The Illuminating Reason Perenema Curl Up Into a Ball

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Watching this Peranema feels a bit like watching a cat waffling back and forth between whether or not it wants to take a nap. Sometimes the Peranema stretches, its body undulating into an elongated, indescribable geometry as its flagella twitch like whiskers. And then, sometimes, it curls up into a cozy circle, tucking one end into itself the way any feline friend you might know curls up around the perfect beam of sunshine.
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Journey to the Microcosmos is a Complexly production.
Find out more at www.complexly.com
SOURCES:
fmp.conncoll.edu/silicasecchi...
www.nature.com/articles/s4159...
academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
journals.biologists.com/jcs/a...
www.britannica.com/science/rh...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
This video has been dubbed using an artificial voice via aloud.area120.google.com to increase accessibility. You can change the audio track language in the Settings menu.

[@joeyhinds6216]

I can never tell what impresses me more, that life is so diverse or that it is so alike

[@WobblesandBean]

Isn't biology simply amazing? It's fascinating to me! They have little tiny organelles (which is an adorable name btw) that have analogues in our own macroorganism organs. The processes of life itself are complex but predictable, almost mechanical, yet uniquely organic.

[@nadapenny8592]

...🤯

[@unenglishable]

having a fascination with biology is such an attractive trait. where can i meet people like this irl 😭

[@Nyli.]

Yes

[@semaj_5022]

It's so cool that little organisms like the Peranema can use some of the same biological mechanisms as us, even if not quite to the same level of complexity. It's a cool reminder of just how much every living thing on this planet really does have in common.

[@AmaleeWilson]

Fun fact: rhodopsins from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii are used in the neuroscience technique of optogenetics, which allows scientists to control neurons with light.

[@mafarmerga]

Yeah I just learned about this from a seminar this semester. Very cool indeed.

[@gabrokkerhun]

It's insane how high quality this channel is. Looking forward to this one.

[@thelettre7954]

I love these videos so much. thank you from the nucleases of every single microorganism that lives within me and everyone else.

[@MamitaClaud]

ATM somewhere in the asian tropics while eating breakfast, I am loving the undulating Peranema and Eukaryotes. Well at some point jealous of those organisms who can generate their own food.

[@unenglishable]

"something might be common but that doesn't mean it can't be fascinating. indeed, very often it means the opposite" dropping the WISDOM 😭😭

[@dman5909]

I watch these every night in bed and I always fall asleep with my phone in my hand

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

What a neat little explanation of one of the things we share with our very, very distant cousins! Thanks, Hank & company, for what you do for us - here is all I can afford to offer in return, a like and comment as feed for for the Almighty Algorithm. ❤️❤️

[@scottydawg1234567]

I've said this before, but it was a long while ago, so I'm saying it again: His voice and the way that he speaks reminds me of Cecil Palmer. Like, I literally get the same feeling listening to this as I would listening to an episode of Welcome to Night Vale.

[@riyuilee295]

Comfort and a strange sense of unity amongst surrealism? I can see it.

[@scottydawg1234567]

@@riyuilee295 Yeah, you could say that.

[@christineseidman6224]

Love this.

[@Arkie80]

Euglenoid: 'You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.' Algae: 'Whatever.'

[@flightlesschicken7769]

Those little tentacles waving around are pretty cute 2:55

[@tayloreverard2039]

I love the way you Catopomorphized that microbe... Felinopomorphized? Gãtopomorphized? I like the latter myself.

[@GH-yk2ne]

Thank you for the Microcosmos merch! Perfect quality T-shirt, socks, and a nice cap! My son love it so much!

[@onieyoh9478]

The peranema is adorable. If it we're bigger id keep it as a pet. Would it enjoy a cage with hamster tubes?

[@MrGunzoller]

What an extremely sharp images of Microcosmos. Impressive

[@jimpanse3383]

Love this channel! Thank you!

[@natalieporter9873]

I so love this Chanel! I'm so happy I found it. The quality is just beyond! Thank you so much for all the amazing videos! There is nothing better to watch on KZbin!

[@tainaship2475]

i love that you have multiple audio tracks now! i don't understand Portuguese or Spanish, but i'm a huge language nerd and i often listen to the Portuguese audio just because i think it sounds beautiful, and follow the video using the English subtitles.

[@jacobwoodbury6073]

This is amazing. These images are so cool

[@LimeyLassen]

This one's my favorite from the channel. The vibes are exquisite. 😞👌

[@maydavies888]

When I get into my dteam rig, a cargo van that I'm planning to build into a class B RV, I'd love to buy or make a tardigrade body pillow. Goals.

[@tedbomba6631]

Thank you, for taking me on this journey with you.

[@Mythreesons137.]

Beautiful video , super optics

[@zacharywong483]

Very nice video, Microcosmos team!

[@nariu7times328]

love the slowed down footage :D

[@glennk.7348]

Thank you for putting the % slow down on the footage! 👍

[@thelovertunisia]

Amazing channel. Greetings from Tunisia.

[@gray42069]

I love these videos so much, they're so high quality and nice!!

[@scottthomas5819]

Yesss

[@sciencenerd7639]

Wow!

[@WAMTAT]

Glad to know we're not so different from our microbe cousins

[@miashadows]

I commented this on a vid I thought was new but was a year old! lol so here is my suggestion again 🙂 Last week i thought of a great show idea! I would love to see the microbes in the human gut! No poo is required, you could just culture the ones in the probiotics you can buy. Would love to see what im growing inside me!

[@stax6092]

Neat.

[@CL-go2ji]

Comment for the Algogod ... beautiful as usual!

[@bungeechord1]

Blindly going everywhere.

[@gamingwithlacks]

If it's any consolation to those waiting on Christmas gifts to arrive, I ordered my microscope mid-November (not JTTM brand) and it still hasn't arrived! You are not alone. 😔

[@nicholasdepaola3740]

What microscope did you order? Looking for a good microscope for my daughter.

[@jshsbeisb1836]

Wow

[@obieobrien5883]

Have you ever looked at the wing of a moth? Scaled…

[@sativaburns6705]

Is it weird I get the same calming effect from these videos as videos done by a foul mouthed botanist?

[@mafarmerga]

Wait, is there a foul mouthed botanist on KZbin that I have not yet discovered?

[@sativaburns6705]

@@mafarmergaMaybe, that channel is Crime pays but botany doesnt. Great stuff.

[@snehapradhan5591]

💜

[@TheTwistedTraceur]

i wish there was a store for europe

[@cerberaodollam]

You and me both

[@Ratciclefan]

What a long flagellum

[@RJFerret]

Wait, wait, bacteria reversing direction in response to light? Can we expand on that? (A couple websearches were unsatisfactory.)

[@mafarmerga]

Many cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) are capable of gliding motility. One of my earliest experiments was showing how a randomly distributed plate of these photosynthetic bacteria would all move towards dim light within 24 hours. Look up "gliding motility" and "Phototaxis" in "Oscillatoria".

[@StayPrimal]

Hope you guys are doing well? Its been 3 weeks since the last upload.

[@ThaRickiestRick]

Aw man for grandma. I'm a grandma now🤶

[@jpopelish]

What wavelengths of light trigger rhodopsin? Would avoiding those specific wavelengts in your illumination also eliminate the rolling up reflex?

[@mafarmerga]

High energy blue wavelengths mostly. And yes, light sensing first evolved to allow cells to avoid places of high UV/Blue light because these are the wavelengths that can damage DNA. Too much direct exposure to bright light and you are likely to die due to DNA damage.

[@bluefalcontransport6335]

New video just dropped :D

[@noellundstrom7447]

Love this channel, I just wish you dove into the science and nuts and bolts a bit more!

[@mafarmerga]

read my comments, I am a specialist on euglenoids.

[@tatoverde9312]

Why don't you sell calendar with microimages y text with explaination?

[@tonyl9051]

How do Peranema move their flagella and other parts without having muscles?

[@gildedpeahen876]

They and a lot of other microbes have these helical toroidal stripes going down their bodies, like muscle strips. Certain microbes it’s quite visible, they move in a spiral, just like every level of life🖤 the universe is a toroid🍩, the human heart is helical and pumps in a spiral…Fibonacci layers to everything.

[@jamesourmasterofmicroscopes]

1:17

[@shanerooney7288]

What do we have in common with undulating peranema? Our good looks.

[@mafarmerga]

We are all eukaryotes. Common ancestor was LECA.

[@Kiddenreal]

I’m raising some brine shrimp/sea monkeys and I use coloured lights to light the tanks up and I find when I use red light they go to the top of the tank and then when I switch to blue they all dart for the bottom of the tank, red makes them fight at the top blue makes them eat at the bottom, it’s very strange.

[@mafarmerga]

Blue light can damage DNA in a colorless organism like brine shrimp. Not surprising that they run away from it.

[@Kiddenreal]

@@mafarmerga where did you find that information I would really like to read up on that if you remember, all I can find is studies that show brine shrimp are the most attracted to blue light and in most cases swim towards it, they are least attracted to red light but I can’t find any info regarding blue light damaging DNA.

[@Kiddenreal]

My hypothesis is that the blue light attracts them to the algae better (witch is at the bottom of my tanks) since they eat blue green algae and the red wavelength just doesn’t give off that same spectrum.

[@mafarmerga]

@@Kiddenreal I am a Ph.D. biologist. It is well known that UV-B can damage DNA, so it makes sense that many organisms, including Peranema, have evolved to avoid UV-Blue light.

[@mafarmerga]

@@Kiddenreal Geoffroy, M., Langbehn, T., Priou, P. et al. Pelagic organisms avoid white, blue, and red artificial light from scientific instruments. Sci Rep 11, 14941 (2021).

[@vikashprasad8085]

intro song?

[@nadapenny8592]

Is it existential dread? If they don't curl up because of existential dread then we are nothing alike

[@biomuseum6645]

Guys, can I use your footage elsewhere? Of course giving credit to the talented James

[@mafarmerga]

Not only that but I have unpublished data from Urceolus, another colorless euglenoid, that shows and eyespot and paraflagellar swelling (photo-receptor) nearly identical to the green euglenoids. Urceolus is an obligate heterotroph that feeds mostly on diatoms and other algal prey. I believe that as with Peranema, light perception aided in prey capture, especially if one is hunting green algae or diatoms!

[@brendakrieger7000]

🔬🦠💚🎄

[@thelurechannel1930]

Me in canada:

[@Jonhdudley2]

I love this channel a lot but I gotta say why. Until watching this channel I had never seen anything like it in my life. My very first impression was how much more amazing Jesus Christ is than I ever realized. His creatures and creations never cease to surprise and amaze me. I can’t believe the narrator implied we came from evolutionary microbial bugs. I hope I misunderstood him there is no way he’s that shallow. I still love the channel I’m just in shock now. I never imagined someone could watch this and believe in evolution

[@gildedpeahen876]

Amen the way I see it, this is just one more matryoshka doll layer of life that plays out for His pleasure. I think He watches all levels of life from a single atom (Adam?) to a galaxy… I personally think these entities all have personalities like humans and animals have at our level of life. They aren’t more simple just because they are smaller. Like Hawking said, a single cell is more complex than the biggest computer we can make. There’s a place in “A wrinkle in time” universe where you can go and size is no concern, so the main character little girl is hanging out with a galaxy cluster and an organelle from inside her little brother’s mitochondria as friends and equals. She ends up going inside her brother’s mitochondria with this little guy (who is described like a mouse-kinda like the lil guys in this video) and it’s a whole world inside this part of a cell, the mitochondria is their “earth” that they call Yah. Madeline Lengle was a Christian fantasy writer..if you enjoyed the Christian tone of cs Lewis novels you’d like L’Engle. So there is a Fibonacci like symmetry to all levels of life. Because our God is infinite.

[@gildedpeahen876]

Girl you just gotta disregard the evolution stuff. There’s not much science info anywhere that isn’t Darwin influenced. You just have to interpret it through a biblical lens for yourself. I prefer the earlier seasons of this show, they were more asmr focused. Take the grain, leave the chaff. Absorb the golden knowledge, leave the Darwinian Dross. Lol I love a good alliterative affect 😉, I’m gonna make “Darwinian Dross” t shirt and just stand near those interpretive informational plaques that tell you how to “see” the evidence!

[@mafarmerga]

Sorry but you did not misunderstand him. Biological evolution has been at work for 3.8 billion years, long before humanity felt the need to invent the idea of god(s).

[@gildedpeahen876]

@@mafarmerga no one was there to see anything before we came into this world. It’s for us to decide how we interpret the world we see. Some choose to decide for themselves and not simply bow before the scientific priestly class, who claim only they are worthy to discern the evidence.

[@mafarmerga]

@@gildedpeahen876 "It’s for us to decide how we interpret the world we see." Yup. And that is what science does. It makes sense of the world without having to invoke magic. Scientists are always quick to say "I don't know." Have you ever met a person of faith who is willing to say the same thing?

[@artmakersworlds]

This channel never fails to amaze. Quick question, 4:50 what are the orange spots each one seems to have? Light sensing organ? (total guess.)

[@emilie6466]

Ye pretty sure that’s rhodopsin Edit: looking further into it, it is a carotenoid pigment used for detecting light.

[@WobblesandBean]

Yup! That's an eyespot. It can't really see like we can, but it can detect light and dark. That's how it knows when to curl up

[@artmakersworlds]

@@WobblesandBean Yea ok, kinda figured it might be a light sensing thing. Very cool indeed.

[@mafarmerga]

Sorry guys but the red spot in euglenoids is NOT the light sending structure. Light sensing occurs in a structure called the paraflagellar swelling which is on the base of the flagellum itself. The red "eyespot" is actually a packet of pigment granules that blocks blue-yellow light (hence it appearing red in colour) and acts as a shading mechanism. Because it is close to the light sensing paraflagellar swelling it periodically blocks some light and thus as the cell spins around it can tell the direction from which the light is coming. An ingenious system that allows euglenoids to not only detect light, but also to tell direction of that light. Euglena can exhibit both positive and negative phototaxis based on the intensity of the light.

[@stevenkarnisky411]

Are the protein chains that allow paranema to stretch and curl the precursors of muscle tissue?

[@mafarmerga]

No, it is not an actin/myosin system like in muscle cells.

[@finalfan321]

i make my own food

[@gildedpeahen876]

I miss the asmr inspired narration that was so prominent in these videos the first few seasons. Hank would quietly tell you a story about a lil friend, I still use seasons 1-3 as background tracks to go to sleep…the narration now just feels like slightly toned down version of the cut heavy, high energy “KZbin-y” sci show style presentation.

[@TheRogueWolf]

If I could undulate like that, I'd be a lot more popular.

[@mafarmerga]

Did you know that sexual activity has never been demonstrated in any euglenoid, not even Peranema? As a microbe great dance moves are not likely to get one laid.

[@samwong8939]

e

[@thomasdoubting]

Michael Behe has ruined the word *"flagellum"* for me. 🤮

[@mafarmerga]

Bacteria have flagella, for Peranema and all eukaryotes I always use the word cilium/cilia

[@jasonworks1454]

You people? Buy stuff? Wow.

[@Roboterize]

🦠🦠 🦠🦠 🦠🦠 🦠🦠 🦠🦠 🦠🦠