Journey to the Microcosmos
Sand Is Full of Life and Death
James, our master of microscopes, gets samples of sand from beaches all over the world to help in his quest to learn more about interstitial ciliates—the single-celled organisms that live in the watery pockets that exist between grains...
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Introduction to Microbes: Understanding the Broad Categories and Their Impact on Human Health
This video discusses the five major groups of microbes, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, algae, and viruses. It provides examples of diseases caused by each group and emphasizes the importance of prevention and treatment measures....
Journey to the Microcosmos
The Moss Animals That Are Defined by Their Butts
At first glance, they seem a bit more like plants or a series of flowers with thin, elegant petals. But no, they are indeed an animal. One that has the dubious honor of being defined largely by its anus.
Journey to the Microcosmos
The Illuminating Reason Perenema Curl Up Into a Ball
Watching this Peranema feels a bit like watching a cat waffling back and forth between whether or not it wants to take a nap. Sometimes the Peranema stretches, its body undulating into an elongated, indescribable geometry as its flagella...
Journey to the Microcosmos
Our Tardigrades Got Stuck in a German Post Office
Tardigrades have been through a lot. They’ve been sent to the moon. They’ve had the moisture sapped out of them. At times, they’ve been in extreme heat. And at other times, they’ve had to contend with extreme cold. Well, today, we’ve got...
Journey to the Microcosmos
Aeolosoma: Polka-Dotted Vacuum Worms
Worms, despite their seemingly simple bodies, are a diverse bunch. Which is why we thought that for today, it might be fun to visit with a less famous worm, and like one of those relatives you don’t know very much about, but every time...
Journey to the Microcosmos
Water Is Thicker When You’re Smaller
Water Is Thicker When You’re Smaller
Journey to the Microcosmos
These Algae Curl Up Into a Ball When They Get Stressed Out
These Algae Curl Up Into a Ball When They Get Stressed Out
Journey to the Microcosmos
These Squishy Dots Move So Fast You Might Miss Them
From our vantage point, as relatively large organisms, it can be easy to overlook the microcosmos, because it’s simply too small to see. It floats in front of our eyes at all times, and yet we cannot make out details until we turn to...
Journey to the Microcosmos
These Walking Ciliates Are Frustrating
The ciliates we’re going to talk about today are kind of…frustrating. At this point in our journey, we’ve gotten used to the fact that the microcosmos is an indecipherable mess at times, filled with organisms that look like each other,...
Journey to the Microcosmos
The Shared Doom of Microscopic Hitchhikers
Our oceans and lakes are filled with copepods, a myriad of small crustacean species that might float as plankton or infect other creatures1. And as they’re living in whatever manner best suits them, some copepods—like our friend...
Journey to the Microcosmos
The Collotheca Doesn’t Mind Eating Its Own Babies
Imagine that this is the beginning of the last thing you’ll ever see, an empty landscape with thin lines scratched across it. But those lines suddenly sharpen and gather into a dense mass that spreads from the crown that sits atop a...
Journey to the Microcosmos
The Microscope Upgrades We've Made Along The Way | Compilation
This channel wouldn’t be what it is if it weren’t for one very key invention: the microscope. Everything we see, we see with the aid of light and lenses, expertly deployed by our master of microscopes, James. And if you’ve been on this...
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Scientists discover vast underground ecosystem of 'deep life' microbes
Deep life studies have revealed a rich subterranean ecosystem within the Earth almost twice the size of the world's oceans.
Journey to the Microcosmos
Can This Baby Rotifer Escape Before It’s Eaten Alive?
This Loxodes magnus is large, so large that it was able to eat a rotifer, those funny animals we often see getting bullied by their single-celled neighbors. Except, that rotifer is moving. It’s alive, twisting and turning inside of the...
Journey to the Microcosmos
Putting Coral Under the Microscope
James, our master of microscopes, recently received a package from a coral farm in Germany. We’ve explored some of the microscopic creatures and bristle worms that were living and thriving in those packages in previous videos. But today...
Journey to the Microcosmos
How Brownian Motion Helped Prove the Existence of Atoms
We’re going to see a type of motion over and over again because it’s all over the microcosmos, found in and around many different types of organisms. And this kind of random motion may seem almost too trivial to discuss, but this motion...
Journey to the Microcosmos
Kentrophoros: The Mouthless Ciliate With a Back Full of Snacks
This is kentrophoros, a ciliate that James—our master of microscopes—had been searching for, receiving samples from all over the world in the hopes of finding it gliding around. When you first look at it, it doesn’t seem particularly...
Journey to the Microcosmos
This Extremely Rare Ciliate Has Only Been Seen Four Times
If you’ve been following James, our master of microscopes, on some of his other platforms, then you know what’s coming. You know that James has published his first academic paper, it's about this extraordinarily rare ciliate that you see...
Journey to the Microcosmos
What Even Is A Species?
If you know about the species Lacrymaria olor, then you know what you’re getting when you see it under a microscope. It has a distinct shape, a distinct way of life—the combination of its own genetics and its surrounding environment.
Journey to the Microcosmos
The 18th Century Tardigrade Debate
If you’ve ever wondered what it might take to upset a microscopist, just ask James—our master of microscopes—his feelings about tardigrade legs. Yes, tardigrade legs. Those chunky, wiggly limbs that move their owner through meals of moss...
Journey to the Microcosmos
A Microscopic Tour Through A Norwegian Fjord
Sometimes our journey through the microcosmos feels like an expedition, a voyage filled with deep dives into the masses of organisms basking under the glow of our microscope. So what does it mean when you don’t find anything. When you...
Journey to the Microcosmos
Getting to the Root of Nitrogen Fixation
James, our master of microscopes, is not a farmer. He is, to put it simply, fascinated by microbes. And that may lead him to strange places and cause him to grow tanks full of weird things. But he is not a farmer.