The Natural Curiosity Project

Contrary to popular belief, life may very well not have begun on the sunlit surface of the planet--but rather in the deepest part of the deepest oceans. In his new book, "The Dark Frontier," marine geobiologist Jeffrey Marlow explains why.

One of the themes in my new novel, “The Sound of Life,” is interspecies communication—not in a Doctor Doolittle kind of way—that’s silly—but in a more fundamental way, using protocols that involve far more listening on our part than speaking. The ability to communicate with other species has long been a dream among scientists, although as I observed in an earlier Podcast episode, we might not be pleased with what other species have to say to us. But that aside, I find it pretty exciting that we’re on the bleeding edge of being able to engage in a form of two-way communication with other species. So, in this episode, I want to tell you a bit about where we are, and why 2026 is widely believed to be the year we make contact.

Thank you for a great year! I this final episode of 2025, I review some of the highlights of past episodes. Thank you for joining me!

Join me on a tour of the Essex Junction Water Treatment Facility. It's a lot more interesting than you might think!

This is an audio essay, presented in three parts, about the need to balance the forces of industry and the forces of conservation. We need both, so what I'm about to say, I think, is important. Let me begin by telling you what this audio essay is not about. It is not another tiresome, ‘Chicken Little the Sky is Falling’ story of environmental doom. It is not another finger wagging, how-dare-we-mistreat-the-planet-this-way paean of conservation woe. It is not yet another in a long line of left-wing assaults on the energy sector, nor is it an attack on the right-wing players who want to drill, baby, drill. We are living in a time when society seems to believe that our future MUST be binary. “We can reduce our dependency on oil, or we can be global leaders in conservation and climate change. In fact, “we can reduce our dependency on oil, and we can be global leaders in conservation and climate change.” Here’s how.

This is an audio essay, presented in three parts, about the need to balance the forces of industry and the forces of conservation. We need both, so what I'm about to say, I think, is important. Let me begin by telling you what this audio essay is not about. It is not another tiresome, ‘Chicken Little the Sky is Falling’ story of environmental doom. It is not another finger wagging, how-dare-we-mistreat-the-planet-this-way paean of conservation woe. It is not yet another in a long line of left-wing assaults on the energy sector, nor is it an attack on the right-wing players who want to drill, baby, drill. We are living in a time when society seems to believe that our future MUST be binary. “We can reduce our dependency on oil, or we can be global leaders in conservation and climate change. In fact, “we can reduce our dependency on oil, and we can be global leaders in conservation and climate change.” Here’s how.

Like every part of our planetary geography, oceans have identifiable regions. Beginning at the beach and gradually dropping to about 650 feet is the continental shelf. This shallow region of the ocean is called the sunlit or Epiplagic zone. From sunlight we move into the beginnings of oceanic darkness: we leave the continental shelf and step onto the much steeper continental slope where we enter the twilight or Mesopelagic zone, which descends to about 4,000 feet—the better part of a mile. Here, light from the surface disappears. We continue in darkness down the continental slope into the midnight or Bathypelagic zone, all the way to 13,000 feet—a crushing depth of nearly two miles. But we’re nowhere near the bottom yet. At 13,000 feet, the slope begins to level as it becomes the continental rise on its way to the sea floor, at about 20,000 feet. This is the Abyss, or the Abyssopelagic zone, the dwelling place of creatures that are the stuff of nightmares. Even their names conjure darkness: gulper eels. Angler fish. Vampire squid. Coffinfish. But this is still not the deepest part of the ocean. That honor goes to the Hadal zone, named after Hades, the underworld. These are the ocean’s deep trenches, and they descend to unimaginable depths of nearly 37,000 feet. Mount Everest could be dropped into these canyons and its peak would lie under deep water. In this program, we look at these deep regions, at the organisms that lives there, and at the sounds of the deep.