How we can detect pretty much anything - Hélène Morlon and Anna Papadopoulou
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Scientists have been staking out a forest in Montana for an animal that’s notoriously tricky to find. Camera traps haven’t offered definitive evidence, and experts can’t identify its tracks with certainty. But within the past decades, researchers have developed methods that can detect even the most elusive species. So how does it work? Hélène Morlon & Anna Papadopoulou dig into DNA metabarcoding.
Lichens are very sensitive to sulfur dioxide, a gas that is emitted from fossil fuel combustion at power plants. Imagine that you are a scientist who studies an endangered beetle species and suspects that it feeds primarily on lichens. The construction of a power plant next to a forest inhabited by this species will negatively affect lichens and the beetles that feed on them. How could you use DNA-metabarcoding to provide evidence that the endangered beetle species feeds indeed on lichens?
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Meet The Creators
- Educator Hélène Morlon, Anna Papadopoulou
- Director Blok Magnaye, Creasenso
- Narrator Bethany Cutmore-Scott
- Storyboard Artist Blok Magnaye
- Animator Blok Magnaye
- Composer Cem Misirlioglu, Alex Chumak
- Sound Designer Cem Misirlioglu
- Music Alex Chumak
- Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
- Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal
- Producer Bethany Cutmore-Scott
- Associate Editorial Producer Cella Wright
- Production Coordinator Abdallah Ewis
- Script Editor Alex Gendler
- Fact-Checker Jennifer Nam
- Special Thanks Isaac Overcast , Emmanouil Meramveliotakis , Loudmila Jelinscaia Lagou, The iBioGen Project (Horizon 2020 - GA 810729)
