Season Two of the LifeWatch ERIC podcast series 'A Window on Science' looks at the research cases that validated the development of the virtual research environment - the online tools and services that enable biodiversity and ecosystem research at scales never before achieved. The first episode concerns the Atlantic Blue Crab validation case, the story of Callinectes sapidus, a colourfully aggressive non-indigenous invasive species that over the last 50 years has moved into the Mediterranean Sea big-time, feeding on mussel and oyster farms and displacing local brachyura (decapod crustaceans).     The interview with Giorgio Mancinelli, researcher at the University of Salento, and Antoni Huguet-Vives, front-end developer, explains some of the complexities of marine science and cloud-based ICT workflows in everyday language, accessible to non-scientific audiences. LifeWatch ERIC is the European e-Science infrastructure for biodiversity and ecosystem research, dedicated to helping us all understand and address the ongoing transformations of the environment because of climate change and anthropogenic pressures.