The world's largest structure isn't man-made, nature built it: a coral reef half the size of Texas, a living jewel off the coast of Australia, so large it can be seen from space; and within it, a vast aquarium like none on earth. No other waters are more diverse—of fish alone, experts have identified 1,500 species and counting.

 

The Great Barrier Reef is a gallery for beauty, a showcase of the unique, a refuge for the endangered, one of the planet's last paradises. To understand it takes a new breed of scientist, one willing to go to extremes to get answers. The reef is a mystery that can't be solved in the lab. To crack it, you have to live it.

 

Beauty swims with violence. Fish here have the shortest life expectancy on the planet, yet the reef is an orchestra of the living.