That started happening in 2006, when Dr Jiao developed a technique called time-series observation-based infra-red epifluorescence microscopy, or TIREM for short, that is able to measure the amount of AAPB in the oceans accurately.

ECONOMIST: Bacteria and climate change

In a recent ranking of the world's 500 best universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, only two were from India.

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Based on these findings, Dr Jiao and his colleagues propose that AAPB, and possibly other, similar microbes, have a predominant role in pumping carbon into a pool of compounds that cannot be turned back into carbon dioxide by living creatures, thereby building up a large reservoir that keeps carbon out of the atmosphere.

ECONOMIST: Bacteria and climate change