Yesterday we had the pleasure of visiting Pauline and Fanny, winners of our 2024 call for projects, in their laboratory at MIO (Institut Méditerranéen d’Océanologie).

Their mission is fascinating:

🧬 To understand the role of oceanic microorganism diversity in climate regulation.

🔦 To shed light on the crucial issues facing the deep ocean.

The ocean, our planet’s true blue lung, sequesters a portion of atmospheric CO2 through the “biological carbon pump.” This process, essential to climate regulation, depends on the richness and abundance of plankton, but how it works in the abyss remains largely unknown.

💡 Thanks to your support, Pauline, a PhD student in microbial oceanography is exploring this mystery by sequencing the DNA of deep-sea plankton, while Fanny, a scientific mediator and PhD student in environmental psychology is studying how society perceives and interacts with these oceanic microorganisms.

What a pleasure to have been able to get as close as possible to science by visiting their laboratory. A big thank you to Pauline and Fanny for this moment!