hawaii institute of marine biology researcher amy eggers prepares a sample of coral for microscopic analysis. the resulting images reveal an amazing world. this is what live coral samples look like, under the hood of a laser scanning confocal microscope. the scope is equipped with six lasers that excite the molecules within the coral, revealing their natural florescence and turning live corals into what look like works of art. >> so this is a brown color, is this essentially what we see when we're out on the reef? >> exactly, we saw brown corals and white corals on the reef yesterday, this is a representative of a brown coral. >> dr. gates uses the microscope to see something she cannot see with the naked eye. signs of life. important for determining the inner functions of corals like this, which are brimming with life. even more-so for detecting it in bleached coral, such as this one. >> this would be, from what we saw yesterday, this would be a representative of a white individual on the reef, and what we are really interested in using the scope, this looked totally white to us, our eye is

. >> amy eggers prepares a sample of coral. the resulting images reveal an amazing world. this is what live coral samples look like under the hood of a laser scanning focal microscope. in a world determining coral samples like this which are brimming with life, even more so in bleached coral such as this one. around the world, coral reefs are in crisis, facing a multitude of events, a bleechg crisis, affecting 35% of the world's coral reefs. i've come to hawaii to see the bleaches, almost immediately, i see it brilliant white coral an unmistakable signed of bleechg. bleaching. and more and then more. >> signed of bleachininging thes much of brilliant white corld here. bleechg, despite the process of bleaching is still teaming with life. >> dr. ruth gates is director of the hawaii institutes of marine biology. she spends most of her time here in these waters, studying what's happening under the surface. >> if we don't have coral reefs. we will have people who don't have food. who will have to move. whose lands and their entire islands will be eroded and the tourist economy