The Aquatic Messenger

The Aquatic Messenger is a virtual reality experience about plankton, freshwater ecology and the history of Lake George. You explore microscopic organisms and discover how the lake and its life have changed over time.

Life through time

The experience covers several periods in the lake’s history: 490 million years ago, when the sea covered the lake and regional stromatolites formed from cyanobacterial mats; 350 million years ago, the “age of fishes” revealed in the Helderbergs; and 20,000 years ago, when the Wisconsin ice sheet retreated and revealed life including the Cohoes Mastodon, Ostracodes, Diatoms and Testate Amoebae. It also explores Native inhabitants, the impacts of settlement in the 1850s, and salt in the 1970s.

The lake’s future

You consider how choices people make today could affect the lake in 2060 and 2100. The experience also features current instruments and data from the Jefferson Project sensor web, the Fund for Lake George and others working to keep the lake clean.