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Journey to the Microcosmos

2019

Seasons & Episodes

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EP1 The Complicated Sex Lives of Hydra May 29, 2023

If we were to write a fable to get this moral across, it would have to star the freshwater cnidarian called the hydra. Because in the hydra, the question of butts connects to the ambiguities of immortality, which in turn relates to the befuddling matter of sexual reproduction.

EP2 When Is A Fungus Not A Fungus? Jun 05, 2023

Oomycetes are one of the more unusual-looking microbes we’ve seen in the microcosmos. It looks more like a coral reef painted by an artist inspired by Gustav Klimt and a pile of trash. And if you saw that painting hanging in the museum, you might pass it by without thinking much of its subject.

EP3 The Cryptic Origins of Yogurt Jun 12, 2023

The microcosmos is home to many unusual partnerships. Life is, after all, just relationships, each of which build upon one another like strokes of paint in an epic tableau of ecology, epidemics, and yogurt?

EP4 Why Beggiatoa Are Stuffed Full Of Sulfur Jun 19, 2023

There’s a few things that give Beggiatoa away. The first is the simple serpentine shape of their bodies, and the second are those little dots inside of them. They look like bubbles, but they’re actually sulfur granules.

EP5 We Don't Know Why Moth Wings Glow Jul 10, 2023

A little while ago, James found himself with a bit of a problem. He was keeping some wheat grains at home to use as food for the microbes that he cultures and films for our enjoyment. But before he could feed the grains to his microbes, they became infested with the larvae.. of moths.

EP6 Avoid These Tiny Bits of Killer Fluff (If You Can) Jul 17, 2023

When you hear the phrase “brain-eating amoebas,” is there a particular image that comes to mind? Whatever you envision, it's probably not what the notorious brain-eating amoeba that strikes fear in our hearts actually looks like.

EP7 This Neon World Is Inside Your Fruit Jul 24, 2023

Usually we’re looking into pond water or whatever other fascinating bit of nature that James, our master of microscopes, usually looks at. But right now, our sights are coming to us directly from the kitchen and from a different master of microscopes.

EP8 Up Close With The World's Deadliest Animal Jul 31, 2023

Under the microscope, mosquitos undergo a metamorphosis sculpted in gold. The buzzing body takes on a life of its own, its usual role as menace lying far beyond the margins of the screen.

EP9 Falling In Love With Microscopy Aug 07, 2023

This video is all about James, who many of you know as our master of microscopes. He is the scientist, and the artist, behind just about everything we are able to see in our collective journey through the microcosmos.

EP10 The Tiny Worlds Inside of Puddles Aug 14, 2023

When was the last time you saw a puddle? Was it recent—perhaps some time in the past week, fresh from a downpour? Or has it been a long time since you’ve seen rain, and so an even longer time since your path has crossed a puddle?

EP11 Why Are Some Birds Blue? Aug 21, 2023

One of the spectacular details of animals in our world is just how varied their colors can be. When you look at birds, for example, you’ll see everything from mundane grays to iridescent blues. So why don’t we shine with the same iridescence of birds?

EP12 The Electric Relationship Between Plants And Bees Aug 28, 2023

When you think of bees, you probably don’t think of single-celled eukaryotes. What could an insect have in common with, say, a ciliate?

EP13 Floating Cities of Scum Sep 04, 2023

When you think of bees, you probably don’t think of single-celled eukaryotes. What could an insect have in common with, say, a ciliate?

EP14 Liverworts Use The Rain To Make Their Clones Sep 11, 2023

An ambiguously long time ago, there was this theory of medicine. An idea that if you came across a plant that looked like a body part, that meant it was meant to treat ailments that targeted said part. And this put a lot of pressure on liverwort, simply because it resembled the liver.

EP15 Bacteria That Survive In Gelatinous Colonies Sep 18, 2023

In the 1820s, a man named Dr. R. Brandes walked through a meadow on a quest to try and answer a centuries-old question about a mysterious gelatinous substance on the ground known as “star jelly.”

EP16 Is It Possible To Photosynthesize In The Dark? Sep 25, 2023

Our master of microscopes is always looking for rare ciliates that live in areas low in oxygen. But when he puts those samples under a growth light, his tubes quickly turn the color of the green sulfur bacteria that thrive in those anaerobic conditions.

EP17 This Predator Is A Shape-Shifter Oct 02, 2023

In the middle of the 19th century, a scientist stared into the microscope and found, staring back at him, a vampire.

EP18 Blood-Sucking Escape Artists Oct 09, 2023

Of all the animals that we’ve examined in the microcosmos, leeches are probably one of the few that can be used as a verb, to leech off someone—to take and take from them, like a worm consuming someone’s blood.

EP19 This Microscopic Killer Wears Its Victims Oct 16, 2023

If you have been following Journey to the Microcosmos for some time, this might sound like a familiar story.| Consider this a proper slasher movie sequel.

EP20 These Dancing Worms Are Surprisingly Useful Oct 23, 2023

Plot of this episode is not specified yet.
Please check back later for more update.

EP21 Some Ciliates Are Hiding a Secret Weapon Oct 30, 2023

Plot of this episode is not specified yet.
Please check back later for more update.

EP22 Can Microbes Just Appear Out Of Nowhere? Nov 06, 2023

Can life be created spontaneously? Well, a year and a half ago, our master of microscopes, James, was inspired by the idea of spontaneous generation and set up his own little experiment.

EP23 Trying To Solve Some Micro Mysteries Nov 13, 2023

We Found Some Things We Can't Explain Today's episode has one particular theme: a bunch of funny things going on in the microcosmos.

EP24 What Do These Algae Do With Four Genomes? Nov 20, 2023

Plot of this episode is not specified yet.
Please check back later for more update.

EP25 The History of Red Algae Dec 11, 2023

Imagine that you aren’t watching the microcosmos right now. Instead you’re living in the world as it existed around one billion years ago, and you are the ancestor of this red algae.

EP26 These Mites Give Cheese Its Flavor Dec 18, 2023

Plot of this episode is not specified yet.
Please check back later for more update.

EP27 Why Picocyanobacteria Might Just Outlast All Of Us Jan 09, 2024

In the northeast Atlantic Ocean, plankton populations aren’t looking like they used to. And at the center of it all are tiny, photosynthetic bacteria called picocyanobacteria who may just outlast us all.

EP28 We Built A Tardigrade Trap, And It Worked Jan 15, 2024

We don’t know if there are many rites of passage institutionalized among amateur microscopists. But we have to imagine that, as people find themselves navigating the microcosmos for the first time, they’re often on the lookout for tardigrades.

EP29 The Microbial Universe That Makes Kombucha Jan 22, 2024

When you think of kombucha, you might think of a nice, refreshing, healthy drink, one that’s exceptionall good for your microbiome. What we here at Journey to the Microcosmos think of is a terrarium…a place where a whole ecosystem exists, trapped in glass.

EP30 This Microbe Hasn't Been Seen Since The 1930s Jan 29, 2024

After an absence of almost 90 years, we’ve found a rare ciliate last written about about in 1933.

EP31 What Makes A Microbe Rare? Feb 12, 2024

In the microcosmos—where the organisms vastly outnumber us, where what we find in a single pool of water can change from day to day—it makes us as what it mean for a microbe to be rare?

EP32 These Tiny Crustaceans Hate Change Feb 19, 2024

One of the fascinating aspects of microscopy is the way you can look so deeply into something that it becomes unrecognizable. What could look like a stained glass window could actually turn out to be... a hopping shrimp?

EP33 This special diatom is having a very bad day Feb 28, 2024

It’s hard to count how many times we’ve encountered diatoms on Journey to the Microcosmos. However, we've always talked about the more colorful variety of diatom, and not the ones that are colorless.

EP34 We Fed Our Microbes Blood So You Don't Have To Mar 04, 2024

If you’ve clicked on this video, we assume it’s because you read the title, “We fed our microbes blood so you don’t have to,” and immediately asked the question everyone asks when a youtuber says they did something so you don’t have to: but why?

EP35 These Slugs Led Us to the Last Good Place on the Internet Mar 11, 2024

If you were asked to describe what a sea slug is, you might be tempted to go with the straightforward response: it’s a slug that lives in the sea. And you know, you wouldn’t be wrong.

EP36 How Do We Find Cancer? Mar 25, 2024

Usually on Journey to the Microcosmos, we spend our time delving into the microscopic world and the surprising things that microbes have to teach us. But today, we would like to talk about Hank Green, and what was his cancer.

EP37 Watch a Stentor Fix Itself Apr 15, 2024

Today James, our master of microscopes, is using a microscopy slide as a cutting board, chopping away at the slide to end up with a bunch of individual stentors.

EP38 This Amoeba Made Armor From Its Dead Enemies Apr 22, 2024

This amoeba has a shell around it, which seems like a pretty good idea. The world at large is full of predators, and shells seem like a straightforward strategy to ward those predators off. But what if this amoeba’s shell wasn’t just a form of protection? What if it was actually dangerous?

EP39 We Found Something Strange in Portugal Apr 29, 2024

Sometimes, the microcosmos can take a little while to surprise. You have to be patient, enjoying the familiar sights as you wait for something new.

EP40 We've Been Looking For This Purple Amoeba for 6 Years! May 06, 2024

We know that it’s bad form to return to the same word over and over again here on Journey to the Microcosmos. But whenever we write about amoeba, we will probably say the word “blob” a lot.

EP41 You Have Something in Common With This Horrifying Tube Worm May 13, 2024

When James, our master of microscopes, was looking through samples he’d received from Spain, he didn’t expect to see this—a creature straight out of a horror movie, with dark reddish brown eyes and tentacles streaming out of its mouth.

EP42 Tiny Mysteries from the Black Sea May 28, 2024

When you think of mussels and clams and other bivalve animals, you might think of something as shelled and static, perhaps sitting on your plate at a fancy restaurant. But before the mussel got to your plate, it led a life—and all things considered, a surprisingly active one.

EP43 We Found a Very, Very Tiny Kraken Jun 10, 2024

Our Master of Microscopes James was fascinated by something he found in some samples he had been given from Portugal. Something that would lead us to a kraken in the microcosmos…but how?

EP44 How Does The Microcosmos Change With the Seasons? Jun 24, 2024

We Spent a Year Looking at Microbes in a Polish Pond Have you ever wondered what seasons look like to a microbe? How they navigate the highs, the lows, and all the muddy, slushy in-betweens?

EP45 Why Are Ciliates So Hairy? Jul 09, 2024

For James, our master of microscopes, the immense breadth has made ciliates a bit of an obsession. Whether he’s hunting down a rare species, or documenting the behavior of something more familiar, there’s always something spectacular in this group.

EP46 What These Microbes Teach Us About Free Will Jul 22, 2024

We’re focusing today on a Journey to the Microcosmos favorite: the ciliates, the single-celled eukaryotes covered in hair-like structures called cilia. We want to be more self-centered and explore what ciliates have taught us about ourselves.

EP47 Microscopic Beauty from a Nuclear Test Site Aug 05, 2024

James, our master of microscopes, seems like a tough person to get a gift for. What do you get the person who has the entirety of the microcosmos available to him with just a glimpse through a lens?

EP48 Why Do Planarians Have Those Triangles on their Heads? Aug 19, 2024

Flatworms are kind of adorable. And they have keep scientists up at night for a few reasons.

EP49 A Collection of Tiny Universes Sep 03, 2024

Whenever we get to watch things through the microscope together, it’s like we’re transported to another world—or maybe another universe, or dimension. Time and space feel off somehow, with sights that are slower and faster and nearer and farther all at once.

EP50 Some Microbes Also Take Naps Sep 16, 2024

One thing we’ve heard from many of you is that this show is your sleep show, that soothing bit of media you put on when you need to slow down your brain and drift off. We take that as a huge compliment. It’s nice to know we can be a part of your relaxation journey.

EP51 We Answer Your Questions! Sep 30, 2024

While our journey through the microcosmos together is soon coming to a close, we know that some of you still have questions…questions that we wanted to take this last opportunity to explore.

EP52 We Spilled Ink On Our Slides to See What Would Happen Oct 14, 2024

Science is about more than just finding immutable laws of nature. It’s about having the imagination to try things and ask questions that might not necessarily lead anywhere, but that just… feel right.

EP53 The Future of Microscopy (and end of our Journey) Oct 28, 2024

People have been staring through the microscope for centuries, peering into the microcosmos and uncovering its beauty as they pursue deeper questions about the world around us. This is our series finale, and we want to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for coming on this journey with us. It has been such a privilege to be a part of such a wonderful community, and we can't wait to join you all on your journeys ahead.
5| 0h30m| en| More Info
Released: 24 June 2019 Returning Series
Producted By:
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: https://www.youtube.com/c/microcosmos
Synopsis

Take a dive into the tiny, unseen world that surrounds us! With music by Andrew Huang, footage from James Weiss, and narration by Hank Green, we want to take you on a fascinating, reflective journey through the microcosmos.

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Hank Green

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