"Son, i believe it's time for you to learn about the figs and the wasps." "Dad, I already know about the birds an- wait what?" "...also there's caterpillars"
I never had the talk. I learned it through a book, meant for kids between ages 5-8. To this day, it's still my favourite way I learned about it. There were other books in the series, directed at older audiences, but none of them explained it as nicely as the 5-8 one did. At least in my opinion.
Steve didn't *want* to use the word "want" in those ways, he's just an educational youtuber who has evolved to behave in a way that distills information and disseminates it in the most expedient fashion.
Robert Miles I happened to be eating dried figs (as I do every morning with my first coffee at work) whilst watching this, but I knew what to expect about the wasp detail! 😁
... number 2 will shock you! (to a greater or lesser extent than the other 4 things). Hope you like the format! Quick note about image stabilisation in the Pixel 2. It seems there is OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) in the phone too, which is a type of mechanical stabilisation that involves moving the lens to keep the image stable. From my research this is used to reduce blur in still images but not to reduce shake in video. It's all about the internal sensors for video on the Pixel 2.
Steve - I just wanted to let you know that years later, your videos are still teaching me things. I was waiting in the truck while my wife was shopping and noticed these spirals going up the antenna of the truck beside me. I then realized that mine also had the spiral. It hit me, all these years later, that you had explained why they have the spiral in this very video! When my wife came out, I nerded-out and explained resonating frequency to her and your chimney example!
Love the vid. Here's an index: 0:41 Image stabilization 4:44 Fig wasps 8:20 Chimney fins 10:47 Lima beans 12:31 String tower 13:30 Great Courses Plus 14:38 Bonus fig fact
interesting fact 1.1 - dslr cameras with image stabilization actually move their imaging-sensor to cope with shaky footage - you can even hear and feel the mechanism working (at least on my older pentax)
Haven't had a Pentax, but it's sick that they started it all! Since manufacturers have removed the mirrors on their cameras, new mirrorless camera bodies have been slowly incorporating the in-body IS, only tractioning as of recent. Olympus really started the whole thing, at least on the mirrorless world back in 08, and from what I've seen they are the most effective. Though Fujifilm and Panasonic have really caught up a lot.
It's fascinating to me how sophisticated plant communication actually is. There are plenty of examples of a single plant releasing a stimulatory chemical during an animal attack, triggering responses in neighboring plants of the same species. An example of this is the tobacco plant: It can actually alter the chemistry of it's leaves & stem to increase it's toxicity in response to attacks by tobacco beetles, and also signal to other tobacco plants to do the same - all without a central nervous system! There are rich & dynamic conversations between plants happening all around us, just at very different time scales...
IIRC the “toxic” compound that tobacco plants use to protect themselves is nicotine, so does that process you described end up with a stronger/more potent tobacco product? If so, do tobacco growers ever cause this effect intentionally to increase the quality of their yield?
They do this by communcating by sound. They are clicking/poppig oxygen in a ultra high frequency. So yeah, plants can talk and listen to each other. Look it up somewhere on TH-cam is Video from israelian scientists.
The vortex shedding spoilers on towers are also useful when strapping down a tent with flat webbing belts. They are generally pulling the tent down toward the ground so the tent doesn't fly away. Typically rated for 5000-10,000 pounds of tension, the straps are attached to 1 inch wide stakes hammered 40 inches into the ground. The straps vibrate strongly in the wind, like that rubber band with the hairdryer. The fix is to give each strap a half twist or a full twist. totally stops.
When you think about it though, it's not like the fig tree itself is consuming wasps for nutrients. It's killing them for reproduction, which is if anything more disturbing (alternately, infant figs only get to begin the journey of life by killing at least one wasp). Nature is so Metal 😉
I love the air quotes to acknowledge that anthropomorphising scientific concepts is misleading but sometimes "useful". We've got a real teacher here. Fantastic videos Steve.
I’m so glad I came across your channel!! So informative and extremely entertaining!!! You are so freakin intelligent...I feel smarter after watching lol!! Thank you for your wonderful content!!
I love the title, and I think each having almost nothing directly in common makes the video work. Any theme would in fact make it seem more like a countdown video.
@@BlazertronGames I don't know why but the very fact that figs basically digest and break down wasps so I see none of them when I bite into one is so remarkable that it makes them tastier in my eyes.
The fact that this same process is why flags wave and amber waves of grain and ocean surface (non tidal/current) waves...well, same, highly related...yeah, it's a bit complicated...but beautifully complicated.
As the sister of someone who creates computer models of fluid dynamics in various situations, and really likes to try to explain it at family gatherings, I can agree that saying "it's complicated" is like saying "0° Kelvin is rather chilly". Though, she at least brings her laptop to show some of the cool stuff that she's done. I'll stick with data analysis. At least with that, you can explain it to people who know nothing about it by saying "so, given this bit of information, and this other bit, oh, and that bit over there too, I can tell you that this thing here is probably true, with decently high accuracy".
Well I unconsciously uttered, "Oh, interesting!" for each of these Interesting Things, so I suppose it does what it says on the tin. I very much like this format!
I had a friend who used to work at a company that made pollution probes that stuck into industrial chimneys. His job was to go around the country climbing up the side and calibrating these things. He said the calibration was a painstakingly delicate adjustment made with a small screwdriver and it was exceedingly difficult to do that when you and the structure are shaking wildly. I asked him why is the chimney shaking? He said I don't know! But THEY DO! I assumed years later that they must vibrate due to the wind just like any tall skinny structure in strong wind will do ... eventually you hit a resonant frequency induced by the wind and it starts shaking. Now I have a more refined explanation and their mitigation strategy. Thanks!
Regarding the Fig Wasps (#2) There's a great documentary about fig trees, I saw it years ago, called "Queen of Trees" and it shows the entire life cycle of these insane wasps. I found it: (last time I looked for it I couldn't find it) th-cam.com/video/xy86ak2fQJM/w-d-xo.html
the interesting thing #1 is just OIS, which is the movement of the camera lens to stabilize the video. The rolling shutter is probably the EIS, or the electronic image stabilization, which is described.
oh my god the spiral fins i paused the video and haven't continued yet i was asking myself this exact question repeatedly recently (one tower next to my new home has that) and thinking i should seek for the explanation... and there it is, i'll know it in a few seconds... can't wait. thank you so much
Steve, you're an excellent teacher. Just binge watched a few of your videos, and I'm so impressed with how you're able to break down "difficult" concepts in a manner that is easy to comprehend, even if the subject matter is foreign to us. My kids (homeschool-High schoolers) love watching your videos too. Well done!!
The fig varieties sold as "fresh figs" in the produce section of grocery stores are usually varieties that don't require pollination in order to fruit. As a result, fig wasps are not necessary for fruit production, and so fig farmers don't use them. Unfortunately, dry figs (like Smyrna and Calimyrna figs) do require fig wasps to pollinate them. It's quite interesting how it's done- Ficus carica is a diecious species, so the the fig wasps are cultivated separately on male fig trees and then the wasp-laden male figs are transported in paper bags with holes in them to female fig trees for pollination.
Just a friendly reminder that biology is a beautiful, brutal, horror show. Also, the video may be 8 months old, but the algorithm wanted me to see it now 🤔
My biology teacher always said "biology is really the study of three things. Living things eating. Living things having sex (reproduction). Living things dying."
@@acidset It was more of an interesting observation of the random popularity spikes of content. But there is something particularly amusing about getting a comment notification about it a year later as well 😉
After I found out about the deal with figs, I've loved every time I can inform someone who hasn't found out to see their reaction. It's always sheer disgust
Wasps as a whole are the most terrifying creatures on Earth. They have many different kinds of life cycles, and all of them seem to be nightmarish in some way or another.
I mean, youre right, most of them are stinging bastards. But not all of them. My dad in Easton PA and I noticed this GIANT species of some kind of vespid this summer, naturally we both concluded it was the murder hornets from Asia finally having reached PA from where theyd made landfall in Washington state a few years ago. Two terrified days of either running to our cars or parking down the street from the hedge where the wasps had hived, my dad identified them for sure as a non-stinging species of fruit pollinating, harmless wasp. They look terrifying, but I guess this is one case where looks being deceiving is actually fortunate.
A video with quality explanations of several super interesting but unrelated things packed into one juicy package??? Love it! Anything to subtract from the endless stream of pointless TikTok style spam starting to pumped into the platform is a plus for me
Late to the game here, but a very interesting follow-up question is why do male figs not support the wasp life cycle. It would seem to be an advantageous to the fig to get as many wasps out there as possible to pollenate. I'll postulate one possibility: you mentioned we don't eat the male figs due to their being bland - perhaps it takes a larger amount of energy to produce a tasty (likely with lots of carbs in the form of sugars) female fig vs a male fig?
Good question. It's actually the female fig that does not support the wasp life cycle. The reason for this is simple: the wasp lays one egg per seed inside a receptive fig. If the wasp could lay an egg for every seed, the species could not reproduce. So, it's hypothesized that the female fig trees developed an extra long 'style' to prevent egg laying (maximizing sex-neutral seed dispersal) while the male trees maintained short styles (allowing for reproduction of pollinators). On top of this, many male 'caprifig' will maintain overwintering fig crops to ensure an uninterrupted wasp life cycle, while female figs often fall off at the end of the season.
Good show Steve. FYI The effectiveness of helical strakes for reducing vortex induced vibration was discovered in 1957 by Christopher Scruton and D. E. J. Walshe at the National Physics Laboratory in Great Britain.They are therefore often described as Scruton strakes
I like the format. I hope you keep making them. Just one thing to think about: people might be more likely to watch the whole video if it was like a 10 minute 3 interesting things instead of a 16 minute 5 things. A lot of times I go on TH-cam when I just have a few minutes to kill and I often don’t go back to finish a video that I didn’t have time to get through. Maybe that’s just me lol. I’d think TH-cam analytics could probably tell you if it’s a common occurrence. Plus if you break the videos into smaller chunks, you can release them more often.... that’s my true motivation for the suggestion XD Ps. I think your videos are always worth coming back to finish watching. Keep up the good work!
about the first experiment with the pixel 2. you fixed the picture to be always in front of the lenses, but I'm not sure if you know that those lenses are not statically fixed to the frame of the phone, they use a kind of springy mechanism to stabilize the footage. So every time you move, the camera lenses are moving too, not just a software effect.
Some thoughts about the fig wasp: 1) Insects other than grasshoppers and locusts* are not Kosher, so observant Jews carefully wash all insects from fruits and vegetables (this is alluded to in the Gospels when Jesus calls out the Pharisees for (metaphorically) “straining out gnats but swallowing camels” (which are also not Kosher) in their moral teachings). 2) Did God know about the dead wasps inside every fig, and just make an unspoken/unwritten exception to the insect ban, which would only be discovered after thousands of years? 3) Or is eating “predigested” insects not the same as eating insects or insect parts “as is?” * Actually, all invertebrates (a classification not known when the Torah was written, except to God) other than grasshoppers and locusts are forbidden, hence no lobsters, crabs, etc. IANAR, in fact IANAJ, so if a rabbi wants to respond, I would love to learn some more about Kashrut as relating to bugs. Happy Hanukkah and Shalom!
I came over from Smarter every day thanks to the collab video... Instant subscriber after this video! ... It has been a while that a video has given me this much of a wtf moment... idk how to recover from the wasp in the fig story xD
Really interesting stuff, thanks for sharing! You've inspired me to make the tension string tower! Just a small suggestion, the transitions between things were just a bit too fast, maybe pause for a second longer?
a different version of both. back to a point where both were not co-dependent, but had options. Just that this option turned out to be the most lucrative, so the individuals that bet on this method, had more children than those that did, so over time, the whole species evolved into this direction.
@Danny BRITZMAN Allow me to point out it was a perfect opportunity to point out something worthwhile despite the lameness of the set-up, as it did hint at a deeper question.
@@organicaca logically mathematically and the time limit of the universe disagrees, can a book just pop out of non-existence? Supposing we gave it unlimited time which is not real whatsoever
8:20 interesting, that reminded me of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. It reached resonant frequency and went down! But I'm sure Steve Mould already knew that.
Looking outside at my parent’s fig tree and thinking, “…An apple will do just fine.” Small donation from Australia in appreciation, brother Steve. Keep up the excellent work, sir, for it certainly is worthy of much more praise than these few lines could hope to encompass.
Technically this video should be titled 6 Interesting Things because the video just happens to be interesting too. But seriously, you've made an amazing video as always 👍🏻
You have a very good point there. The only way around that would be to say that although this interesting video is the container interesting things, the container of this video would be my internet browser. Like if I were to stuff a steamed bun with red bean paste, yeah, the tasty steamed bun may be the container of the tasty red bean paste and the steamed bun isn't contained within itself therefore a steamed bun only contains one tasty thing (being the red bean paste) but the container of the steamed bun is my stomach which would contain two tasty things. Damn, I'm hungry now! 😞
I searched for more than 40 minutes for the phone camera video, I knew it was by you but found nothing among your uploads! Good thing I remembered about this series
Yep very interesting and enjoyable format. Wasp seem to like to lay their eggs into every other living thing. Crazy that a plant get the better of them. I love learning these things. Thank you
Do the figs need to be fertilized? Does the fruit grow whether or not it is fertilized? I have a tree that makes hundreds of fruits but I’ve never seen another fig tree in my neighborhood, nor have I found any wasps in the fruit. Do the wasps go only to certain varieties of figs, or are they equal opportunity pollinators? Would this make hybridized varieties? Sorry! Lots of questions-but this is so fascinating!
Yep, there are hundreds of fig varieties which do not require pollination to ripen some or all fruit. And the fig wasp will attempt to enter any fig expressing the correct pheromone cocktail. Breeding work done at UC Riverside successfully crossed f. carica with f. palmata, as well as f. pseudo-carica and f. pumila. All hybrids had successful pollination by the same species of fig wasp. Figs are quite complex. I've found the subject really interesting. Cheers!
I will never eat figs again. I liked the video format--I don't want interesting ideas to fall by the wayside just because they're too short to stand alone.
Sent here from “smarter every day’ - love the vids and 5 interesting things was actually about 7 in the end, great format more like this please. Also my wife makes fig jam, every jar about 8 digested wasps.
The string thing has to be my most favourite. Nothing satisfies me more than an engineer or scientist showing you something, just for pure amazement factor. Like, "Look at this. You seeing this shit?" *mind blown hand actions*
I’ve always hated figs and hearing of the weird wasp interactions I’ve never felt so vindicated and justified in all my life! It’s almost as disgusting as chicken eggs!
Everyone’s like,
“Ew, dead wasps!”
well, I’m sure we can all agree that living wasps are much worse for eating.
yum!
I dunno about wasps, but yellowjackets taste pretty good
We can also all agree on that figs are delicious.
But the living wasps are crunchy...
@@kaibroeking9968 come over, i've got some in my shed, and i'm happy to share a snack with you
"Son, i believe it's time for you to learn about the figs and the wasps."
"Dad, I already know about the birds an- wait what?"
"...also there's caterpillars"
Your dad's into some freaky stuff.
Sex talks are getting complicated the days...
I never had the talk. I learned it through a book, meant for kids between ages 5-8. To this day, it's still my favourite way I learned about it. There were other books in the series, directed at older audiences, but none of them explained it as nicely as the 5-8 one did. At least in my opinion.
What was the book called?
@@kaydubsthekoifish What was the book called?
When two fig trees love each other very much. A wasp comes about and does the rest.
Or one fig tree loves itself
Dear God 😂
Anything done with wasps is terrifying, even when they basically a tool used during plant sex.
How... to... delete... someone’s... comment...
*No Results.*
Do mummy and daddy tell the baby fig tree that the wasp is their version of the stalk delivering babies? 😆
Steve didn't *want* to use the word "want" in those ways, he's just an educational youtuber who has evolved to behave in a way that distills information and disseminates it in the most expedient fashion.
I love this
@@LaneMaxfield why don't you marry it then?
@@aceman0000099 oooo big man
@@bigbeans202oooo big beans
Excellent video, like the format, never eating another fig.
Robert Miles I happened to be eating dried figs (as I do every morning with my first coffee at work) whilst watching this, but I knew what to expect about the wasp detail! 😁
It's always awesome to see my favorite youtubers watching my other favorite youtubers.
This actually make me want to eat more figs; I will absorb the power of the wasps that the figs absorbed!
Most unpleasant for me was the realisation that the wasps mating inside the fig were siblings.
One other thought - if figs digest wasps, are figs themselves suitable for vegans?
Caterpillar: "Om nom nom."
Lima bean: "There is always a bigger fish".
... number 2 will shock you! (to a greater or lesser extent than the other 4 things). Hope you like the format!
Quick note about image stabilisation in the Pixel 2. It seems there is OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) in the phone too, which is a type of mechanical stabilisation that involves moving the lens to keep the image stable. From my research this is used to reduce blur in still images but not to reduce shake in video. It's all about the internal sensors for video on the Pixel 2.
Is that string tower a Buckminster Fuller sculpture? Very beautiful piece of art!
Did not put pressure on the string, how do we know it is not just stiff.
Steve Mould wait, london, backside of the Tate &Lyle sugar factory. . . Woolwich arsenal.
I liked the content, but I wouldn't have minded multiple shorter videos (although I can imagine ad revenue goes up with longer videos).
Alistair Shaw correct! Good sleuthing.
Steve - I just wanted to let you know that years later, your videos are still teaching me things.
I was waiting in the truck while my wife was shopping and noticed these spirals going up the antenna of the truck beside me. I then realized that mine also had the spiral. It hit me, all these years later, that you had explained why they have the spiral in this very video!
When my wife came out, I nerded-out and explained resonating frequency to her and your chimney example!
I always thought that was the wire the was wrapped around it to get a better connection until u just mentioned that
Love the vid. Here's an index:
0:41 Image stabilization
4:44 Fig wasps
8:20 Chimney fins
10:47 Lima beans
12:31 String tower
13:30 Great Courses Plus
14:38 Bonus fig fact
And we already have timestamps, nice!
Thank you !
Thank you!
Completely missed the bonus fig fact. Thanks a million!
Thanks i needed this! 😂
interesting fact 1.1 - dslr cameras with image stabilization actually move their imaging-sensor to cope with shaky footage - you can even hear and feel the mechanism working (at least on my older pentax)
Haven't had a Pentax, but it's sick that they started it all! Since manufacturers have removed the mirrors on their cameras, new mirrorless camera bodies have been slowly incorporating the in-body IS, only tractioning as of recent. Olympus really started the whole thing, at least on the mirrorless world back in 08, and from what I've seen they are the most effective. Though Fujifilm and Panasonic have really caught up a lot.
Called opticial image stabilization i believe
It's fascinating to me how sophisticated plant communication actually is. There are plenty of examples of a single plant releasing a stimulatory chemical during an animal attack, triggering responses in neighboring plants of the same species. An example of this is the tobacco plant: It can actually alter the chemistry of it's leaves & stem to increase it's toxicity in response to attacks by tobacco beetles, and also signal to other tobacco plants to do the same - all without a central nervous system!
There are rich & dynamic conversations between plants happening all around us, just at very different time scales...
IIRC the “toxic” compound that tobacco plants use to protect themselves is nicotine, so does that process you described end up with a stronger/more potent tobacco product? If so, do tobacco growers ever cause this effect intentionally to increase the quality of their yield?
@@MerkhVision interesting
Just don't tell it to vegans.
Plants are too sophisticated. It must be unethical to grow them for eating 🤔
They do this by communcating by sound. They are clicking/poppig oxygen in a ultra high frequency. So yeah, plants can talk and listen to each other. Look it up somewhere on TH-cam is Video from israelian scientists.
The vortex shedding spoilers on towers are also useful when strapping down a tent with flat webbing belts. They are generally pulling the tent down toward the ground so the tent doesn't fly away. Typically rated for 5000-10,000 pounds of tension, the straps are attached to 1 inch wide stakes hammered 40 inches into the ground. The straps vibrate strongly in the wind, like that rubber band with the hairdryer. The fix is to give each strap a half twist or a full twist. totally stops.
So, are figs considered carnivorous plants then? After all, they literally digest the wasps.
Nixitur thats what i was thinking too, its the same thing other carnivorous plants do but figs arent obligate carnivores
That's what I was thinking simultaneously while also thinking I'm never going to eat another Fig Newton.
When you think about it though, it's not like the fig tree itself is consuming wasps for nutrients. It's killing them for reproduction, which is if anything more disturbing (alternately, infant figs only get to begin the journey of life by killing at least one wasp). Nature is so Metal 😉
Hoansbuckler Rose hedges can trap sheep that then starves, dies and gives nutrition to the soil.
@@EchoHeo I dunno if it's like eating a murderer, that would be eating a fig tree rather than the fruit. This is more like sucking one off.
"Interesting things"
Step 1: Cut a hole in a box.
Uhh... I'm not sure I want to see the rest of this, Steve
😂😂😂 good joke
I love the air quotes to acknowledge that anthropomorphising scientific concepts is misleading but sometimes "useful". We've got a real teacher here. Fantastic videos Steve.
Only children would be confused by it. But it's open youtube and children should be watching these. So he compensates with air quotes. Brilliant
I’m so glad I came across your channel!! So informative and extremely entertaining!!! You are so freakin intelligent...I feel smarter after watching lol!! Thank you for your wonderful content!!
It's a really nice format actually. I quite enjoyed it :D
I love the title, and I think each having almost nothing directly in common makes the video work. Any theme would in fact make it seem more like a countdown video.
I'm done eating image stabilization cameras, figs on the other hand seem delicious.
wut
wait until you try the cat photos!
Mmmm cat photos...
EasilyFallsForClickbait thank you
I eat poisoned cats
You sir, are a kind one! One in a thousand! Thank you for your time spent sharing your curiosity, observation, knowledge and thoughts with us!
I've never wanted to not eat a fig any more than now.
Figs, new recipe, now 70% more proteins! (apparently)
How many fig newtons did you eat as a kid?
I don't give a shit, figs are tasty!
@@BlazertronGames I don't know why but the very fact that figs basically digest and break down wasps so I see none of them when I bite into one is so remarkable that it makes them tastier in my eyes.
I love figs even more now.
Fun fact: TH-cam implemented 'Shorts' just to give Steve a new format to use for video ideas like these
The idea with Schrödinger’s cat was NOT to observe the cat. Man, you have to learn your stuff before putting cats in boxes!
Human Person if I fits, I sits...
*pictures of people shoving their butts into tight spaces*
Have you tried PUTTING a cat in a box over allowing the cat to get in itself! Not pretty.
@@CheekyD21 ?*
Schrödinger's cat is how the most intellectual serial killers get their start
No clickbait. These are more than 5 facts, and they all are interesting. Very nice contrast to those other mindblowing-whatnot-vids 👍
Man. That whole fig story was really interesting and rather tragic
This channel should be mentioned by every schiool teacher to students. Very fun and educative.. I am 42 old and I love it.
"fluid dynamics is complicated" is probably the understatement of the year xD
Carlos Muñoz was just about to say the same thing lol
The fact that this same process is why flags wave and amber waves of grain and ocean surface (non tidal/current) waves...well, same, highly related...yeah, it's a bit complicated...but beautifully complicated.
As the sister of someone who creates computer models of fluid dynamics in various situations, and really likes to try to explain it at family gatherings, I can agree that saying "it's complicated" is like saying "0° Kelvin is rather chilly". Though, she at least brings her laptop to show some of the cool stuff that she's done.
I'll stick with data analysis. At least with that, you can explain it to people who know nothing about it by saying "so, given this bit of information, and this other bit, oh, and that bit over there too, I can tell you that this thing here is probably true, with decently high accuracy".
As a physics undergrad I can endorse this statement
Fluid dynamics is dark sorcery. Easier to understand the life cycle of a black hole.
I like this format. There is enough material on each "thing" to let me know if it warrants more research on my part.
Well I unconsciously uttered, "Oh, interesting!" for each of these Interesting Things, so I suppose it does what it says on the tin. I very much like this format!
Steve, the Krispy Kreme analogi is priceless. 😂 now I’m craving for figs and donuts.
That was a piss poor display of grass blowing.
I deserved that.
Hahahaha
@Boco Corwin well played
I had a friend who used to work at a company that made pollution probes that stuck into industrial chimneys. His job was to go around the country climbing up the side and calibrating these things. He said the calibration was a painstakingly delicate adjustment made with a small screwdriver and it was exceedingly difficult to do that when you and the structure are shaking wildly. I asked him why is the chimney shaking? He said I don't know! But THEY DO! I assumed years later that they must vibrate due to the wind just like any tall skinny structure in strong wind will do ... eventually you hit a resonant frequency induced by the wind and it starts shaking. Now I have a more refined explanation and their mitigation strategy. Thanks!
Regarding the Fig Wasps (#2)
There's a great documentary about fig trees, I saw it years ago, called "Queen of Trees" and it shows the entire life cycle of these insane wasps.
I found it: (last time I looked for it I couldn't find it)
th-cam.com/video/xy86ak2fQJM/w-d-xo.html
amazing video, thanks!
Thank you so much. It was overwhelming.
So beautiful, thank you!
Mark Ahlquist thanks bud, looking forward to checking it out.
the interesting thing #1 is just OIS, which is the movement of the camera lens to stabilize the video. The rolling shutter is probably the EIS, or the electronic image stabilization, which is described.
Did anyone else see that box setup at the start and think "he's found a way to spy on Schrödinger's Cat!" ?
Definitely do more videos like this! The fig wasp and caterpillar wasp stuff was facinating!
So the fig tree eats fig wasps
Fig-ures.
@@MonkeyJedi99 fig you
Figuratively speaking, fig off.
No they figing eat each other
God Hates Figs
Thanks, now I understand a bit more about my fig tree! The other items are interesting as well, of course
oh my god the spiral fins
i paused the video and haven't continued yet
i was asking myself this exact question repeatedly recently (one tower next to my new home has that) and thinking i should seek for the explanation... and there it is, i'll know it in a few seconds...
can't wait. thank you so much
:) hope it made sense!
If you often find yourself asking questions like these, you might also enjoy the TH-cam channel Practical Engineering by Grady Hillhouse
Steve, you're an excellent teacher. Just binge watched a few of your videos, and I'm so impressed with how you're able to break down "difficult" concepts in a manner that is easy to comprehend, even if the subject matter is foreign to us. My kids (homeschool-High schoolers) love watching your videos too. Well done!!
The fig varieties sold as "fresh figs" in the produce section of grocery stores are usually varieties that don't require pollination in order to fruit. As a result, fig wasps are not necessary for fruit production, and so fig farmers don't use them.
Unfortunately, dry figs (like Smyrna and Calimyrna figs) do require fig wasps to pollinate them. It's quite interesting how it's done- Ficus carica is a diecious species, so the the fig wasps are cultivated separately on male fig trees and then the wasp-laden male figs are transported in paper bags with holes in them to female fig trees for pollination.
...you didn't watch until the end, did you?
Yes, the pixel 2 has ois (Optical Image Stabilization) which is mechanical and not digital. A lot of phones have it now days.
Just a friendly reminder that biology is a beautiful, brutal, horror show.
Also, the video may be 8 months old, but the algorithm wanted me to see it now 🤔
same...
My biology teacher always said "biology is really the study of three things. Living things eating. Living things having sex (reproduction). Living things dying."
ah.
What's wrong with people? It's not like if a video is more than a month old it shouldn't show up on your feed.
@@acidset It was more of an interesting observation of the random popularity spikes of content. But there is something particularly amusing about getting a comment notification about it a year later as well 😉
After I found out about the deal with figs, I've loved every time I can inform someone who hasn't found out to see their reaction. It's always sheer disgust
I had no idea wasps had such complex relationships with different plants. I just thought they were stinging bastards.
Wasps as a whole are the most terrifying creatures on Earth. They have many different kinds of life cycles, and all of them seem to be nightmarish in some way or another.
HA HA HA HA
Yora also they are all inbred abominations lol. The first thing they do when they hatch is start mating with their brothers and sisters. 🐝 🐝
@@Yora21 0⁰
I mean, youre right, most of them are stinging bastards. But not all of them. My dad in Easton PA and I noticed this GIANT species of some kind of vespid this summer, naturally we both concluded it was the murder hornets from Asia finally having reached PA from where theyd made landfall in Washington state a few years ago. Two terrified days of either running to our cars or parking down the street from the hedge where the wasps had hived, my dad identified them for sure as a non-stinging species of fruit pollinating, harmless wasp. They look terrifying, but I guess this is one case where looks being deceiving is actually fortunate.
A video with quality explanations of several super interesting but unrelated things packed into one juicy package??? Love it! Anything to subtract from the endless stream of pointless TikTok style spam starting to pumped into the platform is a plus for me
Great video - thanks Steve. I never much liked figs in the first place - but I'm definitely never eating a fig again!
Late to the game here, but a very interesting follow-up question is why do male figs not support the wasp life cycle. It would seem to be an advantageous to the fig to get as many wasps out there as possible to pollenate. I'll postulate one possibility: you mentioned we don't eat the male figs due to their being bland - perhaps it takes a larger amount of energy to produce a tasty (likely with lots of carbs in the form of sugars) female fig vs a male fig?
Good question. It's actually the female fig that does not support the wasp life cycle. The reason for this is simple: the wasp lays one egg per seed inside a receptive fig. If the wasp could lay an egg for every seed, the species could not reproduce. So, it's hypothesized that the female fig trees developed an extra long 'style' to prevent egg laying (maximizing sex-neutral seed dispersal) while the male trees maintained short styles (allowing for reproduction of pollinators). On top of this, many male 'caprifig' will maintain overwintering fig crops to ensure an uninterrupted wasp life cycle, while female figs often fall off at the end of the season.
i enjoyed this format for short videos and the information that was presented.
Good show Steve. FYI The effectiveness of helical strakes for reducing vortex induced vibration was discovered in 1957 by Christopher Scruton and D. E. J. Walshe at the National Physics Laboratory in Great Britain.They are therefore often described as Scruton strakes
I like the format. I hope you keep making them.
Just one thing to think about: people might be more likely to watch the whole video if it was like a 10 minute 3 interesting things instead of a 16 minute 5 things. A lot of times I go on TH-cam when I just have a few minutes to kill and I often don’t go back to finish a video that I didn’t have time to get through. Maybe that’s just me lol. I’d think TH-cam analytics could probably tell you if it’s a common occurrence.
Plus if you break the videos into smaller chunks, you can release them more often.... that’s my true motivation for the suggestion XD
Ps. I think your videos are always worth coming back to finish watching. Keep up the good work!
This is really helpful. Thank you.
I came here after the bit about the string towers was put in a short today.
I fucking love this guy. Just enough color commentary. Sticks to the information. I never wish I had 3x speed! Learning so much
about the first experiment with the pixel 2. you fixed the picture to be always in front of the lenses, but I'm not sure if you know that those lenses are not statically fixed to the frame of the phone, they use a kind of springy mechanism to stabilize the footage. So every time you move, the camera lenses are moving too, not just a software effect.
I was thinking this - I have a Galaxy S7 and if you look at the camera and jolt the phone you can see it drifting slightly to the side!
Yep the pixel 2 had optical (ois) as well as electronic image stabilization
Number four happens with grasses too, in a way at least. Not sure if it is the same reaction exactly but similar.
This format is not bad at all (to be used as a spice)!
By the way, no Patreon account?
Working on it! Thanks :)
Hey Majid. My Patreon is now up and running: www.patreon.com/stevemould. Let me know what you thin!
@@SteveMould I love that you actually remembered and came back to give a link to a specific person. 10/10 You deserve being popular
Some thoughts about the fig wasp:
1) Insects other than grasshoppers and locusts* are not Kosher, so observant Jews carefully wash all insects from fruits and vegetables (this is alluded to in the Gospels when Jesus calls out the Pharisees for (metaphorically) “straining out gnats but swallowing camels” (which are also not Kosher) in their moral teachings).
2) Did God know about the dead wasps inside every fig, and just make an unspoken/unwritten exception to the insect ban, which would only be discovered after thousands of years?
3) Or is eating “predigested” insects not the same as eating insects or insect parts “as is?”
* Actually, all invertebrates (a classification not known when the Torah was written, except to God) other than grasshoppers and locusts are forbidden, hence no lobsters, crabs, etc.
IANAR, in fact IANAJ, so if a rabbi wants to respond, I would love to learn some more about Kashrut as relating to bugs. Happy Hanukkah and Shalom!
eating digested insects dont count.
wow, i never thought i could hate wasps more, and now i also don't like figs. yay science!
Marco J 😂
I came over from Smarter every day thanks to the collab video... Instant subscriber after this video! ... It has been a while that a video has given me this much of a wtf moment... idk how to recover from the wasp in the fig story xD
Awesome, thank you!
Really interesting stuff, thanks for sharing! You've inspired me to make the tension string tower! Just a small suggestion, the transitions between things were just a bit too fast, maybe pause for a second longer?
the more you learn about wasp pollination the more sorry you feel for wasps...
what came first the wasp or the figg?
a different version of both. back to a point where both were not co-dependent, but had options. Just that this option turned out to be the most lucrative, so the individuals that bet on this method, had more children than those that did, so over time, the whole species evolved into this direction.
@Danny BRITZMAN Allow me to point out it was a perfect opportunity to point out something worthwhile despite the lameness of the set-up, as it did hint at a deeper question.
And they want us to believe that its absolutely logical that all of this has happened.. By chance?!
@@abd4620 Who is they? Given enough time, chance can become something "intelligently designed"
@@organicaca logically mathematically and the time limit of the universe disagrees, can a book just pop out of non-existence? Supposing we gave it unlimited time which is not real whatsoever
That fig thing is quite interesting.
8:20 interesting, that reminded me of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. It reached resonant frequency and went down! But I'm sure Steve Mould already knew that.
It wasn't actually a resonant frequency IIRC
Looking outside at my parent’s fig tree and thinking, “…An apple will do just fine.” Small donation from Australia in appreciation, brother Steve. Keep up the excellent work, sir, for it certainly is worthy of much more praise than these few lines could hope to encompass.
Technically this video should be titled 6 Interesting Things because the video just happens to be interesting too. But seriously, you've made an amazing video as always 👍🏻
Does a set of all interesting things contain itself?
You have a very good point there. The only way around that would be to say that although this interesting video is the container interesting things, the container of this video would be my internet browser. Like if I were to stuff a steamed bun with red bean paste, yeah, the tasty steamed bun may be the container of the tasty red bean paste and the steamed bun isn't contained within itself therefore a steamed bun only contains one tasty thing (being the red bean paste) but the container of the steamed bun is my stomach which would contain two tasty things.
Damn, I'm hungry now! 😞
So axiom of choice yes or not? :D
Why am I only finding this channel now? I feel a strong binge coming on!
The stinger that deposits eggs are called ovipositor. I'm sure you knew that I just like pointing it out for anyone who doesn't know it.
Steve, you are currently the most interesting channel to me. Impressive science content and delivery. Love it!
My car ran out of blinker fluid today, i accidentally bought a can of beep for my horn. >:/ Bad day made better with this video though. :)
You aren't the only one man, this homeless guy stole 20 bucks from me today, I was pissed to say the least.
Yeah everyone knows you need Honk for the horn c'mon
Great format. Keep it going. The camera in the box was genius.
woo! new video from STTEEEEEEVVVE!! Thanks!
I searched for more than 40 minutes for the phone camera video, I knew it was by you but found nothing among your uploads! Good thing I remembered about this series
Could we use the string thing at the end to build a space elevator?
Ooh!
Yep very interesting and enjoyable format. Wasp seem to like to lay their eggs into every other living thing. Crazy that a plant get the better of them. I love learning these things. Thank you
What plastic did you use for the string tower?
I say what string did he use. That string stayed semi rigid at the top. I want to try this with regular cotton string.
I really enjoyed this. I've only just discovered your channel I'm excited to see it all.
This channel is the embodiment of all the answers i have been looking for and Will be looking for.
Where are the beakers !! Thought there would be at least one
5 things and no beaker! I really am failing you.
Steve Mould you are amazing, I love all your videos.
Keep up the good work.
All the best
Steve Mould I think you owe us a video of you pouring figs out of a beaker.
Do the figs need to be fertilized? Does the fruit grow whether or not it is fertilized? I have a tree that makes hundreds of fruits but I’ve never seen another fig tree in my neighborhood, nor have I found any wasps in the fruit. Do the wasps go only to certain varieties of figs, or are they equal opportunity pollinators? Would this make hybridized varieties? Sorry! Lots of questions-but this is so fascinating!
Yep, there are hundreds of fig varieties which do not require pollination to ripen some or all fruit. And the fig wasp will attempt to enter any fig expressing the correct pheromone cocktail. Breeding work done at UC Riverside successfully crossed f. carica with f. palmata, as well as f. pseudo-carica and f. pumila. All hybrids had successful pollination by the same species of fig wasp.
Figs are quite complex. I've found the subject really interesting. Cheers!
I enjoy this video and want to see more like it. Wouldn't mind it being split up into several shorter videos either.
Very interesting indeed. And, What a beautiful evolution of the fig and it's wasp... Made for each other. It has lively and dramatic story to tell .
I love figs &, counterintuitively, I love them even more now.
love this format. brilliant work, as always. thanks Steve.
I will never eat figs again. I liked the video format--I don't want interesting ideas to fall by the wayside just because they're too short to stand alone.
Why don't you justust eat one of the varieties that are not pollinated by wasps?
Bring these back again.
The Fig wants the pollen cover pregnant wasp to burrow into a female fig to pollinate it.
Pretty sure this is a plot of a Hentai somewhere.
The bi male figs tree wants the lesbian female figs to get 'fed' by the female wasp...?
Very interesting video!
Highly educational.
Here's the 5 things I learned from this video:
1. Never
2. Eating
3. Another
4. Fig
5. Again
All the comments are about wasps... what's the deal??
Edit: now I know
Great format, nice mix of subjects. No making something mandatory, some connections among subjects will be a plus. Congratulations!
Sent here from “smarter every day’ - love the vids and 5 interesting things was actually about 7 in the end, great format more like this please. Also my wife makes fig jam, every jar about 8 digested wasps.
I know this is old but I genuinely love your channel. Thank you!
The string thing has to be my most favourite.
Nothing satisfies me more than an engineer or scientist showing you something, just for pure amazement factor. Like, "Look at this. You seeing this shit?" *mind blown hand actions*
Subbed. I could watch this channel every morning to jumpstart my brain
This guy's videos are like a treasure to someone who likes physics and biology
Thanks!
I’ve always hated figs and hearing of the weird wasp interactions I’ve never felt so vindicated and justified in all my life! It’s almost as disgusting as chicken eggs!
Awesome format. Great content as always. Keep em coming
Loved this format. Who knew figs could be so interesting!!?
Great content as always, Steve!
Since you took the time to clarify that
Interesting! Chemical communication across different species, plant to wasp, forming a symbiosis of sorts.