Tareq L S Omairi, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. Where does life stop and the emptiness of space begin? The adaptability of life and its ability to survive in extreme conditions continues to surprise us. To understand more about the resilience and reach of life, Tareq and his research team sent balloons up into the stratosphere to sample the air and found microscopic organisms. In the talk Tariq explains how these samples were collected and analysed using a scanning electron microscope.