Journey to the Microcosmos Season 1, Episode 6: Tardigrades: Chubby, Misunderstood, & Not Immortal

Meet the Microcosmos

Join us on the first episode of Journey to the Microcosmos as we 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 hope to take you on a fascinating, reflective journey!

10 min

How Microscopic Hunters Get Their Lunch

On this week's journey, we explore the ways things eat in the microcosmos, from Stentors filter feeding to Dileptus hunting down and absorbing its prey.

10 min

Stentors: Single-Celled Giants

It's time to meet a single-celled organism that is bigger than a tardigrade! We'll learn how Stentors reproduce, why they look like trumpets, and why some of them are just SO BLUE!

10 min

How Do Microorganisms Reproduce?

How do stentors make more stentors? Does Paramecium reproduce sexually or asexually? Find out on this week's journey as we explore the ways the microcosmos reproduce!

10 min

Where Did Eukaryotic Cells Come From? - A Journey Into Endosymbiotic Theory

1.8 billion years ago, a cell ate another cell, but it didn't digest it, and without that happening, we would not exist. This week we explore the origins of eukaryotic cells and ask the question, "Are our cells more than ourselves?"

10 min

How Do Protozoa Get Around?

If you were a protozoan, how would you zoom zoom zoom all around the microcosmos? From false feet to microtubules, find out how these single-celled eukaryotes make their way through the universe.

10 min

Diatoms: Tiny Factories You Can See From Space

We owe so much to diatoms! They help us make beer, paint, and kitty litter, and they're responsible for some of the air you're breathing right now!

10 min

Mysterious Jiggly Crystals and Other Intracellular Structures

Let's journey deep into the cells themselves to take a look at some of the structures that keep cells alive and others that do... something... that we'll figure out someday... probably.

10 min

How Do Colonies Help Microorganisms Survive?

In the microcosmos, it's dangerous to go alone. This week we go on a journey into colonies to find out why sticking together is such a great strategy!

10 min

Death in the Microcosmos

Death is inevitable and mysterious, even in the microcosmos. Stentors, heliozoans, and yes, even tardigrades, experience death in many different ways.

10 min

Euglenoids: Single-Celled Shapeshifters

Euglenoids have had a very, very long time to evolve, and that has led to the things they have evolved into being extremely diverse—so diverse that, combined with the varied shape-shifting abilities of its member species, euglenoids have proven challenging to both identify and classify.

10 min

Hydra: Stretchy, Speedy, & Probably Immortal

The hydra of mythology may not be as far off from reality as you think! Let's take a journey to the mall to meet our tentacled, regenerating friends!

10 min

Relax and Enjoy the View

This week, we're taking a bit of a break, but we thought you might also like one. So, today, let's all just sit and look at our lovely little friends while we take a breath and enjoy Andrew Huang's amazing music.

10 min

Life Without Oxygen? Challenge Accepted

Slimy, a little smelly, maybe even a little gross, but to many organisms, the oxic-anoxic transition is a shifting chemical boundary that has created a challenge for life...a challenge it conquered.

10 min

Rotifers: Charmingly Bizarre & Often Ignored

We also don't really know what rotifers are... but we'll try to tell you as much as we know!

10 min

The Microscopic Circle of Life

Life is chemistry. From diatom to Diana, life is not a magical imbued trait, is a process of the physics of our universe. The precise and convoluted chemistry of life requires specific physical and chemical situations. And this planet has a dizzying variety of such circumstances that, over millions or even billions of years, living chemical systems have evolved to thrive in.

10 min

Amoebas: Occasional Brain-Eaters

Yes, they might eat your brain, but there's a lot more to amoebas than that!

10 min

The Colors of the Microcosmos

We see the colors of the microcosmos every single week, but let's stop and ask why our some microbes are bright green, while others are a golden brown.

10 min

Eating, Hatching, and Crashing into the Moon: More About Tardigrades

This week, the microcosmos meet the cosmos as we explore even more fascinating things about our friend, the tardigrade. We'll discuss their weird weird mouths, how we take care of our tardigrades, and what's going to happen to those tardigrades that crashed into the moon.

10 min

Are Microbes Good or Bad for Humans?

Where is the line between good and bad microorganisms and why do we seem to know so much more about the bad ones?

10 min

Paramecium: The White Rat of Ciliates

These world travelers might be, well, almost everywhere, but there is a still a lot we don't know about the famous paramecium.

10 min

Microorganisms Are Cleaning the Water You Drink

Microbes are used for everything from baking to brewing, but wastewater treatment is where they do some of their most important work.

10 min

What Microscope Do We Use? (And Other Frequently Asked Questions)

10 min

What Humans and Stentors Have in Common

This week, we're diving back into the world of Stentors to find out what humans and Stentors have in common!

10 min

Gastrotrichs: Four Day Old Grandmothers

These little hairy-bellied friends lead a very interesting life, albeit a short one.

10 min

We Recorded Some Strange Goop. What Is It?

This week's journey comes to you unedited and in real-time as we explore a mysterious infection.

10 min

What If All the Microbes Disappeared?

In a world without microbes, this channel wouldn't exist. But there are other, more important things that would stop existing as well, and today we're going to explore just what could survive a world without our little micro friends, and for how long.

10 min

Desmids: The Symmetrical Algae That's Full of Crystals

10 min

Microbes Don’t Actually Look Like Anything

10 min