Tiny Giants exhibit open at Bigelow Laboratory

Tue, 07/14/2015 - 8:45am

    The art show, “Tiny Giants: Marine Microbes Revealed on a Grand Scale,” is currently on display in the entrance of Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.

    The show is a photographic exhibition of marine microbes magnified thousands of times. The images, taken by Bigelow scientists, are showcased in an effort to help people understand not just the variety of beautiful microbial life that exists in the oceans, but the vital role zooplankton species play in the ecosystem, according Bigelow Director of Communications Darlene Trew Crist.

    Just some of the roles zooplankton play, according to the Bigelow website, are: producing half of the oxygen in the atmosphere (they are the base of the entire marine food chain); and helping offset the damaging effects climate change is having on our planet.

    The Tiny Giants exhibit will be at Bigelow until the fall, when it will move to New York. The exhibit has already been at the Lewis Gallery at the Portland Public Library and the District Hall in Boston.

    For more information of the Tiny Giants exhibit or the work of Bigelow Labs, visit www.bigelow.org.