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Strange and wondrous creatures plankton and the origins of life on earth by Ferris Jabor.

When I arrived at Wickford Harbor in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, early one June morning,

the sea was moderately calm, with a distinct metallic sheen, like a wrinkled sheet of foil someone had tried to rub smooth.

Vital Agarwal, a young oceanographer, waved to me from beside a research trawler with the name

Capnbert painted on his hull. Dressed in jeans and a diamond pattern sweater.

Agarwal welcomed me aboard and introduced me to the captain Steve Barber, whose gray hair

spilled from the back of a baseball camp.

A few minutes later, we motored slowly into Narraganset Bay.

The sun was low. Directly behind the boat, the sea churned shades of gray and green.

I think we're going to find a lot out here today.

Agarwal said, gesturing toward our frothing wake.

Because of the color? I asked.

He nodded.

Every week since 1957, in one of the longest running surveys of its kind anywhere in the world,

scientists have come to this exact spot to study

some of the most abundant and important life forms in the ocean. Creatures so

tiny that the vast majority are invisible to the naked eye,

yet so essential to Earth's ecosystems that our planet would be virtually barren without them.

Creatures we call plankton.

...