By Ila Couch in New York

Since arriving in the States more than six years ago, I've worked on a variety of television genres including Talk, Reality, Dating, Food and Home Renovation shows. Most of these jobs have come by way of referral from a network of freelancers I've worked with in the past. For example: the Story Producer on Wife Swap recommended me as a Field Producer on a home improvement show which led to the Series Producer of said show passing on my resume to the Producer of a Science Show. And that is how last week I came to be on a small island in California's Mono Lake, talking to scientists about micro-organisms. By Ila Couch in New York

Since arriving in the States more than six years ago, I've worked on a variety of television genres including Talk, Reality, Dating, Food and Home Renovation shows. Most of these jobs have come by way of referral from a network of freelancers I've worked with in the past. For example: the Story Producer on Wife Swap recommended me as a Field Producer on a home improvement show which led to the Series Producer of said show passing on my resume to the Producer of a Science Show. And that is how last week I came to be on a small island in California's Mono Lake, talking to scientists about micro-organisms.Situated between the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Great Basin Desert, Mono Lake is almost three times as alkaline as the sea, uninhabitable to fish and uninviting to human beings. When Mark Twain visited the lake in the 1870's he wrote in his travelogue Roughing It , "once capsized, death would ensue in spite of the bravest swimming, for that venomous water would eat a man's eyes out like fire - " It is precisely because of Mono Lake's apparent inhospitality that Biogeochemists and Microbiologists set up camp to study bacteria known as extremophiles. Since the documentary I'm working on is about life in the solar system, Mono Lake bacteria are key to understanding how extremophiles could potentially exist and evolve into life forms on other planets.

Prior to my arrival the scientists have turned a hotel room into a makeshift lab which spills outside to a table laden with beakers, syringes and test tubes. Hotel guests pass by and give the nitrogen tank a bit of an odd look but that's about the extent of their curiosity. As we prepare to head out to the lake I'm warned, not of the "venomous water" we're about to encounter but its malodorous shores. It turns out Rotorua is a rose in comparison to the smell of rotting flesh emanating from the sand however, once we're skipping across the glassy surface of Mono Lake it's the scenery that takes my breath away. Volcanic mountains are mirrored in the still waters and California Gulls launch into expansive skies as we pull up to Paoha Island.

In 1908 prospectors attempted to drill for oil on the island but after digging several thousand feet into the sediment the only discovery they made was the lake's age, said to be over 760,000 years old. 100 years on and here we are back to dig in the mud, this time in search of microorganisms. In order to get a good shot of the core sample about to be collected from the lake bed I'm going to have to get in the water. Everyone assures me I'll be fine as long as I don't get any Mono Lake in my eyes or mouth.

As I start to put the $4000 Hi-Def camera in its waterproof casing one of the microbiologists tells me with a smirk how they've re-named this part of the island Speedo Cove. A brief moment later their esteemed leader is in his blue budgie smuggler telling everyone who jokes about chipping in to buy him board shorts to be grateful he's not wearing a thong. Regardless of how one protects their modesty, it is imperative to protect your feet here since the mud we're heading into can reach temperatures of 60 degrees Celsius and higher.

With camera in hand and rubber shoes on feet I wade into the water ahead of my subject. With each step it becomes more and more difficult to maintain my balance but I have to avoid falling face first into the water not just because I'm afraid of burning my eyes clean out of their sockets but because the camera case is missing a screw it needs to make it 100% waterproof. When I'm 10 meters out I turn back to capture the core sampling as it happens underwater. Within five minutes I feel the rubber sole beneath my feet start to heat up and shortly thereafter I hot-foot it back to shore where the team are already beginning to measure the temperature of the sample. As predicted, the sediment reaches temperatures in the high 50's.

One might think standing in hot mud, thigh high in caustic lake water would be the hard part of my job. Not so. That would be the numerous often humorous attempts to get scientists to speak in a language the average person can understand. In the course of a week I engage in complex conversations as to why we can't use the word 'eat' to explain how bacteria process arsenic. We reluctantly settle on 'consume' which is closer to being scientifically correct but not quite as accessible to a younger audience. There are moments where the science gets so overwhelming I need to give a friendly reminder that the kid we want to keep on the couch just left to play Nintendo. Science in sound bites is not easy.

By the time my week is over I have witnessed the sun rise over the Tufa Towers ( weird spires formed by the interaction of freshwater springs and alkaline lake water) filmed rock pools so encrusted with red bacteria they look like open wounds and learnt that while bacteria don't technically 'eat' the arsenic abundant in Mono Lake they have the ability to change it in a way that may help us human beings successfully remove it from our drinking water. Mark Twain and I spent about the same amount of time at Mono Lake. He couldn't wait to leave. I can't say I felt the same way.

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02/10/08