One Species Is An Entire Universe

I spent years looking through a microscope at the 1000 cell nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. I observed a single-cell dividing and becoming muscle, neuron, gametes, and forming organs: skin, eyes, pharynx, spermatheca. I watched complex behaviors of eating and mating. I saw males and hermaphrodites do their dance to create the next generation. Such a simple organism and so many complicated behaviors. I fell in love with this infinitely wondrous species that is the basis of the human genome project and ongoing research in 1000s of laboratories around the world. That is where I realized the depth of mystery, the known and unknown that every species embodies. And how even the loss of any one species is also the loss of an entire universe that we cannot synthesize or imagine.