Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/oceanic-expedition-uncovers-vast-genetic-diversity Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript A two-year study of the world's oceans revealed an unprecedented level of genetic diversity in marine microbes. Expedition leader J. Craig Venter discusses the study and its significance. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. RAY SUAREZ: The findings come from a global expedition that's been compared to Charles Darwin's sea voyages more than a century ago.Scientists have been trawling the oceans since 2003 in search of the smallest organisms, microbes, to create a kind of microscopic marine census. The project was launched by geneticist Craig Venter, who turned his own private yacht, "Sorcerer Two," into a floating laboratory.Venter, already well known for his pioneering work to help crack the human genetic code, set off with his team from Halifax, in Canada on the Atlantic coast, sailed through the Panama Canal into the Pacific Ocean, heading for the Galapagos Islands and French Polynesia.In a report published earlier this week, the team said it found millions of new genes and proteins among the bacteria and other microorganisms. The data that's been analyzed to date has already doubled the number of known genes on Earth.Venter and his team are now sharing the information they've gathered on the Internet.