Looking at Tardigrade Sperm and Other Reproducing Swimmers

[@journeytomicro]

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[@Loading.dot.]

Can you guys do a video about the division of chloroplast and mitochondria?

[@opticFPV]

What are the little cluster/rock shaped things floating around all over the insides of their bodies? I feel like I misunderstood something lol

[@thereisapricetoeverything4377]

I was going to say not only is the homunculus partially accurate due to genetic code but have you ever seen a child's skull? We are born with all our child and adult teeth it's creepy looking

[@the_str4ng3r]

I feel like we're getting trolled with the constant popups of "Gonads filled with sperm" text

[@theshuman100]

Nutsack

[@robertsherrick4081]

I agree!

[@aronrad]

Yeah, for them claiming they are not obsessed with this, the amount of times they said the word sperm unnecessary tells a different sperm sperm story sperm.

[@Spookspek]

Ligma gonads.

[@damian6660]

Microscopic tea bagging.

[@JamsGerms]

05:00 I was so surprise to see the sperm cells while recording this, it was truly a mindblowing moment! -James

[@miriamrosemary9110]

That sounds like an awesome microscope session! I really didn't expect to be shown that you can see the tardigrade sperm's tails (flagella). Really cool

[@stopmotionmcgee5615]

You must be the great master of microscopes 😊

[@matthiasmorse5263]

*Alexander Klepnev, in a moment of climactic genius:* hmm, I should put this under my microscope

[@MrQuijibo]

Climatic genius 🤣

[@vaterchenfrost7481]

And now the whole world is playing a part in he's joyfull strockes of a ginius.

[@ekkehard8]

Not the footage you want credit towards you be so visible xD

[@mixiekins]

F O R S C I E N C E ! !

[@matthiasmorse5263]

@@mixiekins SCIENTIFIC CUMMIES

[@sxvrd861]

Finally an organism I can relate to

[@freontolstoy4993]

I read that as "orgasm I can relate to"

[@mfaizsyahmi]

I think I saw a rare, one-of-a-kind Hankculus partway through the video.

[@Robert_McGarry_Poems]

Herman-culus 😂

[@mixiekins]

Ok, I already ordered the Hank pin from Bizarre Beasts, so where's the link to get Hank-munculus socks???

[@sandrastreifel6452]

I thought “Hankunculus”

[@csn583]

That was prime sock material, make it happen guys!

[@michaeltran2962]

I never imagined living to this day to see a microscopic bear creature and its sperm.

[@smellyfishstiks]

6:33 I love that dude who went up to the zooaspores and then noped out

[@NewMessage]

Note to self: Remember to delete history after this video.

[@kulrigalestout]

Remember; no matter who we are or where we're from, we're all great swimmers!

[@backstreetfan2887]

Keep in mind that the fastest swimmers release acrosome enzymes and die. The fastest swimmers would never fertilize the egg because it takes quite a bit of acrosome enzymes to get through the zona peullucida (in other words the first 200 sperm or so release the enzymes and die). Also, capacitance takes 6 to 8 hours. So the one that "wins" is not the fast swimmer but rather 1) adequate swimmer 2) lucky 3)good at surviving long enough. So yeah, endurance and luck but not speed. (I know you are just having fun, but don't worry, so am I)

[@backstreetfan2887]

@CL Melonshark That is an excellent question/point! I feel like way back in my very first biology course at university, the professor said that the egg may have properties that influence which sperm fertilizes the egg (I forget the details). This makes intuitive sense to me considering how cells usually interact with each other (compatible protein receptors). However, later I tried to google more information about this and was unable to locate any info/research supporting this. So I'm definitely open minded to this being the case but I didn't turn up any source specifically saying that (I should try again sometime though, this was quite awhile ago). Fertilization does indeed occur in the fallopian tube, for sure that part is the case.

[@Flarexxxx]

I mean homosapians are quite bad at swimming compared to other mammals tbh (yes im taking this comment literally and not as a sperm joke because its bloody 7:42am and i work midnights XD)

[@pokepoke1889]

Genuinely made my laugh a bit 10/10

[@danforthmedia-kr1jv]

Ha ha, the homunculus tardigrade "Inception" sequence made me laugh. I really enjoy these videos. Thanks for making them!

[@aftertigers]

i didnt recognize hank's voice at first because i'm so used to him sound like he's telling me sperm facts from the other side of an auditorium

[@JQ3B94]

I swear he is like the David Attenborough of KZbin science videos

[@milsthebard1085]

I was not expecting to find out yet another weird thing about Pythagoras.

[@crsmith6226]

He couldn’t just stop at math

[@Freebackrubs]

Ah, yes, tardigrade sprem. That is exactly what was on my mind at 6 am on a Tuesday. How did you know???

[@chiet97]

Weirdly enough we both had the same thought at the exactly same time a month apart.

[@jrmckim]

@@chiet97 and a year later.. here I am at the same time

[@jasonsaliba7202]

@@jrmckim And one month after that so am I.

[@garytafoya8859]

😂👍

[@rex_ink]

WHAT THE FUCK THAT'S EXACTLY MY CASE TOO

[@aplaceinthestars3207]

Ordinarily, the music is just a sci-fi-esque mood-setter, but around 0:43 the base hits in a way vaguely reminiscent of "Drop it Like it's Hot" during the mention of the tardigrade's body full of sperm and even after watching a bunch of episodes, I can't stop thinking about how funny this is.

[@angst_]

I like to think that the Alexander Klepnev is credited because he created the sperm, not necessarily because he filmed it.

[@pokepoke1889]

Like..? Came up with the term of sperm Or like.. I mean he technically does create sperm

[@Tunkkis]

@@pokepoke1889 He was the first person to have created a sperm cell.

[@victoriawilliams2786]

Thank-you for a couple of chuckles! Tardigrades are one of my favorite creatures to watch.

[@ajhproductions2347]

Another great one, but when are you guys going to make a tardigrade pin?! Those would sell so fast. A hydra pin would be awesome too! Cheers

[@Emrysanimation]

Agreed.

[@myvirtuallife3828]

I second that.

[@sathanimations1457]

Take a shot every time 'Gonads filled with sperm' is on the screen.

[@social3ngin33rin]

This episode is sponsored by Fabulous; an app that helps you form healthy habits that stick....now onto the video topic: sperm.

[@mixiekins]

Jesus! That homunculus' gaping face looks like some kind of fever dream mutant straight out of an episode of Adventure Time.

[@ivytarablair]

wow the microscopy is gorgeous in this ep! (i mean, it always is, but these are particularly vivid). After your video on the filters, Hank, looking at videos I'm like I THINK I KNOW HOW JAMES DID THAT BACKGROUND & LIGHTING OF THE CRITTER! :D We cannot wait to get our microscope, and thoroughly enjoy all your updates!

[@FIRE_STORMFOX-3692]

Damn.. That water bear... Had some fun the night before..

[@JohnLeePettimoreIII]

"Why, it's Tardigrades *_ALL_*_ the way down_ !!"

[@lauravellegas5686]

1:41 s e m i n a l f l u i d

[@supersonictumbleweed]

Great video as always, with an amazing history lesson about the times before the Napoleon. Such a profound moment

[@tvman7868]

Amazing episode! Thank you both for continuing to educate about the microcosmos!

[@Beryllahawk]

The image of the wee person inside the sperm made me crack up and hum a line from a song I heard on Dr Demento ages ago "Just lookin' for a womb to rent" Also the idea of everything coming from one's father was a thing well before Pythagoras, I think? But it was a theological construct (...or maybe I mean cultural idea). My memory is awful fuzzy, over two decades after learning about this notion, but apparently it was a whole thing - one didn't just get "the sins of the father" but also all the glories, ambitions, and so forth. And, one could never be greater than one's father, at least in the sense of the traditional belief. So the idea was floating around, one way or another, for a long long time. We laugh now at the ideas from hundreds of years ago, but you are right, one has to start somewhere!

[@EmblemParade]

OMG, yet *another* tardigrade video! Just kidding, though I'm sure they raise this wonderful channel's searchability I'll accept it as long as the content is good. :)

[@rajadhirajmaharaj]

I'm a white sperm which has become brown and speaks 3 languages fluently. Aren't I wonderful??

[@thedoruk6324]

This is a particularly *unique* episode

[@thedoruk6324]

@@osmosisjones4912 *hmmm* welp human species have certainly derivered compared to neandarthals

[@LeonorLiliah2]

This used to be a meditative channel 😄

[@amandaalfred5405]

Tardigrades have huge gonads relative to body size

[@patricksarama4963]

"What are you watching son?" "Nothing..."

[@HelloThere-zf8ke]

*sPerMz*

[@bagniacz3264]

Though, to be fair, there was an opposition to spermism, called ovism, claimed of course that small versions of humans and animals are inside the female ovum. Generally equally wrong assumption, but maybe just a little bit closer to truth, as all the mitochondria (and plasmids, in the case of the plants) in zygote are from ovum.

[@ido9988]

@Matthew Morycinski There were dual contribution theories, and even a belief that women had 'seed' too. There were many, many, competing hypotheses back in the day.

[@SquirrelASMR]

"This is not an organism... it's an orgasm..." 😳🤦‍♂️

[@hanablemoore8239]

this intro beat is knocking. i was watching, i mean listening to this on the 170 freeway and the intro beat had my Subie STI rocking. folks had no clue i was bobbing my head to a dude talking about tardigrade skeet.

[@ShadowWizard123]

Please stop watching KZbin on the highway. Sincerely, the rest of us.

[@vaterchenfrost7481]

One of those videos, when you are curious about the comments as much as about the actual content, ;) I wasn't disappointed.

[@miriamrosemary9110]

Those are the ones most worth watching :)

[@ayanokojikiyotaka7603]

Woah, they are like a living Mandelbrot set. It's mind blowing 🤯

[@IL_801]

Ever just look at a human sperm cell and think "that used to be me" lol

[@smartass0124]

m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqXKgKWrr6iAqMk

[@jhonsmithy2873]

How and where did you get the samples?

[@Hamishamishamishamish]

Patreons.

[@MrCalls1]

I believe their samples are gathered in Poland, which is where the microscopes actually are. The persons IG referenced at the end, is the collector and photographer, my understanding is most are found in pond water, or puddles with occasional foraging to the coast and known locations?

[@maracachucho8701]

You should read the credits at the top left when it's a video from someone else.

[@trulyinfamous]

@@maracachucho8701 reading? That would be really hard to do. ;)

[@hamz5791]

James has some explaining to do..

[@Kareltjekater]

I love all Hank's channels❗️

[@skybluskyblueify]

I wonder how Pythagoras would react to what really happens with human reproduction? Would they rebel? Would they accept the important role of the ovum and the uterus etc.?

[@helmaschine1885]

Why are you calling Pythagoras a group of people lol

[@adgepipkin2715]

It’s common practice among the youngs to use gender neutral terminology. I find that only bigots, pedants, and ESL find issue enough with it.

[@SnifyWisper]

Hank's back!

[@thedarkknight1971]

00:45 - I've used Google sound search and Shazam, but 'Not Recognised'... I've even gone through Andrew Huang's KZbin music collection, but STILL cant find the title to the track played at this time (or in many of these entertaining and interesting looks into the miniature world)... PLEASE help, Thank you 😎

[@daniell1483]

Really fascinating. Just from reading historical texts, I came across the idea of spermism before, but never knew this idea had a specific name. It lends new light to, say, passages in the Bible that refer to women being fertile or "barren", like a field. People of antiquity took this idea literally, with the "seed" being thought of as complete and just needing the proper place to grow.

[@zelenpixel]

i love the utter absolute Dunking on those theories that turned out wrong

[@polybiusv7299]

More history related comparisons!!! The line about Napoleon conquering Europe not knowing how babies were really made was almost Zen Koan level of enlightening

[@megadiabrous]

Wow I didnt even recognize Hank not talking in his usual high energy voice

[@samuelpaulini]

Could you do plant tissue cultures in the future? 😅 It would be quite interesting to get content discussing that!

[@deucedeuce1572]

Damn, I always imagined tardigrades had giant gonads. Just never wanted to see them to verify. Now you made me see it against my will! lol.

[@logunder4597]

What are those orb thingies the tardigrates are filled with?

[@dirtpoorchris]

1:00 It almost looks like it is using its arm muscles to do something internally? Is it digesting stuff inside itself by moving its arms? Its arms must be connected to its digestive system or something. Why is it moving like that?

[@zeratulrus142]

8:47 My brain got confused for a second and I almost expected to hear "swimming off, to new pockets... of Spacetime"

[@tariqtariq613]

The way he talks instantly striked me, hello hank😎

[@Mythreesons137.]

Nice video super optics

[@ToqTheWise]

Spermism might actually come from a very old Indo-European idea that the clan soul was inherited through the father. The mother does influence the soul, yes, but it’s an uneven union. It’s sort of like a seed versus the soil, a plant needs both to grow but an apple seed planted in soil meant for a pumpkin is still going to be an apple. If the mothers clan has good luck that luck will be passed down to her child and likewise if she has poor luck that will negatively affect the luck of her child but said child will always and forever belong to his fathers clan. But it doesn’t effectively conflate biology with metaphysics. You can have someone who’s half one thing and half another but you can’t have half a soul.

[@jubb1984]

Oh wow that 1000x zoom, so cool!

[@Raydensheraj]

In case anyone here wants to know a more detailed history of humanity and it's struggle trying to understand sperm and egg cells...I would highly recommend reading= "The Seeds of Life" - Book by=Edward Dolnick Dolnick (also known for his book'The Clockwork Universe') traces the winding tale of European understanding of conception biology from the 16th through the 19th century, when the merging of sperm and egg was first physically seen. He examines the theories popularized by scientific luminaries in each period, following advances in anatomy, microscopy, and scientific method as well as changes in philosophy about the relationships between men and women, humans and animals, and the living world and God. Dolnick honors the history of ideas that seem ludicrous today, including that of preformation of tiny versions of all human bodies at the beginning of creation, and makes the point that even the most brilliant investigators can miss salient information they don’t expect, as when Vesalius observed ovarian follicles a century before de Graaf but dismissed them as irrelevant. Substantive background on the work of such figures as William Harvey and Luigi Galvani may feel like a diversion to readers only interested in reproductive biology, but Dolnick composes a cohesive narrative around his central question while noting its appeal as a side topic to key thinkers in science.

[@roboticjanitor3332]

Man this video was nuts 👉😎👉

[@smartass0124]

m.youtube.com/watch?c=htgOruzCMrg

[@LimeyLassen]

I've always wondered why animals grow old but gametes don't seem to. A living thing can be near the end of its life and still produce a child with the full energy of youth.

[@johnchristian7788]

Search "telomeres and aging" The telomeres become smaller as we age.

[@LimeyLassen]

@@johnchristian7788 What about gametes?

[@simon_far]

Male gametes do age, but they keep producing new ones from stem cells kind of like how blood cells are made. Female gametes also age, but slowly, which is in essence, why female fertility has an age cap and male fertility doesn't really.

[@rayspencer7255]

What kind of microscope & camera system are you using ? The optics are outstanding !

[@rajendrakhanvilkar9362]

Great video

[@theperfectbotsteve4916]

Scientists: you can't see a single cell Me who can see several billion at a time: well yes but actually no

[@evelyne7071]

Does the heat from the light source hurt the organisms ?

[@csn583]

It can, but so would excessive cold, so it's up to the operator to keep them happy. LED light sources are of course much more efficient than traditional incandescents.

[@Dog_gone_it]

How does this video not already have 1m views?

[@jumpingspider7105]

I know we are supposed to think Pythagoras was wrong and maybe self serving. Ancient Greeks didn't let women participate in democracy, so its not surprising his theory subscribed to a kind of male essentialism. But I also think people can forget that nothing comes for free, and that often these primitive ideas from greek philosophy actually represent huge advancements for our species. 2500 years ago was a long time. Most people probably lived in *relatively* insular communities with low genetic diversity, and so most babies would look very similar to their parents and parents would look similar to each other. Direct tests of mixed heredity, such as a light skinned father and a dark skinned mother giving birth to a mixed race baby, where rare, since you'd have to travel thousands of miles to find someone that didn't look vaguely Mediterranean/middle eastern/southern European. Without rigorous scientific experimental design it would have been hard to test different models of heredity. A male only model of heredity is wrong from our modern understanding of biology, but its not inconceivable. It really could have been true, and it is certainly a testable scientific idea... And that's really the thing; Pythagoras was not able to pull a fully formed theory of genetics out of his ass, but he did put forth a biologically testable hypothesis. He intuited the role of the sperm in carrying hereditary information at a time when this was not obvious. People didn't "just know" that the sperm carried hereditary information as opposed to playing some other role. The homunculus theory too could have made sense at the time. Again its wrong. But its also an advancement to see human development as starting with a microscopic propagule that grows into the fully developed organism. Basically I think its important to see how knowledge changes over time.

[@Kristian.Ofsteng]

I love this channel, I really do… but this is an incredibly important question I’m sure many would like to ask but aren’t brave enough to do so.. “Credit: Alexander Klepnev” is that credit for the footage..? Or…. Credit…. For the footage?

[@W-C-F-o1k]

I like the small human in sperm idea 😂😂 I'm going with that from now on !

[@SikWidiT390]

Very much spoken in a carl sagen-esk inflection

[@ТамараКванталиани-ф8з]

The tardigrade is the cutest creature in the universe of microscopic organisms. Тихоходка самое милое создание во вселенной микроскопических организмов.

[@JustShotsForMeh]

Crazy how a 55µm creature only lives to explode and create a vast, spectacular universe; You.

[@Onijiji]

I love the channel.

[@Egoteista]

Please, can somebody explain me what is happening on minute 7:00? I need yo know how the male tardigrade fertilize de eggs

[@cheaterman49]

4:55 Hank, sorry for the super cheap jokes, but would that mean it's actually "Tardigrades all the way down" ? :-D

[@AMadScientist]

Been trying to get some info on this DIC process. Of course these are GREAT videos but my question is this; if one has a DIC ready scope, is there much pre or post work done to get these kind of videos/images or do you get your specimen and go at it?

[@hgracern]

You are brilliant ❤❤❤

[@konnosx1213]

1:44 The most fun sample to gather Kill me

[@aaronmyers6686]

Yes, spermism and the homunculus theory are obviously wrong, but can you really blame the per-information-age people who believed such, male ego not considering? There wasn't really a way you could tell whether it was right or wrong.

[@cursedalien]

Uh, what about the observation that children have visible traits from both parents?

[@ryanfreeman5083]

Had human egg cells been observed to exist when Pythagoras believed that, was it known to exist? If not I get why Pythagoras believed that, it wasnt know that 2 parts were needed

[@nihilsson]

What are the floaty blobs in the tardigrades limbs?

[@Martina-bg1oi]

Hank is this the one you recorded after too much coffee? ...makes sense.

[@talideon]

Thank you for calling it "The Great Famine"!

[@1st_ProCactus]

Why even have tardigrade in the title ?

[@ferretface]

whoa whoa... 0:57 let me stop you right there. Tardigrades are NOT easy to find! I think I have the cleanest moss on the planet!

[@whoeveriam0iam14222]

I can't help but feel those blobs moving through their bodies as if it was my own body.

[@truneforesown9194]

How does one keep microbial life alive in a jar? Hoping for a vid on the topic one day =^.^=

[@thefederalrepublicoferusea3900]

That tardigrade ata the beginning is me at the end of no nut November

[@AccidentalNinja]

I was going to joke about the tardigrade being "young, dumb, & full of cum".

[@KendrixTermina]

early ideas of how reproduction worked were wild. Another theory was that sperm makes period blood congeal into a baby

[@BEZERKSTUDIOS718]

"just...chock full of it" same brother

[@Dang3rMouSe]

Nice of you to credit the donor

[@thearctic7919]

**Human Sperm** Credit: Alexander Klepnev I'm confused if it's for the footage, "organism" or both

[@dinkusstinkus4396]

i think the reality of the situation is way weirder than the homunculus. like, sure theres not a tiny human in the sperm, instead the sperm infests a host which then grows through each stage of our evolution going all the way back until ultimately stopping at being a giant ape.

[@golden2420]

what are those pebble like things in tarigrades' bodies?

[@NadiaCBorba]

So...here's a unrelated question: what is the appearance of a tardigrade? I mean, when we look on the footage I imagine that they are transparent like this because of the microscope, light, etc. So, if we could see a tardigrade with an naked eye what would they look like. Do they have skin, a color, etc? Or I'm wrong and they really are transparent? Thanks!

[@qnicks23434]

They covered that in one of the previous videos.

[@Aereto]

Some ancient cultures take gonads really far. I mean look at the Egyptian mythology and a translation of it involving male organs and fluids allegedly both mystic and toxic applications.

[@ChimpyChamp]

Well, it's really no wonder, it was the only physical act of sex (climax) that could be observed to create life, they had no idea what eggs were because they are not transferred through sex, they are hidden. And these are civilizations that are heavily focused on agriculture, i.e planting seeds so the act of sex and reproduction would have been very similar to them as "planting a seed".

[@jahlanijackson9807]

Wow, that's amazing! Also, if you see this, I AM YOU'RE BIGGEST FAN!!!

[@rickseiden1]

Next Pizzamas will feature a t-shirt of "Hank Sperm," or is it "Sperm Hank." I guess if it's "Pizza John" It's got to be "Sperm Hank."

[@bill392]

Amazing photography! So what are all those "rocks" moving around inside the tardigrade ? I was able to spot certain things like the eyes and the muscles that move the legs, but overall the animal looks like a balloon full of rocks and the rocks appear to slide all over the place inside the creature. Obviously, they aren't really rocks so what are they? I thought maybe eggs at first but there was also a view of another speciman that had huge smooth round globs located mostly in the rear half of the body so I assume those were eggs but the front half had some rocks too. The male was loaded with rocks from end to end.

[@wannabewyvern]

the cells

[@stephenz7238]

Some dude just 🥜 on the slide and said “here you go, take a look”