Everywhere that scientists look, they seem to be finding creatures clinging to life in increasingly remote environments – from Antarctic ice to boiling hydrothermal vents at the bottom of oceans. However, biologists have only recently begun paying close attention to one of the planet’s most fascinating venues for life: the sky. A collaboration between the US filmmaker Flora Lichtman and the California Academy of Sciences’ digital publication bioGraphic, the short film Life in the Clouds examines the complex and utterly fascinating ecosystems far above our heads.
How airborne microbes ride clouds, hop continents and even make it rain
29 July 2016
videoEcology and environmental sciences
How beautiful bioluminescent bacteria can expose invisible water pollution
3 minutes
videoBiology
Join massive, ancient carnivores for a rare feast beneath the Antarctic ice
3 minutes
videoBiology
Peering into the eerie world of plankton reveals a variety of vital creatures
3 minutes
videoSpace exploration
Burning ice, metal clouds, gemstone rain – tour the strangest known exoplanets
31 minutes
videoSpace exploration
In the search for life, might alien ocean worlds be a better bet than Earth-like planets?
5 minutes
videoHistory of science
‘I could not but wonder at it’: history’s first glimpses into the microbial world
7 minutes
videoArt
The inadvertent art of tiny bodies – stunning, hidden patterns of animal movement
10 minutes
videoBiology
Explore a bioluminescent world of cellular life via cutting-edge microscopy
27 minutes
videoEcology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes