Our oceans contain an unfathomably large menagerie of strange, alien creatures invisible to the naked human eye. Many of these miniscule organisms convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into energy and in the process of doing so, provide much of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. The air we breathe, we owe to them. Others cast toxic lures to catch prey or assemble the body parts of their victims into edible homes for their youth. Some are longer than a blue whale!
Without a doubt, the world of plankton is utterly amazing. A mere teaspoon of seawater can contain more than one million of these living creatures!
It's difficult to wrap your head around a fact like that, but watching the TEDEd's dazzling video, "The Secret Life of Plankton," might help. Plankton may seem to be only meager specks, but take a closer look and you'll find that they embody the immaculate splendor that is life on Earth.