprovidedthebestexplanationofmicrobial oceanography I could hope to hear, clarifying my course in this book immensely. For conversations in Hawai'i about microbes, algae, molluscs, andpolitics,IthankIsabellaAbbott,Pauline Chinn,KaipoFaris,BenFinney, MargaretMcManus,RebeccaMost,GriegSteward,andMililaniTrask. WhenIjoinedthefacultyoftheMassachusettsInstituteofTechnology, Penny Chisholm became an invaluable interlocutor about all aspects of ocean and earth system science.Tracy Mincer and Martin Polz gave me evolutionary insights into marine microbial genetics. Matt Sullivan and Virginia Rich were always ready to comment on chapter drafts and game to view a good (or bad) ocean documentary. At Harvard, Colleen Cavanaughansweredquestionsaboutventsciencewithwisdomandwit. XIII XIV '/ Acknowledgments Acknowledgments / xv Penny Chisholm enabled me to sign on to an expedition into the ~ Chris Kelty, who taught me to think "against networks." Hillel Schwartz Sargasso Sea, on whichvoyage I did my best to reciprocate by collecting provided a steady signal ofcitations and observations. Jane and George marine viruses. BrianBinder andLizMannwere apleasureto travelwith CollierintervenedatanearlystagetomakesureIknewwhereIwashead and learn from, and the rest of the science party and the crew of R/V 1 ing. I also thank Nadia Abu El-Haj, Samer Alatout, Pamela Ballinger, Endeavor made the journey-which included a zag into the Bermuda j DebboraBattaglia,DavidBjarnason,TomBoellstorff,GeoffBowker, Laurel Triangle-aremarkable experience.IthankCorneliaBailey for herhospi Braitman, Tony Crook, Marianne de Laet, Carol Delaney, David Derrick, talityandnarrativeinsightonSapeloIsland,Georgia. I Virginia Dominguez, Gary Downey, Joe Dumit,Troy Duster, Ron Eglash, MytriptotheJuandeFucaRidge onR/V Atlantisandinthe deepsub Erika Flesher, Rayvon Fouche, Peter Galison, !lana Gershon, Sharon mergence vehicle Alvin was made possible by the University of Ghamari-Tabrizi, Sherine Hamdy, Evelynn Hammonds, Donna Haraway, Washington'sDeborahKelley,whowelcomedmeontoherexpeditionwith CoriHayden, EvaHayward,DeborahHeath,Aida Hermindez,DavidHess, wry humor and catching enthusiasm.Among the science party, I particu Linda Hogle, Mimi Ito, Sarah Jain, Sarah Jansen, Sheila Jasanoff, Henry larly thank Deb Glickson, Jim Holden, and Kris Ludwig. i dived in Alvin Jenkins, Natalie Jeremijenko, CarinaJohnson, Douglas Kahn, Wyn Kelley, with geologist John Delaney and pilot Bruce Strickrott, extraordinary Eduardo Kohn, Wen-Hua Kuo, Anthony Lioi, Margaret Lock, Theresa guidesintoanextraordinaryrealm. MacPhail, RobertMarkley,EmilyMartin, SallyEngleMerry, LisaMesseri, Backonland,IthankLynnMargulisfor aneye-openingfieldtrip tothe ZaraMirmalek,HiroMiyazake,MichaelMontoya,LynnMorgan,Chandra SippewissettmarshonCapeCodandalsoforhermicroscopicreadingofmy Mukerji, Robin Nagle,Alondra Nelson, Diane Nelson, Damien Neva, Julie writingon astrobiology. FromWoods Hole,I thankMitch Sogin,Andreas Olson, Susan Oyama, Gisli Palsson,Trevor Pinch, Marcelle Poulos, Paul Teske,andCarlWirsen.IthankFordDoolittlefor multiplereadings ofmy Rabinow,Hugh Raffles,RonaldRainger, RaynaRapp,JennyReardon,Peter argumentsaboutthe tree oflife.IthankmarinebiotechnologistDominick Redfield, Annelise Riles, Lars Risan, Michael Rossi, Dan Segal, Bill Mendola ofEncinitas, California, for sharing his life story. From farther Shackford, Elta Smith, Levent Soysal, Stefan Sperling,JaredStark, Hallam flungworldsIthankLokaBharathi,ChuckFisher,StephenHourdez,Karen Stevens, Ajantha Subramanian, Karen-Sue Taussig, Rebecca Thomas, Nelson, Lata Raghukumar, Frank Robb, andArt Yayanos. Deborah Day, CharisThompson, Miranda von Dornum, CathyWaldby, WendyWalker, archivist at the Scripps Institution ofOceanography, helped me scout out CharlesWatkinson,KathWeston,andLambertWilliams. odddocuments inmarinebiologicalhistory. The anthropology program at MITis a lively, congenial place to think Friends,colleagues,andstudentsfromtherecombinantworldsofscience and work. For their close readings of chapters, I thank Jim Howe, Jean studiesandanthropology-aswellasfrommediastudies,literarycriticism, Jackson, EricaJames, Susan Silbey,andChrisWalley.HughGustersonand andhistory-helpedmegetmybearingsamidawashoftopicsthatthreat Susan Slymovics, though nowpostedelsewhere, remain the bestmentors enedtoswampmeentirely.Amongthosewhosesoundingsprovedessential onecouldhopetohave.RosieHeggandAmberlySteward,programadmin foroutliningtheshapeofthebookwereBillMaurer,whoseanthropologies istrators' provided essential aid in getting this manuscript out the door. of fishes-cryptogenic, star-shaped, and lateral-lined-kept my social Colleagues in MIT's broader program in History, Anthropology, and theory suitably at sea; Sarah Franklin,who first shepherdedmy rumina Science,Technology, andSocietyalso engagedwithAlien Ocean earlyon, tions on sea science into print; Mike Fortun,who read the betaversion of in part or entirety. I thank Michael Fischer, Deborah Fitzgerald, David this manuscript and made salutary suggestions for resequencing my data; Jones, Evelyn Fox Keller, Vincent Lepinay, Ken Manning, DavidMindell, Rich Doyle, whose transmissions reassured me about the aliens; Cari HarrietRitvo, andSherryTurkle. IthankgraduatestudentsinBiogroop, a Costanzo Kapur, who helpedme navigate the choppy waters ofHawaiian reading collective with whom I had many vital conversations. Etienne politics; Dmitry Portnoy, who read across lines of anthropological and Benson, Natasha Myers, Sophia Roosth, and SaraWylie will find in this genetic text for surface tensions and submarine meanings; Cris Moore, bookmanytransductionsofourdiscussions. whose grapplingwith time, space, andscalingin theoretical computer sci Portions ofAlien Ocean have been presented to avariety ofacademic ence helped me unknot loops in my underwater arguments; Hannah audiences. I thank listeners atAmherst, Bowdoin, Cornell, Harvard, MIT, Landecker, who asked clarifying questions when I got muddled up; and theMontereyBayAquariumResearchInstitute,MountHolyoke,theNew XVI . / Acknowledgments Acknowledgments / XVII School for Social Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rice, the Arguments I originally developed in the following articles are reprinted SchoolofAmericanResearch,UCBerkeley,UCIrvine,UCSantaCruz,the withpermission: University ofHawai'i at Manoa, the UniversityofIceland, the University I Treesand SeasofInformation:Alien Kinship andthe Biopoliticsof ofWisconsinatMadison,andWesleyan. t GeneTransferinMarineBiologyandBiotechnology.American Financialsupport for this projectwas providedbyGrant no. 6993 from Ethnologist30(3):340-58.PublishedUniversityofCaliforniaPress, theWenner-GrenFoundationforAnthropologicalResearchandbyawards ~ ©2oo3AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation. fromtheofficeofMIT'sDeanofHumanities,Arts,andSocialSciences.The ~····1·' 2006 James A. and Ruth Levitan Prize in the Humanities, administered , HowScientistsThink;About'Natives,' for Example:AProblemof throughMIT,helpedmefinishthemanuscript. MyeditorsatUniversityof TaxonomyamongBiologistsofAlienSpeciesinHawaii. TheJournal of California Press, Stan Holwitz and Elizabeth Berg, made production pro theRoyalAnthropologicalInstitute, IncorporatingMAN 11(1): ceed swimmingly. Copyeditor John Thomas tamed all manner ofgram 107-28.©2oo5The RoyalAnthropologicalInstitute. I I maticalandtypographicalmonsters. The SignatureofLife:DesigningtheAstrobiologicalImagination. To gather up, finally, the most traditional knots ofkinship, I thank my Grey Room 23(4):66-95.©2006TheMITPress. parents,MaryandGisbertHelmreich,whoremindmethattheoceanwaits Blue-Green Capital,BiotechnologicalCirculation,andan Oceanic for meinSouthernCalifornia.Myin-laws,TomandJudiPaxson,continue Imaginary:A CritiqueofBiopoliticalEconomy. BioSocieties 2(3): to amaze me with their selfless dedication to kith, kin, and socialjustice. 287-302.©2oo7CambridgeUniversityPress andtheLondonSchool My wife and partner in all things anthropological, HeatherPaxson, made ofEconomicsandPoliticalScience. theresearchandwritingofthisbookpossible,travelingwithmetoobscure AnAnthropologistUnderwater:Immersive Soundscapes,Submarine portsandplaces,joiningherownthinkingonhumanandmicrobialcheese Cyborgs,andTransductive Ethnography.American Ethnologist34(4): cultureswith mine onseas, andreading tirelessly through endless rafts of 621-41.PublishedUniversityofCaliforniaPress, ©2oo7American chapterdrafts.Heathermade thisbookthinkable,foritwasshewhoimag AnthropologicalAssociation. ined the title, Alien Ocean. Her love is a constant current that keeps me going. Our toddler son, Rufus Paxson Helmreich, soaking up multiple viewings ofYellow Submarine as Ifinished this book, filled my eleventh hoursalliesthrough the seaofsciencewithhappilyaliensing-alongs. BeforeembarkingonMoby-Dick, HermannMelvillewroteto hisfriend andfather-in-law,JudgeLemuelShaw,"Itismyearnestdesiretowritethose sortofbookswhicharesaidto'fail.'" AlthoughIcannothopeto failasspec tacularly as Melville, this bookdoes press againstlimits in my abilities to comprehendand articulate all that crossedmyanthropologicalpath. Ionly hopesuchfailuresaseddythroughthesepagesare,likealiens,usefullydiag nosticoftoday's difficultiesinapprehendingthelawsofnatureatsea. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Encinitas, California, 2008 Introduction: Life at Sea Droppingoffthe edgeofCalifornia,theunderseacanyonofMontereyBay falls 4,000metersintoanink-darkworld.Itisarealmoftubeworms,clams, and the oddwhale skeleton, invisibly scrimshawednowbymicrobes bur rowing for minerals in bones broken up andbreaking down.Above this abyssal district fly fleets of tuna, salmon, and sharks as well as sealions, harborseals,andporpoises.Closertoshore,SiliconValleyscubadiversprac tice their submarine yoga amid forests of kelp and smacks of jellyfish. Oceanographers, suspendedon the surface, hauljugs ofseawater onto the decksofresearchvessels.InthenearbycoastaltownofMossLanding,DNA sequencing machines are set to scan for signs oflife, primed to read the genesofmarinemicroorganismsfloatingwithinthesemicrocosmicseas. SittinginalecturehalloverlookingthebayonaJunedayin2000,Iam listening to microbiologist Ed DeLong as he addresses patrons of the MontereyBayAquarium.Heinformshisaudience thatlifeonEarthlikely originated in swarming seawater, descending perhaps from a crew of microbesnamedtheArchaea, or"ancientones,"themostfamous ofwhich reside at high-pressure, high-temperature, sulfur-spittingvolcanic vents on the seafloor.These extraordinarymicroorganisms,DeLong says,might \ t revealtheuppertemperaturelimitsoflifeandevensuggesttheoutlinesof life forms on lightless alien worlds, like Jupiter's satellite Europa, which may host hydrothermal activity. Microbial extremophiles-Iovers of \ extremes-are ubiquitous on Earth, integral to the maintenance ofthis oceanplanet. Though they are vanishingly small, marine microbes range across myriad ecological contexts and operate at global scales. DeLong tells us: "Microbesareresponsibleforthehealthoftheoceans.Theyshapethechem istryoftheseaandthe atmosphere.Theseorganisms thatwecan'tevensee 1 r 2 / Introduction: Lifeat Sea Introduction: Lifeat Sea / 3 are extremelyimportant.These little guys control the biogeochemistry of l ourworld.Theyarethestewardsofourplanet."Microbesarepivotalplay ers in those processes through which atmosphericcarbon, nitrogen, phos phorous,andsulfurareconvertedintothebodiesofearthlyorganismsand back into elemental substance. Detailing the dizzying multiplicity of microbial life-from heat- to cold- to acid-loving archaea, to biolumines cent bacteria, to everyday phytoplankton floating on the sea surface DeLong guides us on a slide show through what he calls "microscopic forests ofthesea,"aphrasethatconjuresimagesofrainforests,potentter restrial symbols of ecological diversity. In DeLong's rendering, marine microbesprovidevitalbondstobioticforces pastandpresent. And future. DeLong catalogs the potential of extremophilic marine microbes to supply materials to biotechnology. Heat-loving microbes in deep-seaventsofferenzymesthatenable the copyingofDNAinthelab,a high-temperatureprocesscrucialto genesequencing. Cold-lovingbacteria are promising sources for pharmaceuticals. Microbes thriving on petro leum hydrocarbons, toxic to most creatures, might digest oil spills. In DeLong's depiction, the microbial sea emerges as a storehouse ofcurative powersthathumans mightharness, transformingthe mostalienlifestyles intoalliedforces tohealpeopleandplanet. Marinemicrobiology-longtheprovinceofseasickscientists struggling FIGURE1. DeLong'sPowerPointingVitruvianMan."Earth:TheBlue toisolatesinglecellsinunstableculturemediaonunstableboats-isunder Marble,"imagecourtesyofNASA,createdbyRetoStockliwithAlan goingsomethingofa renaissance. Ledin the UnitedStatesbyDeLongand Nelson,underFritzHasler,forNASA'sVisibleEarthProject.Vitruvian ManphotobyLucViatour,reproducedunderGNUFreeDocument colleaguesinMontereyBay,atMIT,andtheUniversityofHawai'i,thefield ationLicence.Compositeimage,afterDeLong,byMichaelRossi. isincreasinglydescribedas microbialoceanography, aphrasingthatmakes mappingmicrobiallifecoincidentwithmappingtheseaitself,thatsuggests thatmicrobesarenotjustin theseabut,inanimportantsense,are thesea.! across scalesofhumanandplanetaryembodiment,fromplacingthebio DeLongoffersan emblemfortherevolutioninastrikingPowerPointslide: diversity-richAmazontoVitruvianMan'sleftandahurricane-harbinger an image ofthe whole Earth, seen from space, upon which sits superim of global warming-to his right, from juxtaposing Species Man with posedLeonardo daVinci's Vitruvian Man (ca. :1485-90), the perfectlypro MotherEarth,andfrompresentingadistantbutdazzlingviewofanEarth portioned figure proposed by the ancient Roman architectVitruvius as a atonceextraterrestrialandfamiliar. Reflectingontheslide,DeLongoffers, metric for the construction oftemples and resurrected in the 1990S as a "Earth is a misnomer. The planet should be called Ocean-or maybe it symboloftheHumanGenomeProject(figure1).DeLongdisplaysthisicon should be called Life or even Ocean Life." Invoking the Greek goddess to argue that the genetic techniques aimed at decoding human biology whose name hasbecomesynonymouswiththehypothesis thatourplanet might be extended to what he calls "this otherbeast, our living planet." is aself-regulatingsystem,headds, "Gaiafits." Gene sequencing and DNAdatabasing-genomics and bioinformatics I am transfixed by this image, not least because my own discipline, affordmicrobiologists fresh waysofscrutinizingtheplanet'smembraneof anthropology,alsoplaceshumanityatitscenter,butmore,becausetheman marinemicrobes,linkinggenomes tobiomes.2 intheplanetarypetridishpointsmeto questionsabouttheculturalcoordi ThepowerofDeLong'simagederivesfrompastingtheiconographyof natesofDeLong'svisionofthemicrobialocean.Howdoesthemicrobialsea early modern science into the frame ofsatellite imaging, from reaching restage orreconfigure olderviews ofthe ocean as a primordial life-giving