If you have some time to spare and are interested in paleoceanography and/or marine biology, check out this awesome (short) documentary on foraminifera and how people go about studying them:

How do scientist reconstruct past climate conditions on Earth? One way of doing this is by culturing living planktonic Foraminifera and analyzing their shell composition under present day conditions in the world Oceans. For over 30 years scientist are researching these tiny planktonic creatures to unlock living conditions that lies hidden within their shells.