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In a remote part of the Amazon rainforest in Peru, there’s a river with water so hot, it actually boils. In fact, it's so extreme and so remote that for a long time people thought the river was a myth. Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza risked life and limb journeying to this boiling river, called Shanay-Timpishka or La Bomba, to explore some of the smallest microorganisms on Earth. Why?? Because the untapped microbes that live in that extreme environment could save our planet!

There are more microbes on Earth than stars in the galaxy, and yet only 1% of Earth’s microbe species have been thoroughly studied. Considering that several antibiotics, cancer treatments, and other medicines come from that tiny percentage, Dr. Espinoza is on a mission to unlock the potential of the remaining 99%. Microbes are a universe of microorganisms hiding in plain sight, proving that even the tiniest living things can have a huge impact. In fact, as the first microorganisms released oxygen, microbes literally made our existence on the planet possible. So what else can they do? 

Thanks for listening to the first episode of season three of Going Wild. We're really excited to share the rest of this season with you! You can learn more about season three HERE and catch up on seasons one and two HERE. 

Follow Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza on Instagram or on her website. Photo credit for this episode's art is by Ana Sotelo.

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You can also get updates and bonus content by following me, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, and PBS Nature on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook. You can find more information on all of our guests this season in each episode's show notes. And you can catch new episodes of Nature, Wednesdays at 8/7 Central on PBS, pbs.org/nature, and the PBS app. 

Going Wild is a new podcast by PBS Nature. NATURE is an award-winning series created by The WNET Group and made possible by all of you.

Views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of THIRTEEN Productions LLC/The WNET Group.