Abstract
Looking into the Crystal Ball, near term we see an expanding toolkit for microbial oceanographers and environmental microbiologists more broadly, allowing for improved spatial and temporal sampling, as well as in situ experimentation and analysis. Given many of the pieces exist in different instruments, we are confident that focused efforts to bring them together in one instrument to take us from sample collection to experiment to data is possible. Importantly, there will always be a need for expeditionary‐ and laboratory‐based work. The power of being at sea to take in a new study site and carefully collect those first few samples, thus building the hypotheses and experiments needed to answer the scientific questions, cannot be replaced. The oceans remain woefully under‐studied and under‐sampled, and the powerful microbial engines of the marine biosphere merit our attention and innovation. The next decade will provide important opportunities to observe, study and query marine microorganisms from afar, watching experiments unfold in real time as our instruments help carry out our mission to explore Earth’s inner space below the ocean’s surface.