How We Find Our Microbes

Thank you to Ariel Waldman for her Antarctic footage! For more from Ariel, check out / arielwaldman
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This video contains the song "Fireworks" by Andrew Huang, available here:
andrewhuang.ba...
Music by Andrew Huang:
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Journey to the Microcosmos is a Complexly production.
Find out more at www.complexly.com

[@tameronica]

Microbes: *just chillin'* Microbiologist: *_s c o o p_*

[@agentbum]

Reminds me of middle school

[@JamsGerms]

I got so surprised when I saw my back on the thumbnail! 😂

[@yasyasmarangoz3577]

wait what?

[@jeffreyjadav9493]

I just got access to a microscope. Been looking for microbial hotspots. I am in the sample overload phase at the moment. Thanks for the helpful inspiration!

[@Bandajify]

@@yasyasmarangoz3577 Jam has been living in Poland, the comment was in Polish

[@yasyasmarangoz3577]

@@Bandajify No, I don't mean that :D If I did so, I would answer him, but I am wondering about the guy in the thumbnail.

[@IdiotWithEducation]

Hey! I love you're work!

[@ArielWaldman]

Hey microbe lovers! Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode to see some of my footage from Antarctica. ❤️

[@ArielWaldman]

C. Caner Telimenli 😊

[@philtkaswahl2124]

"James, Master of Microscopes" [bows] Your Lensness.

[@Sneemaster]

A wild Rotifer appears. "Paramecium, I choose you!" *battle music starts*

[@derpychicken2131]

*Use ROTATE!*

[@ajisusetyo3613]

I can see the scene in my head

[@carissstewart3211]

Can't go out to eat. Can't go to the movies. Can't even arrange a playdate for my kids. No rule against going to the woods and collecting samples of water and dirt.

[@wyattroncin941]

well, if you're going to catch a bug it might as well be fun to look at

[@melonlord1414]

As long as you creep a distance to everyone else, this should be ok

[@NewMessage]

My kid, and her new microscope, agrees totally.

[@circadiana]

update, now there are

[@shark180]

Micro: Remember when pokemon go came out? Me: Oh shit! I need to do my daily in Pokemon go! Also my father in the 1950's was obsessed with photography. He took a water sample from a neighbor's birdbath and was able to take a picture of a Rotifer using a microscope and a home made camera setup. I don't know if the photo still exists, but he is very proud of it.

[@frogz]

you're telling me, im STILL on day 3 for visit a stop 7 days in a row... x.x

[@cherrycotapie]

im proud of him too. haha xD

[@rotifer]

*They shown me before the water bears, my life is complete. 💚*

[@spiercephotography]

Aww Rotifer, I missed you and haven't seen you around lately! Glad you're doing well

[@rotifer]

@@spiercephotography ​ @Diogenes TheDog 💚

[@aboveanonymous4810]

I haven't seen you in months.

[@outgittymushroom8666]

Yayy my cool germ show is back on

[@rqzzlldqzzls]

team waterbear

[@jacklandismusic]

I’ve only just found this channel today, but I love it a whole lot. This is the calmest I’ve ever heard either of the Green brothers speaking, and it’s just absolutely lovely. Also, gets me real excited about nature, for some reason. Like, specifically the microbial aspect of this makes me excited to go on the hike I’m planning tomorrow. I don’t have a microscope and I’m not going to hunt for microbes, but it’s just cool that life is always around. It gets me real excited to go out into the natural world with the knowledge that, whether or not I can see anything moving, something somewhere definitely is.

[@jakenry6496]

Just want to give a thanks to James on this video. Bringing all of us the wonders of the world unseen. Thank you to the entire team as well. You are all wonderful individuals coming together to make this world a little more known.

[@williamhardway6436]

This is so chill. I put these videos on when I'm in a foul mood, among other times. Thanks, fellas

[@ArticBlueFox96]

I wonder if Journey to the Microcosmos will ever do some episodes on microbes that we would expect to see in the human gut microbiomes or skin microbiomes or any human microbiome, or maybe microbes we would see in fermenting food.

[@8Jory]

Not complaining, it's just that chill Hank still sends me for a loop. I've got years of excited scishow Hank to overwrite.

[@BrianFedirko]

a word of laboratory advice, is that distilled water will "leach" or "destroy" the chemistry/minerals from the system, thus depleting them from the sample. sometimes it's wise to use water of the same "source" or "vicinity", and to pasteurize it.

[@cherrycotapie]

thanks

[@spiercephotography]

So many things to consider/look out for and ways to get creative in collecting. Thank you James for all your hard work on the collection and filming for us!

[@kevinconrad6156]

The best find win I was working in a CC micro lab was the snails hatching from some water from a canal. Watching any animal hatch from an egg is awesome.

[@caboose202ful]

"Because different magnification levels are better for observing different organisms, we will always have the magnification on screen" smh no 1x in the corner

[@NewMessage]

Microcosmos: Doing it's part to repair the reputation of the very small during this difficult time.

[@MrBlack0950]

I'm gonna save up for a digital microscope so I can look at the microbes in my mini pond jar. 300 dollars for the one I found online, hopefully its worth the wait. Until then, I can watch Journey to the Microcosmos videos.

[@yasyasmarangoz3577]

.___.

[@min_nad]

Same!

[@yasyasmarangoz3577]

@@min_nad ok

[@nathanc9866]

Yeah, I gotta get me one of those

[@MrBlack0950]

@@nathanc9866 pond jar or microscope?

[@violet_broregarde]

I love the landscape shots. It's cool seeing your cinematography on macro scales too :D

[@whimsy5623]

I get mine from Walmart

[@8b8b8b]

Get more light sources on Susan

[@the_original_Bilb_Ono]

I simply grow my own.

[@eldritch-nerd]

This channel is amazing! I always knew microbes were everywhere, but for some reason I told myself I needed some super lab equipment to see anything cool. Now I'm looking at every body of water under my microscope!

[@todorovicmisha]

Just found ur channel, very soothing voice lol, love the informative nature of the video while still keeping it simple and easy to understand, keep it up can't wait for what's coming

[@outdoorsy01]

A year ago I sealed water from my pond in a small 2 inch water tight container and kept it in direct sunlight by the window. It hasn't been touched and the ever changing colours and dots is amazing to watch over time. Now its Spring a green slime has started with clear gel blobs here and there and they are themselves now changing and forming one blob and little white specs have appeared completly static but growing in number. I'm going to leave it unnoticed through the summer. Would you like the sample sometime in Autumn?

[@willemvandebeek]

6:06 instead of distilled water, you might want to use a 0.15 molar saline solution instead... Distilled water might explode some of the microbes through osmosis... :(

[@MicrobialLuke]

Awesome video! I want a plankton net now. I try to make content that is just as high quality yours, but I can’t say my voice is as calming.

[@paratiglobal8848]

Microbial Luke lol

[@ivyboy7196]

Microbial Luke It is very calming.

[@MicrobialLuke]

ivy boy right!

[@kevinconrad6156]

@@MicrobialLuke Everyone thinks their voice sounds like shit, just get over it and start speaking.

[@MicrobialLuke]

Kevin Conrad True

[@paulex12]

Video request: the rotifers living in the leaf pouches of Frullania liverworts. Frullania is easy to find on deciduous trees' bark in the northern hemisphere and they usually have cute rotifers living in their leaf lobes.

[@judychurley6623]

When I was 15, I would take tap-water in a jar and put in some grass and leaves from the yard, and after a few days I always found a few kinds of microbe.

[@isaacramphal5189]

Time to collect a sample from the pitch lake in Trinidad. Would be very big to see the organisms that live there

[@aSinisterKiid]

Thanks for finally answering this!!!! I've asked a few times and I dunno if you ever saw it, but thank you for informing us where you get the samples. This is a lot more helpful in understanding where they are coming from now.

[@davedavis7538]

I use a turkey baster, quite useful, good on thanksgiving too.

[@gtd360]

I think after James takes a sample like in the example that were he was over the leaves in clear water; take a sample and then disturbed the leaves and take a second sample from the same spot. If I just stuck stuck a net in the water in the macro world I would get much. Which is why we use kick nets to kick up what be up under rocks or attached to vegetation. I would guess that your diversity of even micro buddies would follow along the same lines. It would be interesting non the less.

[@spaceaddict5484]

Can you make a video about good beginner/intermidiate/advanced microscopes for people who are interested in buying them? And what to look for?

[@wadegruber2119]

You guys could do some more macroscopic life. I used to mess around with my stereoscope, which doesn't need slides. I was looking in some driveway dirt and saw a weird roundworm that bent back and forth repeatedly. I would also look in gross poolwater for bugs. Recently I had it out and I saw scavenger mites (?) on dead bugs.

[@Ed-zv8ot]

Hi there Hank. Have you guys thought about a segment on microbes that eat oil or the ones introduced to oil spills to aid in the clean up operations....just a thought for this polluted world we live in these days!

[@hannekefranke297]

Thank you very much for all these beautiful and interesting videos. I am 80 years old and have just rediscovered the microcosmos after so many years dealing with the macrocosmos. I am now thinking of buying a microscope, but know absolutely nothing about what I should look for. If you could recommend something I would be very grateful.

[@KombuchaBuzzed]

That’s too bad you can’t press like 👍 more than once. I’m rewatching the series while you’re on break :)

[@darkless60]

Been waiting for a sample collection video ever since this series was launched

[@ImplodedAtom]

Selfie sticks and scraping. Who said science couldn't be glamorous.

[@rocksedge2000]

0:14 She doesn't even spin the ball. What a noob!

[@AlmostEthical]

Was the tardigrade at around 1:20 failing to gain traction on the glass slide? That's how it looked to my untrained eye. It's little legs were pumping away, seemingly without it getting anywhere. Love the video. Thanks.

[@Nolanthegardener]

I would love to be able to hear these microbes swimming around. You guys should do some Foley sound effects with some of the more active scenes of microbial life.

[@chris3arcadia]

Who else gets the same feeling from catching pokemon and finding a new critter under your scope? Go ultraball! I mean move the objective!

[@GordonFreechmen]

Gotta say, this channel has some of the best like/dislike ratios I've seen.

[@Bass-guitarist]

Your voice is like a modern day Sir David Attenborough! Totally endearing.

[@JakeBiddlecome]

I love how easy this is to do at home. I think every student should get a free microscope - at least a cheap van Leeuwenhoek microscope - to keep in their pocket. There's a guy in the UK, Chris Allen, who makes them for something like $80 American but you can make them yourself with a glass bead and cardboard. Lots of instructions online.

[@francescom.1558]

Man your voice is so relaxing...

[@verdatum]

A very large part of me wanted to hear Hank read this entire script using a Jacques Cousteau impression. But it's still a fascinating video, so I can live without that particular dream of mine.

[@shadycactus6146]

oh that last shot is super pretty

[@donatodiniccolodibettobardi842]

What microbes live in dry biomes? On the ground and on the plants?. Not in watery places. What microbes live in the air, that we breathe, but are essentially harmless?

[@rotifer]

*In other words, I'm pretty much a rare Pokemon.*

[@devinrex]

@Gupie Dziecko Lol why do I always see you hating on rotifer? Everyone else just being chill and you always have some salty comment to make under all his posts

[@devinrex]

@Gupie Dziecko aight fair enough, you're right, sorry if i sounded rude, i was just genuinely curious lmao

[@devinrex]

@Gupie Dziecko k but its just text tho just relax lolol

[@caioargolo288]

Foi are a pikachu microbe.

[@AaronShenghao]

The creater of Pokemon designed the game around his childhood memory of catching bugs and other animals in the country... It came full circle.

[@Guydude777]

Little bitty microbes offering unlimited possibilities. Another fine video.

[@eipiplusone3791]

Would be awesome if you managed to show us some hetero tardigrades instead of the boring eutardigrades. But heterotardigrades are much more challenging to find, collect and preserve. They are also mostly marine.

[@siebevandekerkhove9863]

Dang James, certainly didn't see this episode comming!

[@sunstorm4436]

Is it harder checking out saltwater than freshwater? (ie technically?). You should do a video about the dif between freshwater vs saltwater protozoa... Both have amoebas, rotifers, paramecia, etc.?

[@cladoceraarthropoda8407]

*Here I was just chillin and munching on some bacterium. And all of a sudden some dude scoops me up in a tube, smh.*

[@Zinozx]

thank you for showing us this part of our world

[@Iisa1010]

Am I to obsessed with Twitter/KZbin science that I knew that the Antarctic footage came from Ariel....

[@belajarduniabiologi]

So amaze after look deep of life. Its adorable view that caught clearly and contras each other. What kind of microscope that its used?

[@user-vn7ce5ig1z]

• I often wonder what you do with the samples after you're done with them. After seeing them up close like that, it feels wrong to imagine you just flush them down the drain, it's more appropriate to rinse them off into a pond or grass or something. :-| • 6:25 - Even the microscopic world has it's troll-y photobombers. 😀 (Jokes aside, it's actually fascinating that we just saw microorganisms existing in multiple planes of a very thing 3D world. 🤯 It's almost like looking through space.)

[@JohnSmith-td7hd]

I just took a big nap. Thanks!

[@billabobyt]

Back in my day we had no Pokemans Go, we had to scoop up microbes in the local pond!

[@MATTYMO2014]

Have you ever thought about working with non-aquatic samples?

[@Russo-Delenda-Est]

I'm curious why they don't, it must be more difficult and/or expensive?

[@umi3017]

I also wonder how many non-aquatic micobes are out there, I guess fewer than aquatic one? but will still be maaannnyy then.

[@timsullivan4566]

Q - What's a Rotifer? A - It's for an electric motor

[@XavierTheNeonTiger]

What's a roti fer? It's fer eatin' silly!

[@1414141x]

I somehow find a strange solace in the fact that if humankind does manage to obliterate itself, the little guys you show us will just keep on truckin' without batting an eyelid ! (those that have eyes).

[@VR_Wizard]

That are some nice spots but I guess the community can come up with even more amazing places to find those little fellers. Lets share some ideas for interesting "Pokemon" hiding spots. I would be interested in: - Snow which is frozen rain water. What might be hiding in clouds? Probably not much. - Organisms in hot springs (this would mean your microscope setup should also be heated to the right temperature) - Organisms living in the gut of other organisms (cow, human, chicken, goat so many possibilities) - What is hiding in our drainage systems I would love to know. - Whats growing on my skin if I dont shower for a week?

[@revenevan11]

I still play pokemon go at least whenever I'm on my college campus, but I think this video just showed me a way to get my fix while I'm at home in rural Ohio, miles from the nearest pokestop.

[@pimpenders735]

I jist discovord your channel and i am soooo happy you just posted this video

[@nilsqvis4337]

Microscopy is quite literally augmented reality though

[@wonderwend1]

James, you're a legend armed with a pipette

[@bobthegoat7090]

Is it possible for you to make a video on electron microscopes? I find them so fascinating. It is interesting how they use electrons as a "light" source because of the possibility of creating much shorter wavelengths than light could ever have and also how instead of lenses they use magnetic fields to bend the electrons exactly how a normal lens would bend light. So complicated, yet so simple. It would be really awesome if you could get to use a real electron microscope at some university.

[@SuperLoops]

after youve microsoped them do you put them back in the pond

[@spiraldown2710]

And to think, the creator of Pokémon wanted to share his childhood love of bug/beetle collecting 💚 full circle Edit: James- you are so precise! As a clumsy, this is awesome to witness

[@Pixilmb12]

Thx so much!

[@earthknight60]

Looks like Norway Maples, beech, and some white-oak species in that pond. East of the Mississippi and north of the Arkansas Missouri line? (I'm assuming you're US based, otherwise that species mix fits for a lot of Europe as well). With the final beach scene, I'd guess New England.

[@MrDragonmaker]

I want to see the orange slime up close. Lol

[@graphite2786]

Do you have a Post office box that I can send samples to? I'm in Australia and live near some ephemeral ponds. I only have a cheap microscope but I've identified rotifers, stentors , tardigrades, nemotodes and ciliates It would be fun to see what *your* crew would find in 1cc of damp sediment from Down under :-)

[@merbst]

Is there any way for the public to send our own local samples to the show? I live near a very interesting creek and ocean.

[@IdiotWithEducation]

I hope

[@bobthegoat7090]

Are you sure the samples could survive that long?

[@gigglysamentz2021]

Thanks for giving us tips!!

[@themarblers4399]

The main theme is called Amobea spits a sick beat

[@Trackur]

I liked this episode.... literally

[@ShutItKyle]

Id love to see a video about skin microbiomes or gut flora

[@sent4dc]

Hey, now instead of Picachoo we're all catching another invisible friend -- corona virus. Yay!

[@felpshehe]

Thank you for this

[@thecrakp0t]

Can anyone tell me the name of the song at the beginning? Description says music is by Andrew Huang but no track is actually listed.

[@alyg153]

Thanks man. I just recently subscribed to your channel. Ive wanted a microscope. What do you use?

[@adnad8458]

It's always the last sentence that gets me!!!!!!!

[@MensinCorporeSano89]

Hey! I love your work!!! Is it possible to have a look at compost or soil microbes?

[@LEDewey_MD]

SO cool! Great video!

[@Beryllahawk]

Fascinating!

[@sonicsphincter6]

What is the song you use in the beginning? That bass knocks super hard and I love it.

[@woodiereel2440]

Could you guys do covid-19? That would be really cool to see

[@ashlychristine3400]

WoodierEel24 covid 19 is the disease, the virus is corona virus. And viruses are much too small to be seen with an optical microscope, it’s not possible to see them with the kind used for these videos, as far as I know.

[@TealCheetah]

Hank you're so soothing

[@tswan137]

This is Hank Green?? I knew it sounded just like him, just not used to hearing him so relaxed.

[@Abc-tx5hy]

How astronauts collect microbes from outer space or surface of ISS/Spacecrafts?

[@oo-wr4pq]

Can you please try and get a sample from a sewage pipe. Can you please do a special on phages? They should replace our antibiotics system.

[@a2e5]

Phages are a bit more "expensive": they require electron microscopes to see, and finding them often takes sequencing, which despite the lower cost now is still pretty unimpressive when seen. Perhaps the only fun macroscopic thing you can do with phages is dropping what you know are phages into a dish of bacteria, and watch the layer die.

[@oo-wr4pq]

@@a2e5 Yeah. I didn't expect to see them on video. But just a topic on them because they're very... I don't know the right word. Exciting but also somewhat unsettling or mind breaking when you know what they look like. As you get smaller and smaller, things seem almost manufactured or artifical as a whole. At least with them and the way DNA operates. It just gives a little boost to the possibility that this entire universe could be a simulation. I'm actually leaning towards something else. But this isn't the time or place to type out pages of theories. xD I already got carried away here enough.

[@jakobraahauge7299]

We share the same shores! And physically that is enough for your insights to grasp the mere five inches into me - to open my mind to open the mysteries of my mind and imagination making me want to unfold myself to the wonders you present me to! Thank you for sharing this most intimate of spaces - it curves my mind into this wondrous world of intimate beauty always making me wish for more of this voice telling me how to appreciate this joy of microscopic gems - of presence! Falling into these gems of insights truly is falling into - love! Thank you - I appreciate these gems of life, they make my heart happy in a way I haven't known until now! ♥️

[@jakobraahauge7299]

And of course - thank you all Patreons! I am so grateful - even considering, despite the fact that I wouldn't normally do so. I am considering, very keenly, two options; this and Just - well, just Latasha. With both, I have had deep insight into life. I love you both, prides aside. I'll ask my advisers - and they will tell me; "No!" But both of you confuse me profoundly - and I love you so much for confusing me! ❤️

[@whiskeysuicidecowboy]

How does a 20 micron mesh only get things under 20 microns and not just things over 20 microns?

[@dloomier4221]

Very nice

[@auxiliarycord4997]

I feel like this may be a dumb question I’m sure microbes can be found in many many places but what about snow?

[@ArielWaldman]

Auxiliary Cord - the video featured some microbes I found in ice in Antarctica. If you check out my channel, I just did an episode on “watermelon snow” a couple weeks ago about microbes I found in Antarctic snow!