Backyard Brains brings you a special summertime video from the
Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Tim: Wow! The Marine Resource Center,
they've gotta have animals here.
Charuni: Greg, keep going.
Greg: Smells like science to me!
Tim: Ahh, here's one. What kind of animal is this?
Greg: Looks Like a crab, Tim
Tim: But I think this is for children to see, I don't think we can
use this for our science. Greg: I suspect not.
Tim: Alright, let's try and go in the main room.
Here, take a look. Look at all those tanks!
Aww but it's locked!
But, we're still close to the ocean, there's
gotta be life somewhere at Woods Hole.
Tim: Let's go look. Greg: Let's keep looking.
Greg: Tim, I got it, I got it!
Tim: What'd you find, what'd you find?
Greg: Don't you remember, every day we'd go to that cafeteria,
Tim: Yeah!
Greg: and everyday we'd have that stir fry?
Tim: Yeah!
Greg: Guess what was in it.
Tim: Oh my god, who would've thought!
I knew there was an invertebrate on campus!
Greg: Yes, but we were looking in the wrong place.
Tim: The wrong place. Well, let's do some science!
Greg: Let's do it!
Tim: I hear the train a comin', it's rollin-Greg: Tim, Tim!
There's a time and place for singing.
Right now is the time for science.
Tim: Okay...
Greg: So, if we only found a volunteer that could help us do science...
Hey!
Tim: We're standing outside the famous Bell Tower, and
we have another scientist to help us, what's your name?
Abby: I'm Abby. Tim: Hey Abby, I'm Tim.
Greg: and I'm Greg. Tim: She's an experienced surgeon,
and she's gonna help us with our experiment.
Greg: What we have here is a discoid cockroach.
Tim: You see? Abby: Ewww, okay.
Greg: Surgery is hard, you know?
Tim:You kinda turn the scissors, so you...
Yeah, there you go. Now, just do it!
Yeah, there you go!
Greg: Alright, thank you!
Tim: Now we need an electrophysiologist.
Greg: Ok, your job as an electrophysiologist is to perform
the surgery implant impalement, of said leg.
Tim: Now put the other one in that meaty part.
Oh, you're good, you're an expert.
Now turn it on. There's a switch, see the switch?
Greg: So, if we could somehow visualize this Tim,
I, we could actually- Tim: But I don't have my computer
Greg: Hmm, we'd have to go back to Sloop...
Tim: Hmm, I don't have my laptop...Wait!
Greg: What?
Tim: This is pretty powerful.
Greg: Yeah, those are like the modern, like
modern computers were about twenty years ago!
Tim: Yeah! So let's see if we can hook it up.
Charuni: Nice.
Tim: That's called an action potential, or spike,
that's happening a hundred billion times in your brain right now.
Greg: Hey Tim, let me run back to the lab, you know why?
Tim: Why? Greg: We have electrical stimulators
that you can actually evoke muscle activity
Tim: Yeah, so we could excite the nervous and muscle activity
to get the leg to move.
Greg: Right.
Tim: But you need electricity for that, right?
Greg: I probably can run an extension cord from
that building over here, but it'd take a couple hours.
Tim: But wait, I have a piezoelectric
speaker in my hands, and if I just hook it up...
Greg: Would that generate electricity?
Tim: I don't- maybe, why don't we try- Greg: Reverse it!
Tim: We could reverse the speaker! Greg: Switch it around!
Tim: So why don't we look closely at this leg
while I blow into the speaker.
Tim: Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where we did our recordings of the cockroach.
Backyard Brains, Neuroscience for Everyone!
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