The 5 Largest Living Things

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When you think about enormous living things, mushrooms and seagrass may not be the first organisms that come to mind. But they should be!
Hosted by: Jaida Elcock (she/her)
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[@SciShow]

If you want to learn about how we can sustainably care for and benefit from nature, start your college journey with Study Hall! Take a college course that starts on KZbin and earn credit before you even apply to college. Find out more at link.gostudyhall.com/sust101

[@bensoncheung2801]

E

[@LogicalThinking-p2s]

Remake Osmosis Jones

[@gbprime2353]

Pando is awesome. Hiking that area is great by itself, but walking under those leaves and realizing that it is one great tree all around you is awe inspiring.

[@libbywiskowski9618]

This host is one of my favorites! The way she communicates is wonderful! Really love all the learning being had in these spaces! Thank you!

[@mattdangerg]

Def! She and the other new person are wonderful!

[@catmacopter8545]

Her name is Jaida Elcock 😊

[@johnreder8167]

hell no...good for her. she should have her own channel but not for scishow. The 12 year old playlist is still the one

[@souledgar]

@@johnreder8167 she does have her own channel here youtube.com/@sofishtication_

[@Kr-nv5fo]

Ackhually it's just another Hank.

[@TheLetterbomber]

Pando is a favourite place of mine, when I lived in Utah I visited it a few times and it's a really special experience. I highly recommend visiting in the fall when its leaves go golden-yellow!

[@paperip1996]

(Gentle correction. Pando is about 200 miles south of Salt Lake City. If you're in the Salt Lake area, it can make for a fun day trip, but unless you happen to live in the town of Koosharem, it's not the kind of place one can easily visit on a whim) I had the fortune of having a summer job in Fish Lake National Forest fresh out of high school. I took many hikes through Pando during my off time. I knew the quakies were clones, but had no idea until years later just how significant that one patch of quiet forest was such a significant ecological wonder. Absolutely gorgeous place to visit in early fall.

[@geofatic]

I mean, for people outside of Utah, Salt Lake was probably just the easiest landmark to use. They just said "near Salt Lake", which can mean a lot of things.

[@Orchids.and.Endlers]

Jaida is a great host :) Energetic and clear !!

[@chillsahoy2640]

I learned about Pando from Scishow Tangents! It's such a fun podcast that doesn't get enough attention in my opinion. It made me realise that I do like poetry, as long as it's nerdy enough.

[@internetexplorerpony]

"None of them is the blue whale", Alan from QI is about to suffer.

[@thatguywiththestache]

I love everything about this video thank you for making it! great quality.

[@jamesleatherwood5125]

Great video Jaida! Your presentation style has relaxed. Good to see! I look forward to more of your viddys!

[@ProjectNOTOS]

Very INTERESTING video. Taking a lot of inspiration from you guys

[@simonmeadows7961]

SciShow: When I say "fungus" what do you picture? Me: Fungus The Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs

[@kurczaczak]

Regarding the Gaia hypothesis, it really fits the question I asked a friend of mine recently: "You know chemical oscillators? They go back and forth, creating a nice pattern. I mean, something must be getting used up, but for a while it has moving ripples of reactants switching between one and another compound. Do you think that if we really stretch the definition of life, that could be considered the simplest form of life?"

[@jerryhook5906]

"Does a submarine 'swim'?" Sure it dives, moves through the water, and surfaces, but I think most people would agree that this doesn't constitute "swimming". Similarly, just because it looks it does the kind of things a living organism would do, doesn't make a chemical oscillator a form of "life".

[@hellyeah_ellajane]

As a Utahn, I gotta say: pando during the autumn is one of the most magical experiences imaginable. The aspen’s leaves turn golden and on a breezy day, they create the most calming quiver and lovely raspy noise. It’s truly a one-of-a-kind experience!

[@flexibezt]

If the Earth is considered a large organism, does that mean that we humans are akin to cancer cells? We have only existed for a short time, yet we have already caused significant damage😅

[@alveolate]

*cackles in Agent Smith

[@pinkCEO]

What a dumb statement. Did you come up with that all by yourself?

[@nicholaslee722]

I think we're more like Ebola virus.

[@crackedemerald4930]

don't be so arrogant, this isn't the first time life almost ruined itself. It's probably the fastest though.

[@VerseauT-cm6tj]

And we are unsightly, destructive and totally thrive on sugar

[@Agaures]

Humongous Fungus mention has my Yooper ears perking up!

[@R.M.MacFru]

So there's a humongous fungus among us? Sorry, the troll in me just couldn't resist. 🙃 *Waves to the north*

[@Agaures]

@@R.M.MacFru Amogus.

[@gravestone4840]

"Your mom" joke goes here.

[@QuintenWhyte]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@AveryMilieu]

Coast Redwoods in Northern California are also clone plants - years ago they did some "testing" in Muir Woods using injected isotopes and found that the spread from ONE TREE (root system) was over a quarter mile in any direction. Given the size of the trees, that's a pretty big organism, wouldn't you say?

[@occaf]

Thank you for mentioning the Gaia Hypothesis!

[@ConstantChaos1]

Pando The Great Quaking Aspen is a solid contender

[@shrimpbisque]

I came up with a scifi concept several years ago while listening to Infected Mushroom's album Head of Nasa and the 2 Amish Boys for the first time. The idea is: a fungal network that spans an entire planet and has achieved such high complexity that it has become sentient. It developed the ability to shoot spore capsules off-planet, and does so in an attempt to spread itself. It's called Mycelia Prime. I never wrote anything beyond the base concept, but I would love it if someone took this idea and ran with it.

[@kasnitch]

SciShow: When I say "fungus" what do you picture? Me: Golden Teacher .

[@shanonfrancis5071]

That siphonophore is really cool

[@gordonkennygordon]

I live here in Utah and have camped among Pando's cousins many times. The 'herbivores' that Dr. Elcock refers to are free-range beef cattle and sheep, economically important species, but with definite - and understudied - ecological impacts. Sheep and cattle selectively browse the new shoots and when the old trunks die off the clone struggles to replace them. There is some effort to fence off small sections of the grove to maintain islands of new growth, but I have only read about this in a research context, and I don't know if there is an organized effort afoot. Speaking as a lover of both wilderness AND steak, I recognize the need to find a balance, so I'm not advocating for one side or another, necessarily. My hope is that shows like this one will spur continued and continuing research into how we fit into the global ecology and how we can make the best choices in this outrageously complex [really complex thing metaphor here]. Peace!

[@aronm5329]

When I get an infection my body get a fever in order to kill the infection, really puts that last one into prospective

[@jamesleatherwood5125]

Im partial to the gaia hypothesis. And even if its not true, if everybody thought of it that way, we would treat the planet better!

[@deinauge7894]

it's hard to speak of "true" or "false", because it's not really a hypothesis. More like a viewpoint that wishes to define "living thing" in a way that it includes the earth as a whole. The only consequece is how you feel about it 😅

[@jamesleatherwood5125]

@@deinauge7894 either way. If we all thought of the planet as a whole as a living being, we would, as a species, tend to treat it better. :)

[@Slythe01]

@@deinauge7894 Precisely, which means it has nothing to do with science and is just perspective

[@existenceisillusion6528]

The idea behind science is not to 'believe in' the hypothesis, it is to be skeptical and test the hypothesis. As Feynman said, it doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, if it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.

[@joshuahillerup4290]

I don't think the Gaia hypothesis as stated here could be quite correct. I see the argument for everything on the surface (including some things underground) being one thing, but there are some very isolated underground biomes.

[@tanyasashamaswaure]

Love this show

[@DjHazardous]

*Interesting indeed*

[@willalogicalwf]

Colorado has larger aspen groves but we don't tell anybody to protect them

[@Immortal10364]

LOVE FROM PUNE INDIA🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳 ❤🥰😊😎😃😘😀☺👍🙂😍🥰❤🥰❤❤

[@p1d1]

Kothrud la bhet…😂

[@Arnold-Layne1967]

This host is great. She sounds like she is your friend.

[@angelapotter8084]

I live in Utah and didn't even know the largest aspen grove was in the state.

[@birkavese]

In case of the fungus, the entire forest is this one fungus, what does it mean for it to reproduce? Clone itself? Its a different individual then, isn’t it?

[@pinkCEO]

It's almost like muddying waters breaks down meaning...

[@VoltageNut]

Caseoh #1

[@gravestone4840]

@VoltageNut Meat Canyon showed us what we always knew.

[@teknophyle1]

I vote we rename pando to groot. “we are pando” doesn’t sound as cool

[@nyasky8474]

I've just heard that a bamboo grove is usually a single tree. There might be more like that, I just don't know.

[@Kirill-ql2kh]

life on earth evolved at least 3.7 myo. and about the second organism, the argument was that it is gentically identical. wouldn't that make a pair of twins also one organism?

[@thorium222]

And everything is dying. Great job, humans.

[@marshallmkerr]

Indeed, if more people adopted the Native American idea that Grandmother Earth is a living Spirit deserving of gratitude and respect, better and faster progress on climate change mitigation would inevitably result. 🌎🌍🌏

[@daqq]

When science leads to depersonalization and ego death 😂

[@Saleca]

I am sorry but a science channel forgot what it is an ecosystem?in it there are often simbiotic relations. There are more relation names btw Lol its is definitely a stretch to call cooperative and inter dependent organisms organism. Otherwise bees and plants that depend on them are the aame organism? Lol wolfs that have been proven that are cussial element of certain ecosystems are one organism along with their food chain since they are dependent on each other.

[@memyself3510]

I mean this really brings into question the definition of an organism doesn’t it?

[@deanporter3509]

GET OFF OF MY FLAWN [fish lawn] !!!!

[@mrtienphysics666]

Are you and your identical twin or conjoined twin one individual?

[@bensoncheung2801]

👋👋👋

[@davesatxify]

Pando!

[@LogicalThinking-p2s]

Cells in our body aren't hunting and eating each other. A country would be a better models

[@maiiabakhova2474]

Oh, they do. Part of our microbiome gets eaten regularly.

[@LogicalThinking-p2s]

@@maiiabakhova2474 those are immigrants. . why a counyis Better model

[@LogicalThinking-p2s]

@@maiiabakhova2474 those are immigrants. . why a country Better model

[@LogicalThinking-p2s]

Wonder if there any all male populations of Tap wormholes or sea stars. Can they fusing infact can someone as earth reference to literature Saying goes Frankenstein a tape worm

[@LogicalThinking-p2s]

Under about closed cyrcletor system and life evolved to live in space

[@walternullifidian]

The largest living thing is Earth's biosphere. 🌎

[@MarcPagan]

Number 1 by far ...my former mother-in-law's mouth

[@mannatshyam3847]

This video reposted? 😅

[@Eric-AC]

I think so

[@Bulbassador]

Woo!!

[@V4VestA]

Haha I was just about to say, you forgot Earth itself! Excellent SciShow topic, worthy of further exploration.

[@Cheatscape]

I think the Gaia Hypothesis makes a lot of sense. We humans can't photosynthesize, so without other plants and animals, we can't live for more than a few days. Like many of the cells in our bodies, we wouldn't last long without the help of many other living creatures playing the parts they do to make the world what it is.

[@shawnholbrook7278]

I like this thought experiment, I have an additional one, we are called to be stewards of life, (this world) what if the only brothers and sisters or aliens or beings we will ever meet are here? If you believe in Karma, judgement, or just plain old conscientiousness, should not we be taking more responsibility for our actions?

[@ericthetuber]

I think I'd phrase it like "the earth has failed to kill life" rather than it helps and supports it lol

[@gastonmarian7261]

If you start by genuinely talking to your heart, until you've proven to yourself that the whole is able to commune with a part, then you can practice talking to the Earth, Mother Gaia beneath your feet, from whose womb you were birthed and into which you will return and compost

[@erikfast4228]

Love the episode, but I don't buy The Great Coral Reef or Earth as a single organism (super or otherwise). They're ecosystems with competing drives.

[@pinkCEO]

If you stretch definitions, you can make anything anything else. How dumb.

[@unkUser123]

wtf, study hall sounds like the future. woahhh ~~~~

[@Jimmyni-kk4em]

Can u do what a woman is

[@morryDad]

You guys are above such things, but there’s a ‘your momma’ joke dying to be made

[@Sailorbrown42]

1 min and less than 10 views. Fell off

[@mikelfunderburk5912]

Some people have work. I'm just lucky to have the opportunity to enjoy this while I do so

[@EyesOfByes]

The entire Internet

[@LogicalThinking-p2s]

Looking Records every time it was the hottest year on on record 2006 2012 2023 was after carbon admission were reduced. Carbon dioxide blocks heat both waves. But still acidification. Or maybe lack carbon dioxide is killing plants

[@patriciafallon3011]

Huh? Earth is an organism? I read it was a computer designed to formulate the question of life, the universe and everything.

[@smoothrocky1847]

42

[@RealUlrichLeland]

your mum

[@pradhumpatel5400]

talking about big things & ignoring my boy blue whale - its a disgrace

[@Slythe01]

Unfortunately, another video that isn't really science and more subjective perspective

[@eingyi2500]

Malheur is pronounced "Mal-Yer" just FYI

[@pinkCEO]

It's not, I'm not sure the sound comes up in English much but.. It's closer to 'mal-uhR'. With the'r' being the throat sound English doesn't use..

[@1234j]

By you, yes, apparently. Several tens of million French and ditto English speakers disagree 😂

[@eingyi2500]

@@1234j i am literally from Malheur county, Oregon.

[@EyesOfByes]

My mom.

[@batmorrigan7616]

0:01 your mom /J

[@t-bonejones3576]

I think this may be the worst video on this channel. To suggest that a clonal colony may be considered one large individual is kinda ridiculous. Like saying identical twins are not individuals but actually one! Puh-lease, gimmie a break! If any clones are physically separated, they are individuals!

[@NewbyTon]

almost as large as your mother

[@herbertfawcett7213]

Under Gaia, er are parasites!

[@Alkahlout]

You forgot to mention your mom

[@innerfield5481]

Tell your chinese editor to go and watch Obama speaking. Your chinese editor speaks Cantonese who famously leave no gaps between their sentences. As none of your listeners speak cantonese they will find the speaking in your videos garbled, rushed, even childish and panicky. Tell your editor to either leave gaps between your sentences or go and find another job. Your editor has ruined all your hard work. Go listen to Obama speaking. He is a great orator. Whereas you sound like a nervous child. Go and listen to the verbal firehose your editor has produced after listening to Obama. Sack the editor. He is making your hard researched videos sound like complete rubbish.

[@villanelle-dyke]

it's me. im the the largest living thing

[@kIwehEhE]

My cat is now convinced that he too can become a KZbin star. I think we have a new project💞