Planet of the Microbes

The Planet of the Microbes documentary travels from the boiling deep-sea vents where life first sparked to the laboratories now learning to read and rewrite the code of living cells. Along the way leading scientists reveal how the planet's oldest and smallest organisms are being put to work: egg white grown without a hen, protein made from little more than air and electricity, jet fuel brewed from factory emissions, materials and medicines conjured by cells that have been perfecting their chemistry for billions of years. As our own technologies push the planet toward crisis, the film asks whether these invisible engineers – here long before us – might hold the key to feeding, healing and sustaining a world of ten billion people.