Sir David Attenborough was at UCL yesterday and you missed him

David Attenborough was at UCL yesterday morning to open the newly refurbished Earth and Sciences building.

During the opening it was announced that UCL Scientists are naming a newly discovered plankton after David Attenborough's famous TV program Blue Planet.

The tiny organism, discovered in the South Atlantic, will be known as Syracosphaera azureaplaneta – which for you non-Latin speakers just means Blue Planet.

It is thought that this is the first time a organism has been named after a television show.

Presumably now that the trend has been started, very soon scientists will be naming a new strain of chlamydia after Love Island.

Sir David said it was "a great compliment" to have the plankton named after the show and that he hoped it would spread awareness about the import role plankton serve in the ocean's eco-system.

"If you said plankton … is more important to our atmosphere than the whole of the rainforest, which I think is true, people would be astonished."

Professor Paul Bown explained their choice to name the plankton after the TV program: "We felt [plankton] were the unseen stars of the series-hidden in plain view because of their minuscule size- but representing the beating heart of the oceans."

The re-building of the Katheleen Lonsdale building is one of the major works of the Transforming UCL initiative.

The building has been extended so that it can now accommodate the entire Earth Sciences department which previously had to been split into two different buildings.

Staff showed off their new labs by giving David Attenborough a quick lesson on earthquakes.

That's right, even Sir David is forced to go to lectures.