Bdelloids: The Most Hardcore Animals in the World?

[@SciShow]

Start protecting your internet experience today with a 3-year VPN plan. Use the coupon code“SCISHOW” to get 75% off, plus 1 month free, at nordvpn.com/SciShow.

[@SaveTheFuture]

I was going to suggest that you cover a species of bacillus bacteria from Morocco that apparently beat the tardigrade’s record for the highest temperature a living organism can survive. I think they said some could survive 300 degrees Celsius. They might not know enough about them yet for a video, but this reminded me of that story I saw.

[@blank-tw4db]

I gotta see a video about diplozoon paradoxum here!

[@gnarlytreeman]

Could you please do a show about animal corpse density in water and varying rates of decay between different animal types? I have been looking for info on this for ages.

[@sahinyasar9119]

how this working? is there something backup of dna to repair other

[@lockjaw7437]

SciShow were they related to waterbears

[@Teth47]

Are none of us going to mention that Bdelloids are basically the cell stage in Spore? I mean, they even find parts!

[@justacatwhoneedstherapy4095]

Holy shiii- didn't realized that ?!

[@Wulfnstein]

Lol, yes xD

[@Chica56]

Oh my sweet baby jeebus I never realized that.

[@arthas640]

i thought the same thing but thought maybe it was just me. It's too bad the cellular, animal, tribal, and civilized stages of development in that game were so short compared to the endless space stage. I had the most fun as a single celled organism and in the tribal stage, but blew through both stages in about an hour each, and i wasnt even in a rush.

[@UsernameHere]

So true!

[@JustinY.]

Plot Twist: Water Bears and Bdelloids are advanced alien war machines designed to destroy all organisms on the planets they arrive on. Turns out though, that they misjudged the size of the organisms on earth, which is why we haven't been wiped out yet.

[@electroflame6188]

damn you're early

[@thomasball5432]

I smell a Douglas Adams reader

[@Omar-em7rl]

look at you, soooo fancyyyy.....

[@thomasball5432]

Totally froody

[@MrJay_White]

@TheBobBrom badly written plagiarised prequels.

[@elizaalmabuena]

I love rotifers. A while ago I got a microscope and thought it would be fun to keep tardigrades in a petri dish....didn’t quite work since it was hard to find enough of them from the same species so they could reproduce, didn’t eat each other, and keeping them away from nematodes long enough to not have the threat of being hunted by them so they were usually gone by the month or so. Some time later I got a sample of spanish moss and found it had little variety of micro species living on it, mostly rotifers.... three years now and I still have rotifers in the petri dish.

[@mishaanton5436]

Eliza Almaguer ... what power microscope wld I need. Like to get my 10yr old grandson one. He is so into mutants. Harness that curiosity. I really think he wld get into it.

[@superdau]

@@mishaanton5436 Nothing that special. A lot of those microorganisms are in the range of 0.1mm - 0.5mm. 20x magnification to find them, maybe 100x to really observe them.

[@elizaalmabuena]

Misha Anton , superdau is right. 20-40x is perfect for finding and observing them. 100x you get pretty close and can look at them in detail, or start to see the structure of cells. When it comes to creatures like this my main suggestion is to keep them in filtered low chlorine water or rain water, chlorine can be quite the shock for many of the little creatures.

[@elizaalmabuena]

A stereo microscope can be a good option, you can find them from as low as 5x up to 400x or more, depending on the price and power you would like, they are great for looking at insects, coins, rocks, etc. since they use top light, you can find some with bottom light as well which is good for looking at slides. Take away: 5-10x is good for looking at bugs, jewelry, coins... a good magnifying glass can cover these magnifications. 20-40x is good for looking at these little creatures 100-200x you start looking at cells Higher magnification= harder to focus just right Top illumination is good for solid objects (and some see through) Bottom illumination is good for see through objects

[@an0rangutan]

I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THE NAME OF THIS CREATURE FOREVER! I had it saved onto my old phone in my notes because it was so interesting to me, it is even part of my writing, but when my phone got destroyed I lost those notes and forgot the name of the creature, I looked up horizontal gene transfer because that was the main thing I remembered from it, but couldn't find anything but generic terms like "used by some bacteria" So happy I found this gem randomly on my home!

[@samhaines8228]

love it when that happens!

[@theywalkinguptoyouand4060]

Your "writing" is just stored on a phone? Lol

[@samsulh314]

A tardigrade is a microscopic Appa (from Avatar the Last Airbender). Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[@super-weirdo5219]

haha!

[@theradicalextremist9587]

👏👏👏 You sir are truly a sage of our age. 👏👏👏

[@massimookissed1023]

TED. Profound ideas in 18 words or less.

[@darrenkrivit6854]

Yip Yip!

[@Chica56]

I see the resemblance

[@electronresonator8882]

Tardigrades : "I survived everything" Bdelloids : "Hold My DNA" this is what I predict repopulate the Earth back after millions years human wiped out by global warming, and also they can actually acquire human DNA from mass grave of human body who already died long long time ago

[@superitgel1]

Basically a Xenomorphs who steals DNA from it's host.

[@pencilfriendpaperscribbler6032]

Not if I see them first. Now that I've got this horizontal transfer idea, I have a lot of plans...

[@mimsydreams]

Maybe that's why humans are so much weirder than other animals on this planet; Bdelloids and/or tardigrades are our missing link! A handful of them assimulated DNA from various species and gave birth (through millions of generations) to humans.

[@booates]

lol theres zero chance of humans going extinct from the climate changing, especially when its already happened in the past

[@abhangchitale4725]

Cockroaches 😑

[@KJ-nu8qi]

I like when Hank hosts Sci Show

[@UsernameHere]

Me too

[@WolfieDawn]

Holy crap that doesn't even seem that long ago for your fifth video! I swear I saw it just...like last year? No...how was that so long ago...welp. All your videos are memorable!

[@Limrasson]

"Looking to protect yourself, or to deal some damage?"

[@danniemann972]

They are also significantly less sensitive to ammonia than tardigrades.

[@keegan9935]

Bdelloids may be more hardcore, but tardigrades will always have my heart

[@evaristegalois6282]

They can put their DNA back together after it's been shredded? *Bdelloids are way too OP!*

[@skylerrizzi]

Evariste Galois bdelloids too op plz nerf

[@SaveTheFuture]

I guess that you could compare them to Rogue.

[@julesmasseffectmusic]

@@SaveTheFuture If she perma stole wolverines healing factor.

[@unicornswag888]

I think I'm gonna go back to school and get my GED.

[@jblob5764]

Gamechanging equipped deadlift?

[@travisc40]

You keep saying this, are you okay?

[@saosaqii5807]

Muscle Hank wow getting personal this time aye?

[@PunchyAirplane]

Good for you Muscle hank

[@General12th]

That's a good idea. You should do that.

[@donavanblue9247]

Sometimes I tune in to these to see how great a segway you guys make to who/whatever is suppoting the video

[@PinkProgram]

Unique Skill: Predator Special Skill: Restoration Special Skill: Radiation Resistance Special Skill: Husk

[@sdp728]

Pink Program TierZoo?

[@PinkProgram]

@@sdp728 I was using the framework of Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken to describe their skillset.

[@derpmanaveragegamer7791]

they're like the english language of the microrganism world, they mug microrganisms in alleyways and rummage through their pockets for spare dna segments

[@julesmasseffectmusic]

R.I.P SIR TERRY. Caps intentional.

[@tiffanymccarty4243]

I lol'ed when I read this comment. 🤣😂

[@RangerRuby]

Tarnagrdes are cute compared to ' a cigar with a brush on the end'.

[@TheTravelerww]

I agree

[@limiv5272]

*Tardigrades

[@IanD.]

Just call it "water bears" so it sounds cuter

[@TheTravelerww]

@@IanD. or moss piglet

[@1stPCFerret]

This brought back pleasant memories of 6th grade, where we had a science teacher who had a projecting microscope and could show us microscopic critters actually living in a drop of water. My favorites were the rotifers who looked like upright vacuum cleaners swirling up the water to gather bits of food.

[@Bloodx999]

Zombie macgyver that’s kind of terrifying

[@TheTravelerww]

Your Tardigrade video lead me to study them form my Undergraduate Dissertation. Thank you for that and thank you for this cool video

[@minisculemusings954]

I love those little guys. They're so fun to watch 😊

[@parkerwalton1729]

Hank!!!!! I thought I lost you forever! I didn't know where you went after Crash Course.

[@78deathface]

Bdelloid vs. Tardigrade epic battle COMING SOON!

[@jeremybyington]

Shhhhhh! You don’t want authorities to find out about the underground fighting ring... go tardigrades!

[@garethdean6382]

No you fools! You should unite against your common foe, those poser cockroaches!

[@AdityaMehendale]

" *Bizarre Zombie MacGyver* " --> Now THERE's a series I'd watch

[@jaydonbooth4042]

That shirt is awesome Hank. I gotta get myself one like that, classy but stylish.

[@woodfur00]

The tardigrade episode was the first SciShow I ever saw. My 7th grade math teacher played it in class. I wasn't even a Whovian back then…

[@boswcheydoesart1314]

That was an epic segway into the sponsorship

[@vivekchoudhury6648]

Well ... these tiny animals seem to be better at stitching than my local tailor!

[@brendarua01]

Nicely done. In the HGT section you might have pointed out that the new genes can be heritable. Evidence? Just point to chloroplasts at the base of a lot of plant life. And there's mitochondria in the animal line.

[@HarisKhan-hj4jq]

They just found out that one survived for 24000 years and i had to search about it so i came to this video

[@Rararawr]

I will never be a true adult until I can not giggle at the mention of PNAS

[@carbonxkiwi]

What inventive little devils. Love seeing nematodes mentioned, too! Animal DNA scavengers - I dig it.

[@dworkeen]

At first glance this seems like an interesting phenomenon. I was hoping you may have done a bit of research particularly into how, after having their DNA crunched by radiation or lack of water, the rotifers have a means, mechanism, plan or program to reorder a soup of unconnected bases. Now that would have been interesting.

[@jblob5764]

Well i now know how we will all die. Rotifers and tardigrades team up and mutate into a parasite...

[@jeremybyington]

Tardifers and Rotigrades? We need sketches.

[@mamaslist5682]

Oh I agree! This is how life begins and ends, with these two

[@aledro1828]

Best transition to ad ever

[@danukil7703]

So, if we isolate the genes responsible for this incredible ability, and successfully implement it into humans, would we then be able to actually cryopreserve humans?

[@asparagoose8992]

Danuki L inb4 China genetically engineers radiation resistant super soldiers

[@FrancesBaconandEggs]

Danuki L it wouldn’t be enough, because tissue damage is a huge problem with freezing organisms.

[@frankschneider6156]

Freezing is just one way of bringing metabolism to a standstill .. desiccation is another one, without the problematic crystallization issue that tears all major molecular structures of the cell apart. As dying of thirst seems to be pretty much irreversible in humans, I'm not too sure if this approach is very viable alternative to freezing to death. I mean all of them work, unfortunately just irreversibly in one direction.

[@julesmasseffectmusic]

@@frankschneider6156 Everything is edible... at least once.

[@MissingRaptor]

@@FrancesBaconandEggs good point. We'd need to steal the trehalose making and breaking genes too to account for that problem.

[@djinnisequoia]

This is one of the coolest things I have ever heard.

[@Raulgob]

And the Hemimastigotes ?? A fantastic addiction to the tree of life (and they are like a spaghetti vampire thing!!!)

[@pix23]

VPN all you want, most times you hear about a friend getting "hacked" they weren't spied on, they just had a crappy password

[@FrancesBaconandEggs]

Possible video topic: what does it take to cryopreserve humans? What kind of research has been done and what problems are encountered? And who is already frozen in the hope that someday there will be the technology to safely defrost them?

[@WildEngineering]

just realized how long ive been subbed when you mentioned your first tardigrade video!

[@cadencenavigator958]

>each copy of their genome had 500 breaks >only lost 20% reproductive viability >seem to reproduce asexually Honestly? My mind's kinda blown by that. That's awesome.

[@menethemene1555]

Sees the title I know this is gonna be awesome keep it up

[@Master_Therion]

I once ate an entire apple. That was hardcore.

[@THETRIVIALTHINGS]

Meh.

[@Master_Therion]

@@THETRIVIALTHINGS Didn't like today's pun? That's okay, can't all be good ^_^ In case anyone missed it: apple cores are hard = hardcore.

[@lcc9769]

I think you're just picking the low-hanging fruit.

[@WhattheHectogon]

@@lcc9769 You're my hero.

[@THETRIVIALTHINGS]

@@Master_TherionIt's not as good as the others. The others have God tier wordplay. Eye yam sowwy.

[@seanbagley6730]

You guys should make a video of how and who made the x ray machine.

[@deathsyth8888]

Scientists: What's your name? Bdelloid: Bdelloid. Scientists: Can you spell it? Bdelloid: B-D-E-L-L-O-I-D. The B is silent. Scientists: I know.

[@alan2here]

Could run an experiment where randomly broken DNA is put into suitable cytoplasm with the relevant proteins to test for the desired proteins and once found to test the proteins performance.

[@VandrefalkTV]

"like some bizarre, zombie MacGuyver they're able to practically piece themselves together all the way from the practically dead" haha, well that's a scary thought isn't it! Coming next on The Walking Dead.

[@jblob5764]

If muscle hank was the size of a bdelloid how much could he bench?

[@emperordarthjarjarsnoke7596]

J Blob 690 kilos

[@TheRogueWolf]

Trick question! He can bench everything, no matter what size he is.

[@crackedemerald4930]

All

[@ofirstroh]

Regular Hank or muscle Hank?

[@godlessrecovery8880]

All the weight.

[@samhaines8228]

now that's down right crafty

[@GCJT1949]

Anyone else remember "Rodney the rotifer?" Geoff Who watched "21st Century" with Walter Cronkite.

[@johnyliltoe]

I'm definitely not the only one who giggled at the journal PNAS.

[@cjohnson7180]

Hank is my favorite ❤️

[@thesteadfastduelist6258]

*The Bdelloids reminds me of The Doctor for some reason.*

[@akumaking1]

Or the Zerg

[@l0g1cseer47]

"Zombie MacGyver".. Nice one!

[@Prizzlesticks]

A whole new spin on the phrase, "Get shredded."

[@mariahquinn3760]

well done

[@YEdwardP]

Damn. I thought it was impressive when can use primers, restriction enzymes and ligases to stick a fluroescent tag onto just one protein. These little guys have been putting together entire protein pathways...

[@Greideren]

Now i want an horror movie of giant Bdelloids

[@TheThomasites]

Its more like their DNA is either stronger or weaker along the entire run. Breaking in a very specific way. Allowing recombination on rehydration/healing.

[@unleashingpotential-psycho9433]

I think squirrels are the most hard-core Animals since they are brave enough to run across the street in front of a car 🚘

[@XmarkedSpot]

Fun Fact: in Russia you can't be fined for running over someone's chicken since those are too dumb to even think about dodging a giant hump of metal soaring towards them. But i agree, that just might be the reason for Squirrel Girl being the most powerful super hero.

[@MrCrashDavi]

My dog has tried that several times, even when I berate him, so do many pigeons.

[@aamirrazak3467]

Nah that’s just dumb tbh idk if it’s bravery

[@julesmasseffectmusic]

Kangaroos do that all the time. If your driving a 4 cylinder car you car dies, your air bags go off and the SOB hops away. Wombats aka womBRICKS are worse, you can't see them until it too late if at all. Don't go near those things, they are nothing but a bunched up bicep with claws and permanent PMS and that's on a good day. FYI no human has ever seen a wombat have a good day.

[@UsernameHere]

I love Bdelloids

[@UsernameHere]

Me too

[@admiralcat3809]

Tardigrade: "I am the only immortal animal!" Rotifer: "Hold my beer..."

[@unusualfabrication9937]

I've seen these guys alive under the microscope

[@vince6252]

Great video. Guy's got some very strange pronunciation: "funjhi" it should be "fun-guy". Some others too, but that is the weirdest.

[@janana5917]

TO SHOW YOU THE POWER OF FLEX TAPE. I SAW THIS DNA IN HALF!

[@rkpetry]

*_[_**_00:37_**_] so what happens if the researchers supply human genes, "in the process"..._*

[@dragonofepics7324]

“Zombie macgyver” is now the new name of Frankenstein’s monster.

[@darrenkrivit6854]

What I got out of this episode: these things are freakin weird!

[@reorx9]

an extra i in rotifers @ 5:27

[@chipkosboth3233]

Zombie McGyver... a new show is born!

[@shadow81818]

"A rotifer's a rotifer, and don't ask me again."

[@arnaudmenard5114]

That sounds like a potentially miraculous tool for repairing the damaged DNA palaeontologists can find! I really hope we can learn to use those creatures like we do CRISPR

[@Gildorify]

All this talk about putting things back together got me thinking about fnaf again. Gawd dayum et!

[@garethdean6382]

So Freddy's a water bear? Bonnie the Bdelloid?

[@Gildorify]

@@garethdean6382 ... Is this what Scott envisioned? Is this canon!? Quick, call up Matpat!

[@hassenfepher]

Hank. Where'd you get that fancy shirt?

[@timetothrive1637]

This creature could end up being the future of the planet! Imagine if it was put near lots of specific plants and animals that had specific great qualities, over several drying out cycles, over and over again.... evolving, picking up all the best bits from the world. ...That's actually a bit scary!

[@tears_of_asariel3198]

so.. these things are basically immune to/the evolution of the descolada virus from the ender series? (Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the dead)

[@Nancy-uo9hk]

Wow these scientists who studied Bdelloids must be GENE-iuses

[@Thaidory]

Apparently bdelloids have updated of CRISPR CAS9.

[@Aguy-sh9rz]

Human: we shouldn't mess with our genes Bdelloids: hold my water

[@garethdean6382]

Humans: If we mess with our DNA we run the risk of creating super humans' that will take over the world and brutally oppress the weak. Bdelloids: Right, so what's the problem?

[@IronSquid501]

oh man i love rotifers

[@dizzysketch3576]

Rotifers are so underrated

[@enderoftime2530]

Tardigrades are believed to be able to do the same DNA stitching that rotifiers can do.

[@ferrarirobin]

IT'S A FULL BRIDGE ROTIFER!!

[@SophiaAstatine]

So that's how the Tyrranids came about. Good to know.

[@MEGAMIGA]

Insane!

[@starpravesh]

Now we finally know what kind of creature Hulk actually is..

[@frostyw]

I went back and watched the Tardigrade episode. I miss the facial hair. Also the random humor. XD

[@anjulikamins6420]

Also, this sounds like many alien movie plots

[@christelheadington1136]

All that gene (swapping?splicing?)Are they still the same critters, or a hybrid, or what? I'm so confused!

[@garethdean6382]

The same basic critter but with a lot of extensions, They've no use for things like wings or eyes, just neat chemical pathways.

[@julesmasseffectmusic]

@@garethdean6382 Yet!

[@AbduCola]

What I learned from this episode is that Hank definitely says "Jif."

[@joshuamirabal3617]

This is actually how sonic the hedgehog got created. Aliens turned all life into bio goo and things got mixed together and put back together and created mutated part human part animal creatures with super powers like sonic and knuckles.

[@mr.chaoticgood1469]

Hanks shirt has two different patterns lol

[@gustavgnoettgen]

To send some stuff over the internet, the data is ripped apart in several packets, right? (my teachers, uhm, varied in quality) So, understanding and applicating this reassembly processes might provide advantages in data management... And if there, of course you could use it in other mathematical tasks like sorting, big equations, HR simulations, etc... If you see _all life and the world_ as a giant computer (Ray Kurzweil, awesome theories), self repairing DNA might be some equivalent to quantum computing? Spoiler: it's massive parallel but relatively slow.

[@Needformadness2]

Got hungry from this

[@phoule76]

dude, you're getting a Bdell

[@frankschneider6156]

If you freak out about bdelloids ability to withstand radioactive radiation or desiccation, than just look at what deinococcus radiodurans is capable of. And while horizontal gene transfer is indeed not typical for eukaryotes, it's also not that uncommon, even among vertebrates. Over 1% of all human genes are supposed to have arisen this way, although very likely mostly due to retroviruses.

[@maxravenwood3877]

You can tell this was fillmed a while ago because Hank still has his old glasses.

[@djukor]

Oh that's what things are. I saw them several times under the microscope and assumed they are some kind of tiny worms but i guess they are not worms.