Ideas worth spreading

The discoveries awaiting us in the ocean's twilight zone

1,470,822 views | Heidi M. Sosik • TED2018

What will we find in the twilight zone: the vast, mysterious, virtually unexplored realm hundreds of meters below the ocean's surface? Heidi M. Sosik of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution wants to find out. In this wonder-filled talk, she shares her plan to investigate these uncharted waters, which may hold a million new species and 90 percent of the world's fish biomass, using submersible technology. What we discover there won't just astound us, Sosik says -- it will help us be better stewards of the world's oceans. (This ambitious idea is part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

What will we find in the twilight zone: the vast, mysterious, virtually unexplored realm hundreds of meters below the ocean's surface? Heidi M. Sosik of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution wants to find out. In this wonder-filled talk, she shares her plan to investigate these uncharted waters, which may hold a million new species and 90 percent of the world's fish biomass, using submersible technology. What we discover there won't just astound us, Sosik says -- it will help us be better stewards of the world's oceans. (This ambitious idea is part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Join the effort to explore the twilight zone.

Donate to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Your gift can help support bold new work like exploration of the twilight zone.

About the speaker

Ocean scientist, inventor, explorer

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Heidi M. Sosik is an ocean scientist who uses tools like lasers and robotic cameras to figure out how tiny organisms in the ocean affect our whole planet.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution | Explore

The Ocean Twilight Zone

Véronique LaCapra | Oceanus, 2018 | Article

"Mission to the Twilight Zone: The urgent quest to explore one of Earth's hidden frontiers"

This article from Oceanus magazine gives an overview of the mission by WHOI scientists and engineers to explore the ocean twilight zone.

Lonny Lippsett | Oceanus, 2006 | Article

"A Journey to the Ocean's Twilight Zone: A conversation with marine biogeochemist Ken Buesseler"

This article and the following one from Oceanus magazine looked at earlier efforts by WHOI scientists to understand processes that move carbon from the upper ocean through the twilight zone into the depths.

Kate Madin | Oceanus, 2006 | Article

"Transparent Animal May Play Overlooked Role in the Ocean: Swarming by the billions, gelatinous salps transport tons of carbon to the depths"

The Economist, 2017 | Article

"The mesopelagic: Cinderella of the oceans"

In 2017, The Economist magazine took a look at what may be the most overlooked part of the ocean.

Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm | Scholastic Press, 2012 | Book

Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas

Children’s book author Molly Bang made sunlight in the ocean and the connection between the surface and deep ocean the focus of one of the books in her Sunlight series.

The Economist", 2018 | Article

"Blue-sea thinking: Technology is transforming the relationship between people and the oceans"

The technology that scientists use to study the ocean was the subject of a 2018 article in The Economist.

Richard Conniff | National Wildlife, 2017 | Article

"Up from the Depths"

The world’s largest animal migration was the focus of an article in National Wildlife magazine.

Learn more

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Join the effort to explore the twilight zone.

Donate to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Your gift can help support bold new work like exploration of the twilight zone.