A Living Planet - Helen Czerski

0:00 // Introduction 0:52 // Earth seen from space 2:37 // The PACE satellite & the living planet 5:40 // How much life is there? Biomass by the numbers 7:07 // Inside the animal kingdom 10:03 // Where is life living? 11:46 // Land vs ocean: productivity & turnover 15:07 // We live in a microbial world 17:32 // Vitamin B12 and our dependency on bacteria 25:13 // Parrotfish and the white sand beaches 29:13 // Phytoplankton, DMS, and cloud formation 33:50 // Animals as ecosystem engineers 39:40 // Humpback whales as nutrient conveyors 44:35 // What humans have already removed from the ocean 47:28 // The IUCN Red List — and what "least concern" doesn't mean 57:06 // Conclusion: life is not a luxury, it's a life support system Watch the Q&A session here:    • Q&A: A Living Planet - Helen Czerski   Earth is a living planet. But how much life is there, and what is it doing? We will discuss the distribution of biomass on Earth, and compare the effects of microbes, wild animals, domesticated animals. The aim of this lecture is to provide concrete examples of how life is woven in with the rest of the planetary engine, expanding the importance of biodiversity from sentiment alone to a matter of survival for both whole ecosystems and our own civilisation. This lecture was recorded by Helen Czerski on the 23nd of March 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London Helen Czerski is a physicist and oceanographer with a passion for science, sport, books, creativity, hot chocolate and investigating the interesting things in life.  She is a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London and her research focus is the physics of breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface. These bubbles change underwater sound and light, help transfer gases from ocean to atmosphere (helping the ocean breathe) and also eject ocean material into the air. She has spent months working on research ships in the Antarctic, the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Arctic, and is an experienced field scientist.  Helen has been a regular science presenter on the BBC for 15 years, covering the physics of the natural world in BBC2 landmark documentaries (including ‘Orbit’, ‘Operation iceberg’ and ‘Supersenses’), and the physics of everyday life in a range of BBC4 documentaries (including ‘From ice to fire: The incredible science of temperature’, ‘Sound waves: The symphony of physics’, and ‘Colour: The spectrum of science’, along  with many others). She currently co-hosts BBC Radio 4’s flagship climate and environment programme Rare Earth.  Helen's first book Storm in a Teacup won the Italian Asimov Prize and the Louis J. Battan Author prize from the American Meteorological Society. Blue Machine won the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing. She was awarded the Institute of Physics Gold Medal in 2018 for her work on physics communication, and an Honorary Fellowship of the British Science Association in 2020. She has been a Trustee of Royal Museums Greenwich since 2018, and was one of the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lecturers, giving her Lecture on the topic of the ocean.  The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/l... Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involve... Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook:   / greshamcollege   Instagram:   / greshamcollege   Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcolle... TikTok:   / greshamcollege   Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involve...