I love Bursaria but they are just too big to record! And found Bursaria truncatella just yesterday. They are like three times the size of the largest one we showed in this episode, we'll showcase our finding in a future episode! -James
@@kelimar3014 Maybe, my macro lenses can absolutely take great photos of things that are 1mm in size. Maybe being in water and moving quickly would be a challenge in this case though.
I love this thing's design! It's just a big, slightly asymmetrical circle with a hole on the front, and it swims around randomly to try to get stuff to land in the hole. It's just a really tiny roomba!
Took me a few episodes to realize why I enjoyed the narration so much....because it's our good old pal Hank with his big brain and his micro voice....🤘🕉️🙏🤓🧠🖤
Been waiting many seasons for these vacuumy bois to get their own episode. Edit: Gosh, the JTTM fellas must’ve thought so too if they hearted my comment before I edited it.
Look at the cute lil Gastrotrich in the top right around 6:20! This channel inspired me to get my own microscope, and a Gastrotrich was one of the first things I found, so they've got a special place in my heart.
I have never thought of the detection of a lack of knowledge as a sense until now. Mind blown. It makes me wonder how primitive a nervous system can be that can detect a lack of knowledge instead of just random information input, processing, and response.
I imagine any organ that is capable of acknowledging and rendering the direction of electrical signals is capable of dedicating 'something' like knowledge.
I imagine that it would have to be relatively complex, as it would have to be capable of introspection and the ability to question the world around it.
Frankly love how prevalent the Roomba school of design is at this level of magnification. Just a disk with a mouth that moves around. Evolution has decided that Roombas are the most efficient design possible.
I'm glad you mentioned the plant by the same name as I grew up with these plants. Bursaria spinosa is a native species where I'm from in Tasmania, preferring the more arid parts of the state over rocky hillsides. They're prickly small trees/large shrubs and have a glorious resinous smell as so many Australian species do. The little seed pods, shaped like a love heart, contain 2 small seeds and form in clusters following a profusion of small, white, honey-scented flowers that are wildly popular with nectar scarabs.
"With a generous image of a purse in mind you might stare at these organisms and consider them bags of biology" Me: *And with a generous image of a purse in mind I might stare at a bunch of socializing humans and consider them bags of biology while I sit off in the corner being weird.*
More power to you guys!! ❤ I am microbiology student and i still learn so much great things to from guys. Kudos to you. I wish this channel have million subs as they truly deserve it.👍
Totally agree, I can’t believe more people aren’t watching. it’s such a fascinating world. But of course they’ll be more focused on what fake UFO was photographed
About gravitaxis mechanism: if you put all your heavy stuff at the end opposite to your swimming direction, you will swim mostly upwards the gravity. If you can sonicate/destroy the cell membrane and show that organelles sink by being denser than watter, you have the explanation of gravitaxis!
Thank-you everyone who made this video for all of us! It was fascinating, entertaining and informative. I hadn't really considered gravity affecting microbes.
At around 2:30 the paramecium that gets eaten just sort of...dies? I would love to know what chemical or mechanical force is being used to pop that thing. It's quick and incredibly definite.
If you play the video at .25 speed it looks like it makes contact with that dark patch on the inside of the Bursaria's mouth. It's hard to tell if it's that or something behind the focal plane. But it looks like the moment it makes contact the paramecium ruptures. Maybe the immediate change in pressure as a result is instantly fatal to the paramecium, by interrupting the reactions taking place?
Hey, I've heard of paramecium! The owner of Goliad Farms (aquarium fish farm in Texas - has an interesting TH-cam channel) often speaks of the paramecium in his breeding tubs - great fry food!
My uneducated hypothesis is that they don't sense gravity at all. They just have a denser caboose that gravity pulls downward (or buoyancy affects less) during the brief pauses in swimming, and the ability to swim straight even though their front has higher drag. The little micro-rotations from the asymmetric pull/tug average out and orient it upward enough to counter falling.
I would look for an organelle that is much more or less dense than the rest of the cytoplasm and that's probably for gravitaxi...or its cilia somehow detect the sedementation.
Maybe it's just sensing acceleration and sensing water flowing/dragging over the skin, the hairs would flex a bit when falling though water too. Or maybe they've got a ball in a ball or weight on a bendy prong sensor in their body.
I think Bursaria might be named after Medieval purses or historic pockets in general. If you look at images of pockets from the 1700s (they were worn like hip packs from today) the microbe is very similar in shape. With such a big mouth, no wonder they named it after a pocket or a purse.
I've noticed that when a lot of these microbes are consumed they usually move around for a second or two before going pretty still. I am wondering whether this is because of some sort of chemical toxicity, or maybe just because of external pressure surrounding it from within the bigger cell. Perhaps it depends or isn't well understood, but it seems interesting how quickly the cell seems to "give up"
At 2:29 it looks as though the paramecium is 'stung' by some organelle in the bursaria, thus paralyzing the unlucky paramecium, which then stops resisting. I wonder if this is the case?
seems to me they could sense gravity by the amount of effort it takes for it to move in a specific direction. so if it's hard to go right than left then left is the direction that is in an upward direction.
This is what I was thinking as well, or the response on their cilia in different orientations from the natural current against them from falling. Probably easy enough to test with an artificial current of water.
Bursaria must have a basic gyroscopic mechanism. Perhaps when certain parts of their inner structure are under the effects of gravity, thereby being pulled down to the ground, they can sense this and swim in the opposite direction. There must be something roughly similar to the inner ear mechanism, where bodily fluids under the effect of gravity combined with sensing cilia or hairs, produce the gyroscopic uprighting effect.
Lol, micro-meter like "digital micrometer" and micro-meter the distance in back to back sentences tripped me up Hank! I've heard you do the same thing before so I wonder if you do it just for fun now...
8:31 if we figure out how these things detect gravity we could try to make instruments that can (hopefully) detect gravitational waves from space.... Heck we could even try to explore quantum gravity 😁👍👍👍
Love the video as always! I was wondering if we could have a video on the bits of dirt and detritus all around all the time and how the microbes use that and other things. I have no idea if that's interesting, but I just realized I know nothing about it.
I think some butterfly can feel the color of light, through tiny holes in the size of different wavelengths, which are absorbed, warming a nerve. If this trait is found, could explain why some bugs are hard to sneak on
Hank, I love the show. But I'm sticking with geotaxis...and that's the word that came into my mind before I even knew what it was and heard the description.
Been trying to get some info on this DIC process. Of course these are GREAT videos but my question is this; if one has a DIC ready scope, is there much pre or post work done to get these kind of videos/images or do you get your specimen and go at it?
My question wouldn't be, "How can they sense gravity?" it would be, "How can they sense anything?" They don't have a brain. I mean, they're only one cell. How do they do anything? Also, Hank, getting to the bottom of gravitaxis? I see what you did there.
I think if they hold still for a second, they could use their ciliates to 'feel' in which direction the drag of the surrounding medium bends them while sedimenting. Aircraft used tiny vanes to determine their actual flight vector vs. the direction the nose is pointing.
A word for being driven to fill gaps in our knowledge? I suggest "epistemotaxis". Yes, this is one of my fascinations along with microscopy - applied etymology. :)
I'd say their rate of fall has nothing to do with size and everything to do with specific gravity. It's only down to their density compared to the water they displace.
Great video. Did anyone see the deployment of a weapon in the stomach of the giant while eating another cilliate? Looked as though it jabbed,punched, or cut. Either way, the immobilization was instantaneous and awesome. Thank you.
Yep. That is toxicysts being triggered and injecting a venom that paralyzes all motion in the prey. Most predatory microbes that eat prey whole have this organelle.
I'm going to make a far-out guess here and say that the way it detects gravity is through buoyancy, perhaps it has a very small pocket of some gas that's sensitive to pressure and somehow couples to some signalling pathway.
Maybe through their cilia. If sedimentation occurs in the water around it, or gasses rise due to their lower density, they could feel the flow of material around them, and discern. You mentioned some electric sense? Magnetic fields? If so, passing impurities would not even need to have tactile interaction. They could recognize material, and state, by field changes, and the motion of that pull. Id be very curious how they have tested this so far
I was wondering how "ciliate" would translate to Finnish so I could read more about them. Turns out it's "ripsieläin", literally "eyelash animal". Rather descriptive, in the weirdest sense. Paramecium are called "tohvelieläin", "slipper animal".
Bursaria reminds me of a ghost muncher. Amazed at how quickly microbes are absorbed into the sediment. I never thought of touching the bottom of a pool as an occupational hazard for microbes. Surprised to see that gravity imposes size limits in the microbial world just as it does at animal scales.
I just now realized how stupid thinking all living beings sensed "falling" was. When he said they felt gravity I was like "yeah? So do I", then I realized its a microbe
I love Bursaria but they are just too big to record! And found Bursaria truncatella just yesterday. They are like three times the size of the largest one we showed in this episode, we'll showcase our finding in a future episode!
-James
Nom!
I wonder, are they simply into the realm of the macro lens instead of the microscope?
I was watching just now amazed that you were able to track them so well! Fast little suckers!
@@kelimar3014 Maybe, my macro lenses can absolutely take great photos of things that are 1mm in size. Maybe being in water and moving quickly would be a challenge in this case though.
Love your work!!
The shot where it eats the paramecium: golden!
I confess i went AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA at the screen :D
I love this thing's design! It's just a big, slightly asymmetrical circle with a hole on the front, and it swims around randomly to try to get stuff to land in the hole. It's just a really tiny roomba!
Hank's "Microcosmos" voice is so soothing.
I know, it's a huge draw. The other writers voice just doesn't have the same mellow character
Took me a few episodes to realize why I enjoyed the narration so much....because it's our good old pal Hank with his big brain and his micro voice....🤘🕉️🙏🤓🧠🖤
Madness Combat Refrence?!+!
Its my secret a.s.r.m
Reminds me of Ze Frank's True Facts voice
I still love that your voice-overs are like a sleep story. I can start the play list before bed and drift off to sleep learning about the microcosmos.
You better absolutely believe I now want a handbag designed to look (function if possible) like a bursaria
Been waiting many seasons for these vacuumy bois to get their own episode.
Edit: Gosh, the JTTM fellas must’ve thought so too if they hearted my comment before I edited it.
And you got a tiny lesson on physics from them.
EDIT: You doofus, you just threw your heart away by editing your OP! 😂
The Roomba of the microcosmos.
Look at the cute lil Gastrotrich in the top right around 6:20! This channel inspired me to get my own microscope, and a Gastrotrich was one of the first things I found, so they've got a special place in my heart.
A rotifer is the first thing I found and I thought it was a water bear
I seem to spot one at 7:37 as well... am I wrong?
@@VoceCorale I think you're right. It's a small one though, probably still very young.
I have never thought of the detection of a lack of knowledge as a sense until now. Mind blown.
It makes me wonder how primitive a nervous system can be that can detect a lack of knowledge instead of just random information input, processing, and response.
I imagine any organ that is capable of acknowledging and rendering the direction of electrical signals is capable of dedicating 'something' like knowledge.
I imagine that it would have to be relatively complex, as it would have to be capable of introspection and the ability to question the world around it.
Frankly love how prevalent the Roomba school of design is at this level of magnification. Just a disk with a mouth that moves around. Evolution has decided that Roombas are the most efficient design possible.
This is good content and you guys should be proud.
I am amazed and loving the gentle folding of sides by the busaria without hurting or damaging itself while brushing against other objects
I'm glad you mentioned the plant by the same name as I grew up with these plants. Bursaria spinosa is a native species where I'm from in Tasmania, preferring the more arid parts of the state over rocky hillsides. They're prickly small trees/large shrubs and have a glorious resinous smell as so many Australian species do. The little seed pods, shaped like a love heart, contain 2 small seeds and form in clusters following a profusion of small, white, honey-scented flowers that are wildly popular with nectar scarabs.
"With a generous image of a purse in mind you might stare at these organisms and consider them bags of biology"
Me: *And with a generous image of a purse in mind I might stare at a bunch of socializing humans and consider them bags of biology while I sit off in the corner being weird.*
I can't imagine the chills you get when you capture such a rare occurrence.
More power to you guys!! ❤ I am microbiology student and i still learn so much great things to from guys. Kudos to you. I wish this channel have million subs as they truly deserve it.👍
Totally agree, I can’t believe more people aren’t watching. it’s such a fascinating world. But of course they’ll be more focused on what fake UFO was photographed
About gravitaxis mechanism: if you put all your heavy stuff at the end opposite to your swimming direction, you will swim mostly upwards the gravity. If you can sonicate/destroy the cell membrane and show that organelles sink by being denser than watter, you have the explanation of gravitaxis!
For gravitaxis, perhaps they can sense the slight changes of the surrounding water pressure which increases as the descend.
Wonderful as always. Thank you, guys!
Oh my god this thing is literally just a tiny roomba! It even moves like one!!
If roombas were organic little carnivores.
I was thinking Pac-Man, but I see can see roomba as well!
Thank-you everyone who made this video for all of us! It was fascinating, entertaining and informative. I hadn't really considered gravity affecting microbes.
WOW! Bursaria cysts are beautiful!
Corrugated cysts.
At around 2:30 the paramecium that gets eaten just sort of...dies? I would love to know what chemical or mechanical force is being used to pop that thing. It's quick and incredibly definite.
If you play the video at .25 speed it looks like it makes contact with that dark patch on the inside of the Bursaria's mouth. It's hard to tell if it's that or something behind the focal plane. But it looks like the moment it makes contact the paramecium ruptures. Maybe the immediate change in pressure as a result is instantly fatal to the paramecium, by interrupting the reactions taking place?
Another pearl of knowledge and beauty. I cultured and saw my first feisty paramecium when I was 8 yo. Big awe and fun. Thanks guys.
Hey, I've heard of paramecium! The owner of Goliad Farms (aquarium fish farm in Texas - has an interesting TH-cam channel) often speaks of the paramecium in his breeding tubs - great fry food!
My uneducated hypothesis is that they don't sense gravity at all. They just have a denser caboose that gravity pulls downward (or buoyancy affects less) during the brief pauses in swimming, and the ability to swim straight even though their front has higher drag. The little micro-rotations from the asymmetric pull/tug average out and orient it upward enough to counter falling.
Your tone in these videos is so much more pleasant than your other ones. Thank you for keeping it chill with these really interesting videos.
7:05 OH! So it is like a cellular sized *Blue Whale,* that must fly like a *Hummingbird* just to stay afloat? :o
*6:05* that sounded so wholesome
While you all are doing some in-depth features on certain organisms, could you do one on Tetrahymena?
Curiotaxis 💚
I hope you'll still be here in 2030+ to review some Martian samples under the microscope and hopefully find interplanetary life.
I would look for an organelle that is much more or less dense than the rest of the cytoplasm and that's probably for gravitaxi...or its cilia somehow detect the sedementation.
*gravitaxis*
Hank: "This one sparks joy"
*geotaxis*
Hank: "This one does not spark joy"
Please do a series on koi parasites such as trichodina, chilodenella and costia.
Maybe it's just sensing acceleration and sensing water flowing/dragging over the skin, the hairs would flex a bit when falling though water too. Or maybe they've got a ball in a ball or weight on a bendy prong sensor in their body.
Very beautiful and captivating video work, and wonderful writing and voice work. I love these videos!
thank you for explaining so kindly :)
I think Bursaria might be named after Medieval purses or historic pockets in general. If you look at images of pockets from the 1700s (they were worn like hip packs from today) the microbe is very similar in shape. With such a big mouth, no wonder they named it after a pocket or a purse.
I'm excited to see this channel grow. I dont understand how anyone wouldn't be fascinated by microes
You can learn so much about your life just by observing the microcosmos
Thanks for always adding a bit of poetry in a sense to these videos (curiotaxis)
I've noticed that when a lot of these microbes are consumed they usually move around for a second or two before going pretty still. I am wondering whether this is because of some sort of chemical toxicity, or maybe just because of external pressure surrounding it from within the bigger cell. Perhaps it depends or isn't well understood, but it seems interesting how quickly the cell seems to "give up"
At 2:29 it looks as though the paramecium is 'stung' by some organelle in the bursaria, thus paralyzing the unlucky paramecium, which then stops resisting. I wonder if this is the case?
I like your voice. Makes it easy to listen to your videos while playing Ark Survival 😊😊 learning WHILE having fun
Thank you to Kiwico for sponsoring these eh! Have seen your sponsors on some other really good content too. Much appreciated
Are those grains of pollen I see near the end, around the 8:50 mark?
Curiotaxis is a word that I think we should bring into common usage
-Yo dude have you seen my bursaria?
-Like the paramecium or something?
-No dude my busaria with no money
seems to me they could sense gravity by the amount of effort it takes for it to move in a specific direction. so if it's hard to go right than left then left is the direction that is in an upward direction.
This is what I was thinking as well, or the response on their cilia in different orientations from the natural current against them from falling. Probably easy enough to test with an artificial current of water.
Bursaria must have a basic gyroscopic mechanism. Perhaps when certain parts of their inner structure are under the effects of gravity, thereby being pulled down to the ground, they can sense this and swim in the opposite direction.
There must be something roughly similar to the inner ear mechanism, where bodily fluids under the effect of gravity combined with sensing cilia or hairs, produce the gyroscopic uprighting effect.
That's a lot of infrastructure though
The gravitaxis thought problem is an excellent one!
Lol, micro-meter like "digital micrometer" and micro-meter the distance in back to back sentences tripped me up Hank! I've heard you do the same thing before so I wonder if you do it just for fun now...
New merch idea a Bursaria purse
Curiotaxis- I see what you did there!
Cant believe videos this good are for free :)
"Get to the bottom of it" - I see what you did there
8:31 if we figure out how these things detect gravity we could try to make instruments that can (hopefully) detect gravitational waves from space.... Heck we could even try to explore quantum gravity 😁👍👍👍
7:42 Anyone know what the little guy is swimming around the larger Bursaria?
Love the video as always! I was wondering if we could have a video on the bits of dirt and detritus all around all the time and how the microbes use that and other things. I have no idea if that's interesting, but I just realized I know nothing about it.
Lovely bumper car vacuum cleaner of the microcosmos...
I remember these being the first Protozoa I identified in my biology class
Great episode, greetings from Mexico City.
Biologist: Geotaxis
Hank: You fool. You absolute buffoon.
I think some butterfly can feel the color of light, through tiny holes in the size of different wavelengths, which are absorbed, warming a nerve. If this trait is found, could explain why some bugs are hard to sneak on
Hank, I love the show. But I'm sticking with geotaxis...and that's the word that came into my mind before I even knew what it was and heard the description.
Been trying to get some info on this DIC process. Of course these are GREAT videos but my question is this; if one has a DIC ready scope, is there much pre or post work done to get these kind of videos/images or do you get your specimen and go at it?
Try asking on James's channel, Jam's Germs.
Lovely work as always! Keep it up :)
My question wouldn't be, "How can they sense gravity?" it would be, "How can they sense anything?" They don't have a brain. I mean, they're only one cell. How do they do anything?
Also, Hank, getting to the bottom of gravitaxis? I see what you did there.
But then you could go even further and ask how do a brain 'sense' anything?
"We used to call this geotaxis"..."we're sticking with gravitaxis."
"This word (phrase actually,) I don't think it means what you think it means."
I wonder if you guys could examine brewer's yeast under a microscope and watch the process of sugar turning into alchohol.
It seems that for Busaria, the only certainty is death and taxis...
I think if they hold still for a second, they could use their ciliates to 'feel' in which direction the drag of the surrounding medium bends them while sedimenting.
Aircraft used tiny vanes to determine their actual flight vector vs. the direction the nose is pointing.
I cant believe I only just found this channel. Subbed immediately.
This is beyond amazing
8:26
is that a stentor?
The little guy looks like a real life PAC Man with the navigation ability of a Roomba. 😂
How squished/deformed/compressed are these microbes we see in the video vs. their natural shape out of a microscope lamin?
A word for being driven to fill gaps in our knowledge? I suggest "epistemotaxis".
Yes, this is one of my fascinations along with microscopy - applied etymology. :)
I'd say their rate of fall has nothing to do with size and everything to do with specific gravity.
It's only down to their density compared to the water they displace.
Great video. Did anyone see the deployment of a weapon in the stomach of the giant while eating another cilliate? Looked as though it jabbed,punched, or cut. Either way, the immobilization was instantaneous and awesome. Thank you.
Yep. That is toxicysts being triggered and injecting a venom that paralyzes all motion in the prey. Most predatory microbes that eat prey whole have this organelle.
5:48 what is that object that the Bursaria hits?
I'm going to make a far-out guess here and say that the way it detects gravity is through buoyancy, perhaps it has a very small pocket of some gas that's sensitive to pressure and somehow couples to some signalling pathway.
Maybe through their cilia. If sedimentation occurs in the water around it, or gasses rise due to their lower density, they could feel the flow of material around them, and discern. You mentioned some electric sense? Magnetic fields? If so, passing impurities would not even need to have tactile interaction. They could recognize material, and state, by field changes, and the motion of that pull. Id be very curious how they have tested this so far
I'm interested in that slug-like microbe that the bursaria spat out at 7:40.
Thank you.
Drum machine sounds familiar, kudos +1 :) Thanks for the fun vids
Excellent editing Mr. Gaydos :D
Thanks for the great content
I was wondering how "ciliate" would translate to Finnish so I could read more about them. Turns out it's "ripsieläin", literally "eyelash animal". Rather descriptive, in the weirdest sense. Paramecium are called "tohvelieläin", "slipper animal".
I watch this to calm down and it works
Many thanks to Bursaria for excysting!
Bursaria reminds me of a ghost muncher.
Amazed at how quickly microbes are absorbed into the sediment. I never thought of touching the bottom of a pool as an occupational hazard for microbes. Surprised to see that gravity imposes size limits in the microbial world just as it does at animal scales.
When it starts swimming backwards I really see a nautilus of the microscopic world
I'm getting an excystmential crisis
love your content!
I just now realized how stupid thinking all living beings sensed "falling" was.
When he said they felt gravity I was like "yeah? So do I", then I realized its a microbe
Curiotaxis ❤️❤️❤️
So if I move in response to shouting and waving my arm would that be Heytaxis?
Ah, relativity to a four-year-old! Such a difficult concept for adults. Good job!
That excystment process is such an excitement.
/headdesk
what have I done....