Bugs aren't really attracted to artificial light – they’re CONFUSED by it.
Researchers at Imperial College London used high-resolution motion capture and
stereo-videography to reconstruct the 3D kinematics of bugs flying
around light bulbs. They discovered the insects don’t steer toward the light,
what’s actually happening is they turn their backs to the light because doing
that during the natural sky light helps orient their flight path.
So it seems like artificial lights are trapping insects in a drunken flight
pattern, not sucking them in like a mesmerizing, sexy tractor beam.
Vsauce! One story down – seven to go – this is Mind Blow.
The next global virus might come from a DIAPER.
Babies are poop machines -- but it turns out their diapers are full of scientific secrets.
University of Copenhagen microbiologists spent five years analyzing the poop of
over 600 babies, and they found that every crappy nappy was home to over
10,000 virus species. The researchers found thousands of never-before-seen
viruses deep in the dookie -- including over 200 brand new families of viruses.
90% of the viruses were bacteria-killers, and that offers insight into how our immune
systems develop -- and it might eventually help us combat chronic illnesses like asthma and diabetes.
The next time your little cousin reeks, remember that his pantload
contains about Number 2 to the 14th power different genetically simple organisms.
Albert Einstein just discovered a massive black hole from beyond the grave.
Einstein predicted the phenomenon of “gravitational lensing,” when an object
is so gigantic that it literally curves the fabric of space to bend
light around it -- and it works like a huge space-warping telephoto lens.
A team at Durham University and the Max Planck Institute harnessed gravitational lensing to find
a black hole with 30 billion times more mass than our Sun. It lives in the galaxy called Abell 1201,
but relax -- you’re not gonna get sucked in, it’s around 2.7 billion light years away.
Toss in this freshly sharpened image of the first
photo ever taken of another black hole and it’s a good time for black hole news.
Plants that get a spritz of anti-drought perfume can help at least 55 million people
every year. Drought is actually the most deadly of all natural disasters,
and when crops die from lack of water, people go hungry.
Researchers at Universitat Politècnica de València have created a spray-on drug that
activates a plant‘s natural defenses against drought. The plants consume 30% less water,
and they can even go without any water for longer.
It just sprays on from a bottle,
so anyone can do it -- and it’s already been tested successfully on tomato plants.
Now we just need a spray bottle the size of the eastern hemisphere.
Hardcore CHAD Vsauce2 fans will know I’ve recently started exercising. But my potato
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Factor has plans like Calorie Smart, Keto, Protein Plus or Chef’s Choice -- whatever fits
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mess or trips to the grocery store Factor is an unbelievable value and service.
So head to FACTOR75 dot com or click the link below and use code VSAUCE250 to get
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Brain Scans are now sharper. 64 million times sharper!
Researchers from multiple Universities came together led by Duke’s Center for In Vivo
Microscopy to develop an absolutely massive MRI resolution upgrade.
They accomplished this ultra-sharp mouse brain
scan in part by utilizing a much stronger tesla magnet,
a 100 times boost with special gradient coils and a massive computer processing improvement.
The hope is to obviously study the brain in previously impossible detail,
make the MRI even stronger and eventually lead to breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s research
as well as just helping humans live longer and healthier lives. Which seems helpful.
The fruit in your garbage can dissolve lithium-ion batteries.
Engineers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore mixed shredded batteries with
solvents derived from fruit peels -- and it actually recycles them by extracting cobalt,
lithium, and nickel. Fruit peels are rich in sugars,
flavonoids, and phenolic acids, which dissolve and recover the metals.
This is not just a thing in a lab -- they’ve scaled it up to a working plant that can recycle
2,000 liters of dead batteries, and it also works with leftover pineapples, pears, and lemons.
In the great war of fruit garbage vs. battery garbage, the winner is us.
It turns out a good gift to bring in Egypt was severed hands.
We knew about the practice known as “Gold of Honor” from tomb inscriptions:
Egyptian warriors would present the hands of defeated enemies to the Pharaoh,
and in return he’d give them gold necklaces and golden pendants shaped like flies. Archaeologists
uncovered a heap of 18 hands that are the first real evidence of the practice -- and they
were easily visible from the throne room, which suggests the Pharaoh really liked looking at them.
The next time you go to a pyramid-warming, well, you know what to bring.
Everything you need to make the next generation of bioadhesives is probably in your kitchen.
A team at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation in Las Angeles has developed a
bioadhesive with better sticking strength, stretchability, and toughness than what we’ve
got now… and they made it from ingredients found in coffee, olive oil, and gelatin.
Wounds that reopen after surgery are extremely dangerous -- for some procedures,
the mortality rate is 45%. Stitches and staples alone just fail too often. The
new adhesive is 3 times stickier than previous wound sealants,
and the gel can even hold and release medicines like antibiotics directly onto the wound.
Caffeic acid is found in all plants, and it’s a critical ingredient in woody plant
biomass -- it makes sense that it could give structural superpowers to gelatin.
OH, and caffeic acid is also a precursor to the building blocks of lignon, which is NOT
to be confused with the notoriously dangerous medical condition known as ligma.
And now how to connect to the Micronet 800 in 1984.
Um, the telephone is connected to the telephone network with a British Telecom plug. And I simply
remove the telephone jack from the Telecom socket, plug it into this box here, the modem.
And then take another wire from the modem and plug it in where the telephone was. And it's
now telling me to now phone up the main personal computer. I'm now waiting for the computer to
answer me. It asks for the tone. And things are starting to happen. Things are starting to happen.