The Algae That Saved an Astronaut's Life

[@gqsnowman]

I don't know why it hit me so hard, but the whole "Attracting the predators of my predators" adaptation has me absolutely flabbergasted. That is genetic genius. These little critters just jumped WAY up my favorite organisms list.

[@Dragrath1]

In addition to plants as Austin Thomas brings up I think there is also a deep water Medusae (aka "jellyfish" ) that uses this strategy too which scientists have copied to lure in and observe marine predators particularly Architeuthis dux the giant squid. The trait is common among marine creatures particularly those that live and or feed in the dark waters of the twilight zone, midwaters or participate in the great vertical migration it is a great strategy to employ most of these creatures get it from their diet eating other bioluminescent prey so while it on one hand helps dinoflagellates copepods and ctenophores among others drive off predators by calling in their hunters it also is used by some of their predators to pull off the same trick. If you live out in the dark open ocean or are sessile/slow this is a great way to deal with predators

[@kevinpeters6709]

Ah yes. The enemy of my enemy is my friend

[@Tapecutter59]

I first heard of that phenomena a few years ago and it had a similar effect on me. However the example I heard is even more complex, it goes something like this... In the southern ocean there is very little iron in the water, the algae needs iron to grow. Krill feed on the algae and are high in iron. When the krill feed on the algae, the algae releases a chemical into the air and the water that attracts birds and marine predators from miles away. The predators then eat the krill and simultaneously fertilize the algae with their iron rich droppings,

[@sonnyvarcoe8970]

Kinda like calling the cops ain't it

[@Dragrath1]

@@Tapecutter59 Fascinating I have also read about how dinoflagellates production of the toxins associated with red tides seems to be associated with nutrient deficiencies and they can poison the water to kill surrounding wildlife liberating their nutrients for use as fertilizer. The open ocean is a brutal place for Phytoplankton and killing stuff directly or indirectly can be one way to get the nutrients they need to photosynthesize and grow. Basically the same incentive that drives plants on land towards carnivory. It was part of an article in Scientific American focusing on the role and diversity of Marine mixotrophs among phytoplankton. It was also the article that first exposed me to how nutrient poor the open ocean is.

[@cephalonsadistic9331]

Bro imagine eating a salad and gaining the ability to photosynthesize. Most satisfying meal of your life.

[@prydzen]

we kind of do since we metabolise D3 from the sun.

[@massimookissed1023]

Imagine eating a salad and the salad flashes bright blue to attract hungry lions to your location.

[@johannageisel5390]

@@massimookissed1023 Looool :D

[@BlackMasterRoshi]

@@massimookissed1023 hahahaha yeah or food that just calls the cops on you

[@silentwisdom7025]

Yeah imagine eating a salad.......are you like not American or something.🤣😅

[@aubreylabarre]

This is my first Microcosmos video! I just got a microscope for Christmas and can’t wait to use it! Thanks for the inspiration!

[@vesseleightyseven]

Awesome bro! What kind of microscope did you get??

[@krisclark6829]

Welcome!

[@PinkFloydBootlegs]

@@vesseleightyseven Welcome to the journey, Aubrey. I've been here since the creation of the channel, so it's great to see new faces!

[@aubreylabarre]

@@vesseleightyseven Thanks! It’s a Swift SW380B biological microscope! 🔬

[@aubreylabarre]

@@PinkFloydBootlegs Thanks! I’m a nerdfighter and have been watching Hank gush about this channel for a while now, but for some reason haven’t checked it out until now! What a welcoming calm among the chaos!

[@christianhunt7382]

I love how the pyro. Lunula at 5:50 looks like it sits in its own traveling universe and each of those drifting glimpse of light are galaxies in thier own right. Beautiful shot!!!

[@Tempst]

Fun fact: In ancient times sailors used to refer to this by the term *'sea ghost phenomenon'*

[@BlackMasterRoshi]

ah, the predecessor to Space Ghost

[@chironOwlglass]

You know what they say, "The predator of my predator is my friend."

[@NuclearTopSpot]

Predeator: wants snacc Dinoflagellates: Haha Uno Reverse Reverse Uno Card

[@Tymeshifter]

I think you've just made that up.

[@LittleMushroomGuy]

Unless we are talking about sexual predators

[@limiv5272]

@@LittleMushroomGuy wouldn't their predator be the police?

[@yes-zy7is]

except the predator of ur predator is ur predator too

[@vlogbrothers]

Real glad I’m not a Soviet fighter pilot right now. -John

[@CockatooDude]

I mean you could've gotten to fly the MiG-25, a hell of a plane.

[@BlackMasterRoshi]

@@CockatooDude Yeah, a hell of a runner-up to the SR-71.

[@KuK137]

@@BlackMasterRoshi You mean the garbage that never flew over Soviet Union to not give MiG pilots a medal and a kill mark on the cockpit? :]

[@rickseiden1]

With all the DNA in the dinokaryon, do they still fit in the overhead bins?

[@ValeriePallaoro]

Win! You win!

[@rickseiden1]

@@ValeriePallaoro Aw, shucks! Thanks!

[@user-mh2bw4hu3o]

Took me ten seconds to get dino-carry-on

[@daniell1483]

I've always wondered if there were creatures that are photosynthetic and consume food for energy, so I'm glad I got some good terminology. Mixotrophic, never would have guessed!

[@RikaJogie]

..... Het maakt mij stil en klein als ik het zie 💚💚💚💚

[@audioaficionado9494]

I was stationed on the USS Ranger CV61 and I often went on the decks at night to watch the stars and the green glowing water churned up by our four 22' scews trailing behind us for miles.

[@Aengus42]

Back when eating liberty cap mushrooms was legal in the UK I'd had a gentle dose of this beautiful psychedelic sat by a small fire on a S. Devon beach. The day had been scorching, warming the large limestone rocks & pebbles of this beach without sand. So as the calm, almost glassy tide came in the hot stones warmed the water. This beach is known for blood heat water on windless, waveless days in the summer. So as the mushrooms worked their gentle magic & we watched the sparks from the fire drift upward into the canopy of stars someone suggested swimming. So it was we eeked & ouched our way over the still warm, water worn pebbles to the sea. A sheet of undulating black glass we dipped our toes in. It was actually warm! So we plunged in & something magical happened that lives brightly in my memory some 40 years later. As we emerged from the water our bodies were covered in blue / green sparkles! The water had been do calm that even at it's edge there were no wavelets to jiggle the plankton enough to shine. But waft an arm through it & you could see the shape of your arm & a stream of light behind. Suddenly standing up, out of the water made your whole body flash & sparkle as rivulets of water fell off you & hit the water's surface there was more light! Diving in with your eyes open was reminiscent of hitting lightspeed in the Millennium Falcon. Or racing through a city at night. "City of Tiny Lights" by Frank Zappa came to mind. We played, gasped and wondered at those plankton. It was truly magical. Our bodies, the ocean, the stars in the sky... If anyone wants to see where this happened, Google Elberry Cove, near Brixham in South Devon, UK. A beautiful beach, one of my favourites still.

[@sommelierofstench]

my old man just walked by and said “dinoflagellates? are this dinosaur farts? cool.” what a guy

[@amberhawksong]

Lmao

[@formersamonellaclone]

KZbin autogenerated subtitles though that too lmao

[@Hannah_Em]

Oh wow, I'd heard that story about Jim Lovell before, it's so cool to finally see the organisms responsible! I'm also incredibly taken by the notion that he was saved by his carrier accidentally triggering the microbial predation equivalent of an Uno reverse card!

[@nicholasavasthi9879]

This is the story as it was told in the film Apollo 13: “Oh, well, I'll tell you, I remember this one time. I'm... I'm in a Banshee at night in combat conditions, so there's no running lights on the carrier. It was the Shangri-La and we were in the Sea of Japan, and my... my radar had jammed, and my homing signal was gone because somebody in Japan was actually using the same frequency and so it was... was leading me away from where I was supposed to be. And I'm looking down at that big black ocean. So... I flip on my map light. And then suddenly zap everything shorts out right there in my cockpit, all my instruments are gone, my lights are gone, I can't even tell now what my altitude is. I know I'm running out of fuel, so I'm thinking about... about ditching in the ocean and I... I look down there and then... in... in the darkness there's this... there's this green trail, it's like a long carpet that just laid out right beneath me, and it was the algae, right. It was that phosphorescent stuff that gets turned up in the wake of a big ship and it was... it was... it was just leading me home. And... if my cockpit lights hadn't shorted out, there's no way I had ever been able to see that. So a... you a... you never know what... what events are gonna transpire to get you home.”

[@N1RKW]

This is the actual story, not what Hank said in this video. In Jim Lovell's biographical novel, "Lost Moon" (later re-titled "Apollo 13" after the movie came out), he explained it very similarly to the quoted account above. He didn't "turn the lights off", he accidentally blew the darn fuse! The book is a very good read, by the way.

[@davidlaroche8082]

1:26 Hey! that’s Swamis beach in Encinitas. Live only a few minutes from there. These lights are brilliant in person!

[@Humongous_Pig_Benis]

I've seen this in the coast of Portugal back when I was working on a summer camp. Both adults and children we were in complete and hysterical awe! Indeed it's the mechanical action that makes them light themselves. In our case, we were scratching and digging the wet sand after the waves retreated back to the Atlantic Ocean. Thanks for _flashing_ this memory back on my mind with this beautiful video.

[@gusgone4527]

Chloroplasts and mitochondria both having their own DNA, were likely free living at some stage in the evolutionary past. They now form what must be the most successful symbiotic relationship in our entire biosystem. The fact that dinoflagellates "acquire! their chloroplasts from prey, somewhat supports the hypothesis.

[@Ghyx37]

Hippity hoppity your chloroplasts are now my property

[@FaeFemboi]

Me, knowing dinosaur means terrible lizard. "Terrible... whip?" Google: no dinos also means whirling Me: OHHHHHHH that makes much more sense.

[@sevehayden1463]

Whirling lizard. T rex go spinnnnn. Hehe.

[@WobblesandBean]

The Dino in Dinosaur comes from "deinos". The Dino in Dinoflagellate comes from Dinos, meaning "whirling". What a difference one letter makes.

[@jeffmac9642]

I don't how small these things are. If you listen closely when one green floaty thingy passes another you can hear " Hey 👋 Gus! " " Oh hey 👋Bob ! "

[@brentstorck3589]

The background music literally makes me feel like a little single-celled eukaryote, just clumsily meandering around with my cilia flapping about

[@WobblesandBean]

One of my most vivid memories is driving into the blue waters of Catalina Island at night as a teenager, and looking back to see a brilliant swirl of blue light all around me. It felt magical. 💜

[@Chris.Davies]

I am a simple man: JTTM upload a video, I watch the video, and I upvote the video. SIMPLE!

[@Jop_pop]

A T-Rex looked out at the ocean, wondering to herself if she should continue living or just give up. When suddenly, a multitude of tiny voices cried out in unison: "Dinokaryon!"

[@Bobsry16]

This was clever, bless you.

[@TedToal_TedToal]

In Santa Cruz Calif I once saw an amazing nighttime sight on the beach. As I walked or stamped my feet, lightning-like bolts or sparkles of bioluminescence lit up the sand in about a two feet radius around my foot! It was beautiful and mesmerizing. Dinoflagellates must have been washed onto the sand and were still alive. It was not wet stand, not totally dry either.

[@hippiecowgirl4231]

That sounds so cool ! What a wonderful experience that must have been ! I’m envious

[@TedToal_TedToal]

@@hippiecowgirl4231 I’ll never forget it, and hope someday to see it again.

[@nathanmoak1515]

this should be in every school's science class. nothing like this existed when i was in school. we had to use our imagination.

[@thanhavictus]

Really appreciate the term mixotrophic, using a simple term to make science more accessible at the high level

[@Blast335pokemineblox]

5:51 Dinoflagellate cast "Summon Bigger Fish"

[@simonrodriguez4685]

I’ve swam in the deceiving darkness of a moonless night only to be transfixed by these fellas covering my whole body and the comet tail like trace of my limbs moving, creating the sensation of the Milky Way over my head swarming to engulf me and the feeding frenzy all around, in one of the most of memorable experiences I ever had. Still brings chills every time it recalls me by flooding once more my infinitesimally small fractal of the cosmic memory.

[@davidpatterson3612]

Wot? No Noctiluca?

[@valeriog8780]

Image quality is astounding! Congratulations!

[@spectacularalien1184]

OK WAIT i was just from the dear hank and john podcast. they talked about natural wheels and hank mentioned something about flagella.. so it reminded me of dinoflaggelates then i searched "dinoflaggelates under microscope" then i found this video. and i thought the voice was familiar hahahha i didn't know u guys have this channel tooo?!!

[@backstreetfan2887]

***runs to comments to make sure that other people noticed that he pronounced picograms two different ways*** Doesn't matter, though, I still adore this channel.

[@suspence7207]

Oh good, I needed some relax

[@Nyan_Kitty]

Same here. Great timing :D

[@badartgallery9322]

(puff puff pass)

[@silentwisdom7025]

Such calm. Much love.

[@NewMessage]

Sure.. we have dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.. but no dinoflagellate shaped chicken nuggets? Come on, humanity! Shape up!

[@fluffysheap]

Last time I was this early, flagellates weren't the only kind of dinos

[@ChronicSkooma]

6:00 i need that as my wallpaper engine background. Need.

[@sonofsons770]

Apparently dinoflagellates are both algae and protozoans. Their classification is inconclusive. This explains why I have heard people call them algae and not algae.

[@TheRedKnight101]

Algae are basically just protists that can photosynthesize. Both terms referring to a large number of organisms that's classification is still being worked out.

[@sonofsons770]

@@TheRedKnight101 huh the more you know. I always figured algae to be part of a separate classification. Thank you

[@WildBoban]

This is only channel i regret having sponsor block skip :) Love your guys work!

[@TheRogueWolf]

I had a dinokaryon once, but somebody on the plane complained and they threw me and my velociraptor off the flight. ...oh, sorry, that was my dino carry-on.

[@a_e_hilton]

I just watched Hank scream about social media and now I'm here. What a rollercoaster of emotions

[@Deadlyish]

Every scene in this show is a work of art, but you really outdid yourselves with the final shot in this this video.

[@anoushkaatri3961]

What happens to the chloroplasts when they divide??

[@arenmdza]

Please made one about spirulina! 🖖🏼

[@simonrodriguez4685]

While Lucifer is wrecking havoc, his sister Luciferin is in charge of setting the fireworks of creation ablaze!

[@pablolpz]

The only misleading thing about this is that I thought algae managed to save an astronaut in space, not "he became an astronaut later but algae saved him as a fighter pilot~"

[@jestempies]

I wonder if we could have a computer-controlled microscope that would automatically follow creatures and also change focus very quickly many times a second and composite those images to achieve better depth of field. That would be very neat.

[@sandiegoryu]

Will you do a video on cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis?

[@Surkk2960]

Ironically, some of the dinoflagellates look like spaceships.

[@tristanreif]

cool vid, but title is misleading (he was a fighter pilot)

[@rianantony]

I'm left wondering. Are all mitochondria/cloroplasts the same? If I grab a human mitochondria and drop it in a ciliate will that work? What about a mapel tree cloroplast into a single celular algae? This is highly theoretical

[@Beryllahawk]

What a lovely light video to watch after a long day.

[@aaron-st6lj]

This is the #1 channel to watch when baked!! I wish you guys would make more videos, I've watched all of them already lol

[@TheAngryAstronomer]

Did you guys recently get a nicer camera aswell as a scope upgrade? I'm really curious as to what camera is being used for these videos.

[@6c3333]

When 600x magnification isn't enough, so you put the video full screen to get 1500x *big brain time*

[@1414141x]

Thank you again for a jaw dropping video. The more I see, the more I wonder.

[@shreyasharma4288]

This the most beautiful video I have ever seen.

[@bengoodchild883]

Keep up the great work :)

[@Pow3llMorgan]

I've swum in glowing algae. It looks super trippy when you extend your arms for a breast stroke.

[@philippeshewchenko]

Finaly a new spore game

[@jakobraahauge7299]

I like the calming down after the last almost tik tokky voicing - I hope the next one will return to the immersive reflections I used to watch these videos for

[@grahamrankin4725]

During my oceanography days, I enjoyed seeing the dinoflagellates as we churn the the waves at night.

[@coryscamihorn1811]

First he said, "PIE-co-grams and I was like, "wait is it..." then he said "PEE-ko-grams" and I was like, "wait, is it..." Now I am just confused.

[@ValeriePallaoro]

He says 'fun-gus' and fun-jeye .. so, there's that, too.

[@backstreetfan2887]

@@ValeriePallaoro Maybe the fungus/fungi thing has to do the actual rules for latin pronunciation, but pronouncing picograms two ways in one video I have no explanation for!

[@markwoll]

4k60p full screen. Nice!

[@internetdinosaur8810]

This channel is fucking amazing

[@badartgallery9322]

I love it.

[@5daboz]

Humans: We are the most advanced DNA blobs! Dinoflagellates: Ou, that is cute! I have an entire DNA section dedicated to ... wait, who are you again?

[@chloewebb94]

We do need the sun to make D3.. which gives us energy among other things

[@TheTonyMcD]

OMG, I can't believe this channel is already a year and half old. I found you on the very first video, but my god, it feels like that was only like two or three months ago...

[@F.o.s.t.e.r.]

Hanks ASMR voice is unsettling. He's been nothing but fire and excitement for years.

[@ValeriePallaoro]

Hank is a complicated person. On his vlogbrothers early stuff he goes absolutely bat-shit crazy .. so, there's that, too.

[@lotrlmao1648]

Finally i see the world of microorganism in colourful vision under microscope and it is quite impressive！I hope that few years later we can finally see the world of microorganism in 3D. And also, i wonder how did the aircraft carrier leave the trails of glowing plankton

[@blinded6502]

I am glad you guys keep on making videos. Don't get discouraged by lowered viewcounts, forever appreciate people who are interested

[@ValeriePallaoro]

who's saying they get lower viewcounts? who's saying the discouraged??

[@blinded6502]

@@ValeriePallaoro Just take a look at the channel

[@AquaSplendor]

@@blinded6502 its astonomus number, I don't understand your comments

[@katherinebeatrizgonzalezag5928]

gracias por estos videos que inspiran :)

[@sinachiniforoosh]

Me 🤝 Dinoflagellates "I'm gonna tell mom what you did"

[@arivaldodeoliveira5700]

Pro-tips noted with thanks :)

[@silentwisdom7025]

In my family we have an old story of kids being pesty. Three similar aged boys were roughhousing and being normal rambunctious kids. But one was getting irritated and on the losing end of the fights. After a few hours of loud behavior in the house my patience was severely thin. The straw the broke the camel's back was the offended kid yelling to his mother"Mom!! He said Ha Ha!!!" I lost it, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!" To this day get laughs bringing that simple saying up. They usually bark back with the Ma he said HaHa comment. This is 15 years old but still makes the rounds at our meetings.

[@Marispider]

why is it that i never realized until this video mentioned the first description of dinoflagellates, that for most of human history we could see seas lighting up with the crash of waves without knowing what caused it. now i'm curious how people throughout history and different cultures explained it before we knew about microbes.

[@thatoneguy8512]

The last video I watched, I was at 1.25x speed. For the first minute or so of this, I couldn't figure out why it wasn't as soothing as I expected

[@curtiswilson859]

Nice little tease at quorum sensing at the end there!

[@damedesuka77]

Ooh first time I'm this early! Thanks for always uploading these very relaxing and also educational videos. Edit: 2:55 Why do they look like giraffes lying sideways to me 😂

[@Life_42]

Amazing! Especially in 4K!

[@agingerbeard]

This channel is so rad.

[@bluesap7318]

3:10 middle ceratium looks like a bird with its mouth wide open squawking for its life while it’s tongue vibrates back and forth.

[@wyattarich]

May the blessing of the algorithm be upon you

[@bengoodchild883]

Pike-o-grams and then picograms in the same sentence lol

[@jjstratford]

I just posted a comment about that lol

[@727Phoenix]

Thank you Hank, for your relaxing asmr voice with science. I now feel relaxed and smarter :-/

[@GordonFreechmen]

I'm already digging these bad boys just because of their shapes alone.

[@clairejeansonne9800]

Comments for the algorithm.

[@bigchunk1]

Replies for the comment.

[@user-mh2bw4hu3o]

A random angry comment.

[@user-mh2bw4hu3o]

A comment that scolds angry commenter.

[@lucrativelepton]

Insert meta comment here

[@Krabbenkolonie]

Anybody noticed that Ceratium looks like tiny giraffes? 😄

[@dapplegrey2345]

I think jim lovell survived right....?

[@kartikeypatel7426]

Well information. Good show. Well information.

[@dasdaleberger5683]

Hanks for the shout out!

[@pinnacleexpress420]

Perhaps this is why angler fish find success.

[@TazPessle]

@3:18 so is it pykograms or peekograms 🙃

[@ValeriePallaoro]

Is it funji or fungi ... some times you can't tell, with Hank

[@aidanmatthewgalea7761]

why is noone talking about how florida has a blood tide?

[@blobfishthedevourer3735]

2:46 The ultimate nunchuck-flagella microbe on the top left

[@alkaajani1083]

Thank you for amazing video

[@way-13]

It’s ironic that I’m a biology major focusing in chemistry and only now in learning that there’s an alternative to a nucleus? A DYOCARYON?!?!?!

[@TheSamuanelS]

Eukaryotes are more various than what it is usually taught. Another striking example is Ciliates (Ciliophora). Their cell harbors 2 different nuclei at once: the micronucleus is smaller, spherical, and diploid, and it is involved in sexual conjugation (an exchange of genetic material that does not depend on nor involve reproduction, common among ciliates); whereas the macronucleus is larger, polyploid, and elongated, and it is mainly responsible for the vegetative activity of the cell.

[@richarddeese1991]

Thanks. Dinokaryon either sounds like what Tyrannosaurs would eat, or like the luggage on an international Pterodactyl flight! Also, Nusuttodinium Aeruginosum is a wonderful example of the acquiring of functional foreign organelles, which provides a possible mechanism for explaining such things as how cells acquired distinct nuclei, as well as mitochondria. Fascinating! tavi.

[@psylock524]

A thought occurred to me: I notice that some shots James appears to be trying to keep an organism centered and in focus; couldn't you build a little device to read the video input and track, in a rudimentary fashion to how the auto-focus systems work in cameras? I might be interested in noodling on something like that.

[@rot_studios]

"Nusuttodinium Aeruginosum" is my new favorite thing to say

[@SharonD369]

I love this channel 👌👌👌