From ancient footprints to mini microbes

Glaciers exist on every continent, but some of them will melt entirely by 2100 due to climate change. The polar ice sheets, in Greenland and Antarctica, formed millions of years ago, which means they have experienced many of Earth’s major climate changes – like an environmental fly on the wall. Deep within their ice crystals lies an exceptionally detailed record of past climate. We’ll explore how researchers use this to understand present and future changes, and answer key questions including: how do we know that current climate is ‘unusual’? What might happen in future? And how quickly?

Extinction events have shaped the evolution of life on Earth, but Mass Extinctions have drawn most attention. Timing of these is everything and has generated much debate. With dinosaurs, the debate is whether they became extinct ‘with a bang’ or a drawn-out ‘whimper’. ‘With a bang’ gained traction with evidence for a massive meteorite impact 65 million years ago. Temporally resolving such extinction events could help us track its global impact. No single locality has provided evidence that showed both the direct effect of the impact upon organisms, nor on the diurnal timing - until now!

Microbial processes have long been used for the benefit of humans, from the production of bread, wine and cheese, to disease fighting antibiotics. More recent advances demonstrate how these tiny microorganisms can be used to help solve some of today’s biggest environmental problems. Join us to discover how microbes have the potential to turn today’s waste into tomorrow’s resources, from the generation of clean energy to the production of useful nanomaterials.