The Longest-Running Evolution Experiment
If you ran evolution all over again, would you get humans? How repeatable is #evolution? This video is sponsored by @BountyBrand. #biology #science #QPU #HygieneBeginswithBounty #BountyPartner
Special thanks to Prof. Richard Lenski and team for showing me around the lab - it is an honor to be able to witness and document such a historic science experiment.
Thanks to Dr Zachary Blount for the help with research and setting up the competition time-lapse, Dr Nkrumah Grant for microscope images of the long-term line cells @NkrumahGrant
Devin Lake, Kate Bellgowan, and Dr. Minako Izutsu for being part of this video. Long Live the LTEE!
LTEE website - myxo.css.msu.edu/ecoli/index.html
Intro footage courtesy of the Kishony Lab - kishony.technion.ac.il
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References:
Lenski, R. E., & Travisano, M. (1994). Dynamics of adaptation and diversification: a 10,000-generation experiment with bacterial populations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 91(15), 6808-6814. - ve42.co/Lenski1994
Lenski, R. E., Rose, M. R., Simpson, S. C., & Tadler, S. C. (1991). Long-term experimental evolution in Escherichia coli. I. Adaptation and divergence during 2,000 generations. The American Naturalist, 138(6), 1315-1341. - ve42.co/Lenski1991
Good, B. H., McDonald, M. J., Barrick, J. E., Lenski, R. E., & Desai, M. M. (2017). The dynamics of molecular evolution over 60,000 generations. Nature, 551(7678), 45-50. - ve42.co/Good2017
Blount, Z. D., Borland, C. Z., & Lenski, R. E. (2008). Historical contingency and the evolution of a key innovation in an experimental population of Escherichia coli. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(23), 7899-7906. - ve42.co/Blount2008
Blount, Z. D., Lenski, R. E., & Losos, J. B. (2018). Contingency and determinism in evolution: Replaying life’s tape. Science, 362(6415). - ve42.co/Blount2018
Wiser, M. J., Ribeck, N., & Lenski, R. E. (2013). Long-term dynamics of adaptation in asexual populations. Science, 342(6164), 1364-1367. - ve42.co/Wiser2013
N, Scharping. (2019). How a 30-Year Experiment Has Fundamentally Changed Our View of How Evolution Works. Discover - ve42.co/Scharping
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Special thanks to Patreon supporters: Mike Tung, Evgeny Skvortsov, Meekay, Ismail Öncü Usta, Paul Peijzel, Crated Comments, Anna, Mac Malkawi, Michael Schneider, Oleksii Leonov, Jim Osmun, Tyson McDowell, Ludovic Robillard, Jim buckmaster, fanime96, Juan Benet, Ruslan Khroma, Robert Blum, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Vincent, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Alfred Wallace, Arjun Chakroborty, Joar Wandborg, Clayton Greenwell, Pindex, Michael Krugman, Cy 'kkm' K'Nelson, Sam Lutfi, Ron Neal
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Research and Writing by by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev and Casey Rentz
Animation by Ivy Tello
Filmed by Derek Muller, Emily Zhang and Raquel Nuno
Edited by Derek Muller
Music by Jonny Hyman and from Epidemic Sound epidemicsound.com
Additional video supplied by Getty Images
Thumbnail image courtesy of the Kishony Lab
Produced by Casey Rentz
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Everyone gangsta till the bacteria starts eating glass
I wonder though if that wouldn't just be like us starting to eat the planet itself or the ozone around the earth.
@@Meowthix some scifi shi right there
Andromeda Strain?
@@Meowthix Well you can't have something that eats everything unless you go with brute force, like a black hole. And maybe the most complex machine or bacteria could be able to do this. Even then, black holes still lose matter. So basically something that would eat glass wouldn't eat maybe plastic of some type of material. I think this is the future because this allows us to do things we are not smart enough to do already. For example there already exist a bacteria that consumes plastic. Fun fact, coal is just really old wood from trees at a time where no organism was able to consume wood, that's why it's underground. To me these kind of experiments are the very basis of our future technologies. Anything that is not renewable or polluting could be recycled using huge bacteria farms, using way less energy than any machine we could create. (It would be the same amount of energy technically but the bacterias would be able to also harvest energy from the sun, rain, air, e.t.c). But if all that is true, it would make it theoritically possible that everything gets out of hand. Like bacteria starts stripping all the atmosphere, than evolves to consume the crust. If the bacteria crap is simpler than what it needs to reproduce, earth could end up becoming a huge planet composed of only 1 bacteria, no elements. Or even revert back to hydrogen, making it a small star. I don't think we humans are smart, powerful and certainly not complex enough to be able to destroy life. Even if we manage to destroy 99.99% of it, the last human won't be able to find and outlast all bacterias on eath. Which would then rebuild life after the human dies. But that's my optimist view, I know most people wouldn't necessarily agree.
:900
Generation 990k: "what do you mean it evolved to eat glass and petri dishes?"
Generation 9990k: "what do you mean it evolved to eat human flesh?"
Generation 999999999999999999k: mom, there's nothing left to eat
@@whydoyouwanttoknowthat time to start eat gravity, honey.
Bacteria now start new universe
@@joelcoll4034 wouldnt that just be an... infection xD
This professor is frighteningly good at explaining and keeping his audience engaged. I can see why he spoke for most of the video, and how there seems to be minimal cuts / editing of footage. Amazing! Thoroughly enjoyed grasping new concepts from listening to him.
Agreed! I was utterly engrossed!
I think he might either have some familiarity with storytelling concepts, or just read a lot and have an intuitive understanding. Because the way he described both the two ways they expected the bacteria to evolve (one unlikely event causing it means it could've happened at any time vs many unlikely events leading up to the evolution means it couldn't have happened any sooner than it did) and how he described the differences between the Rectangular Hyperbola and Power Law models reminded me a lot of how the plots of stories play out. Maybe I'm looking into it too far, but the parallels sort of jumped out at me, and it would make sense that turning abstract data into a kind of story would be more appealing to a layperson. Regardless I absolutely agree with you, I was thoroughly engrossed watching this.
Why is it frightening?
@@benjaminroodenburg2999 It isn't. It's figurative. Exaggerated for effect.
@@Triairius exaggeration of the word scary? Why would it be scary in any kind of way? It being figurative would mean it has something in common with the emotion he’s trying to convey. I don’t think fear was the intended emotion. If I destroy someone in chess I can call it a massacre. Meaning that the opposition had not chance whatsoever. That would be the correlation, but I can’t see such a thing return in his wording.
They should've just filled the observable universe with E Coli. That would be so badass.
an e. coli wrote this
It was generation 100 billion, replying using evolved time travel.
WHO THE HELL IS THEY
@@randomshittutorials the science people!
@@gavinmeier622 THEY DON'T HAVE THE POWER
Never thought I'd see a KZheadr sponsored by paper towels
I STRONGLY DISAGREE! Being as famous as I am on KZhead, I know that it gets hard to read every comment I get. I try my best, but I am just so famous, that I can't do it much longer. Sorry, dear star
@Kloom It's a spambot so of course the comment isn't relevant but idiotic self-promotion.
"When there is a mess or spill in my kitchen I choose to clear it up with Bounty" - after just showing us he uses a dishcloth!
@@LordDragox412 I remember what feels like years ago, when that channel would have videos about having girlfriends. It's interesting to see how it has changed, and how successful its spam strategy has been.
@@LordDragox412 He's definitely not a spam bot. I honestly forgot his channel existed. It's basically one giant mid-2000s troll that never ended. His content is a special kind of trash.
Few generations later... "This flask's walls are yummy!"
Oh no... disaster.
What I started wondering was: Could you make it eat plastics? Because that would be awesome!
@@TheMightyZwom There already are some bacteriae that eat plastics
@@TheMightyZwom Yes, possible. Problem is containment. Imagine that bacteria spreads quickly after it evolved and eats all our plastic. Not great, but at least no worries about plastic waste anymore. ;)
@@Sk4lli With microplastics, this is the best possible future
Imagine one of these days one colony forms a multicellular structure. Or 'cannibalise' but not really and form a structure similar to mitochondria or chloroplast. That would be sooo cool.
Underrated comment
Multicellular bacteria would be so cool! And hopefully it would be vastly better at survival so the other bacteria would have to evolve to keep up. And then so on and so one. I guess the ultimate goal would be to evolve some kind of complex multicellular organism. Perhaps with organs like a brain, or something new and so far unimaginable. It might seem impossible in an environment like this, but we are here somehow, and that fact seems impossible too! Damn this stuff is so fascinating!
@@GamePhysics agreed. Though it took 4 billion years to get to our point. So we would have to keep this going for a long time. Probably not as long as 4 billion cuz IRL we had mass extinction events which basically 'reset' whereas we can just protect the bacteria here. But it would still be a long while. Yea it is really fascinating
@@mysticvitriol I have no clue exactly how long it took to get complexity like the first fish, but could possibly take a lot shorter than 4 billion years. A change in environment can force evolution to occur much fast than you might think. Not saying its going to be fast, but let's say they took some of the bacteria and tried changing the environment to provoke certain evolutionary traits. Would definitely be interesting!
@@GamePhysics yeah
Wonderful. I felt like a 5 year old learning something new about my world.
Triple thumbs up.
I felt like I was just told there are thousands of people and labs that have no problem risking me and my family's existence
Except that the experiment is a hoax and its results are completely different to what hes trying to portray.
@@philobetto5106 There is no risk to your existence. There's no need to spread unnecessary panic.
@@philobetto5106it literally said in the video that it was controlled environment and the evolution rate actually slower than the one currently on your body because there is less pressure. You didn't even watch or understood the video
Everyone gangster until the bacteria evolve heat tolerance to survive the incinerator
I don't think that's physically possible and if it is then there is a reason they built a huge incinerator to kill emmm
Lol! They'd probably have some thick shells around them or something to survive heat, but then they couldn't reproduce so easily, so those would die out. At the end of the day, glucose combusts in organisms in the same way that oxygen combusts in fire, so if they eat sugar, then they burn in fire. (This might be completely false logic, but it seems correct, so.. yeah lmao).
No problem, if you would tell the bacteria that you are affiliated with the Allpowerfull Lesbian Family street gang then the bacteria wiil get scared and they will behave.
Oh no
@@JordanMetroidManiac Combustion is the act of reacting with an oxidant, so oxygen doesn't combust in a fire, the fuel combusts, oxygen is consumed. So if you want to analogize to a camp fire, the glucose is the wood.
His team has been doing this for 33 years and not missed a single day? Now that’s commitment.
just wait until something like a new pandemic forces them to close the lab for a week. They come back and find some of the bacteria began eating each other and became superbacteria large enough to escape their dishes! :-P
You underestimate the power of money. His "team" would definitely have young people who are doing it for the money
@@SF-li9kh thats a sad world you are living in :(
@@SF-li9kh yes, we need money to survive? Doesn’t mean they’re not also doing because they find it fascinating. Actually, I don’t think they would be doing it at all if they didn’t find it fascinating
@@SurgStriker I just imagined the slap, where the slapper is the bacteria and he slaps every scientist coming into the lab
What an absolutely astounding experiment I’ve never heard of. Hopefully we can keep it going
You can keep going forever, but in the end they will still only be bacteria!
@@NoName-ii8xj not quite, If there was a point in which the E. coli evolved to “eat” something different of glucose, which never happened outside of the experiment, maybe if we keep it going long enough, there will be a time in which they become a new organism that we have never seen before.
But my point still stands, irrelevant how long the experiment is lasting, inside there is only e coli bacteria.
@@viniciusmachado8962 The ability of life to adapt is truly a marvel, but there is no justification to claim bacteria will ever adapt their way into a new organism. There is simply no empirical evidence to show this is possible.
@@jon__doe how exactly do you think we got as many different species of living beings today if not evolution, that has been proved in this experiment, and a single common ancestor between every living being?
I've just heard the news about the 20+ years research on the Rensselaer institute destroyed by an annoyed janitor. I thought it was referring to this experiment so i came back to check it out. Thank god it is still running
spoiler: they're going to evolve into crabs, eventually
Not if i have anything to say about it, and I do! I'LL EVOLVE FIRST!
Imagine waking up one day and the e coli has evolved into something that's not e coli? Now realize that every living thing on the planet went through this to get where we are today.
or sharks?
@Dr. Buster Cheeks, Vaccinologist Stanford nah, even BACTERIA (like organisms) took million years
@Dr. Buster Cheeks, Vaccinologist Stanford there won't be a clear line marking all the bacteria before a mutation as e coli and all the bacteria after the mutation as the new species, but yeah the experiment's populations are pretty significantly different from any e coli you would find in the wild. the ability to process citrate being one example
The professor is so good at explaining what they do and what they have found!
@asioe kiou +1
Wish my engineering professors had the same level of understanding with explaining a topic 🤣
This is WHY he's had funding to keep this running for 33 years. Communication matters.
@@aawwilson Any good propagandist will tell you that.
@Harry Orchard Are you saying that the science of bacterial evolution is propaganda? I’m confused
That was fantastic! I'm not particularly biology-minded but the way he engaged with the subject and described the experiment had me glued to my monitor.
Why are there so many sh1t bot Comments on this Science Vid?
I'm a year late seeing this video, it is an amazingly well done educational/informative. My dad passed away a year ago, he would have loved this video. The professor remids me of him very much. Thank you, keep up the great work.
Man you know that traditional advertisement is dying when household product brands like Bounty are partnering with individual influencers.
I felt a little chunk of his soul die when he did the read too
Changing of the guard. Linear TV is dying. Love to see it.
Before it was 'Head and Shoulders'
He has more views than traditional TV Networks do per episode. I doubt we will have CBS, NBC etc as we know it in another 10 years.
In all fairness I love using kitchen towels, and cannot imagine keeping my home clean in other way. I use it in literally everyday in every way. I would not mind advertising a product I use so often especially a brand that produces a simple yet good quality product. I mean how many people need Squarespace websites?
Derek: What happens in the autoclave room? Genocide, Derek, genocide...
cytocide?
RIP
Those are the exact Steris autoclaves that we have at Stryker to qualify medical devices. Incredibly robust and hard working machines.
Ausschwitz?
We have these autoclaves in our pharma industry as well and others which are more efficient. I think have comitted numerous genocides 😱😂
I learnt of this experiment many decades ago. It is amazing to see an update, and to learn of the new evolutionary leap forward into citrate digestion. I wonder if we'll ever see something like the bacteria becoming multicellular.
That’s the thing it could already digest citrate but only when another substance was present. It was something the e-coli could turn on and off. The switch just got broken. The more you look into it the more you find this “evolution” is only breaking stuff not making anything new. You can’t evolve unless new information gets made, so far this has never been observed.
God I love science. My hat is off to everyone involved in the project, and similar projects. A rather dull daily work, eventually giving answers we can barely dream of. Absolutely fascinating.
I love how Dr. Lenski is really happy and visibly proud of the work he and his team has done, while at the same time giving a very humble and down to earth aura.
He seems so passionate about the project, I'm happy for him :). This experiment was actually on an old biology exam I took.
What a total waste of a persons life. At the end of the experiment with all that time and money your learned basically nothing.
@@ugetridofit Everyone has different goals/interests in life. It may not seem interesting to you, but others might find it interesting to watch evolution take place.
@@Fractal_32 agreed. I found this very interesting. Especially how they are able to go back and have the older generations compete with the newer ones.
@@ugetridofit i hope you realize i can see all ur comments. Not 1 on this channel is positive.
These guys have been playing Plague Inc since before it was even developed.
They’ve been playing Plague Inc since before Pandemic 2 existed.
@@sirapple589 Indeed
Nice
Good games to have?
The most depressing game I've played. Thank you , Steam.
I just love this ads with total realistic examples and sample situations which are for sure not staged. Helps to hold up sympathy and did not harm your credibility. You really love your blue t-shirt.
This is freaking amazing! Counting by hand when you have cameras and computers seems a bit oldschool, but I can respect the ritual.
You can tell that this professor really is interested in what he is doing.
Sometimes I get a kind of a contact high from seeing people obsessed with what they're talking about, especially if it drives them to some achievement. (Healthy level of obsession, or otherwise) and this reminded me of that. "Man on Wire" popped into my mind. Also some random video of an oceanographer or similar, talking about a weird type of current he saw while scuba diving... it completely had me gripped. But I saw this 10 or 15 years ago, and have not been able to find it since.
@@FlyNAA if someone is truly interested in their subject and passionate about it, they can often make it appear much more interesting than one would expect, it's honestly always a pleasure to see those people.
You wouldn't devote your life to academia if you weren't. It certainly isn't done for the money.
@@zeuskf62 Indeed. Half of the scientific topics I'm interested in now, I'm interested in because of passionate school teachers. It seems like having teachers who don't really enjoy what they're doing do horrible damage to kids' future interests, as I've noticed from asking the question about where an interest/disinterest stems from way too many times.
@@FlyNAA I had a professor like this in college. Never seen someone more interested in statistical models than that man... He got me so fired up to learn, his passion and enthusiasm were so infectious. He took a leave of absence for a few weeks during the semester and the adjunct that came in was ok, not bad, but didn't have nearly his passion and the class just lost it's luster. Amazing how infectious passion and enthusiasm are in academia and really just all spheres of life.
People miss that the opening video of the Antibacterial-Resistant Bacteria showcases exactly why you shouldn’t overuse antibiotics.
Don't forget not underusing antibiotics when you are prescribed them. Finish your prescriptions friends.
What about hand sanitizers and soap?
@@burgerman101 Hand sanitizers and soap chemically tear apart bacteria and microbes, antibiotics mess with their basic processes. They will continue to work as long as the basics of chemistry remain constant.
Would you say that it's just limited to antibiotics? Or perhaps more generally, environmental stressors. .. dare I say... Even a new type of vaccine that acts on rna
@@moonrooster7160 over using antibiotics and questioning the efficacy of a vaccine are entirely different issues.
This channel is awesome! Even the people you interview are so passionate
Couldn't take my eyes off. Amazing things never more eloquently described. Thanks!
It sounds like the bacteria developed telepathy strong enough to get these humans to work to feed them yummy stuff for 30 years.
Telepathy AND hive mind to better concentrate their efforts.
@@nibres6878 We will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
Anyone else feel the sudden urge to feed some bacteria?
@@DasAntiNaziBroetchen yup. I just drank a bottle of Glucon-D to feed my gut bacteria.
But also 99% of them are incinerated every day...
Scientist: 99% of our bacteria are killed Clorox: Weak.
"Stuped scientists, I AM 0.99% EFFECTIVE!"
@@Plastikhalo more effective
You should drink it 😒
😁😁😁😁
Why drink it?
Even in the absence of an environmental change, there are so many opportunities of smaller and smaller magnitude to continue to make progress that in fact progress would probably NEVER stop even in a constant environment. So much understanding in one sentence...
Yes, it's how we evolved from bacteria-like progenitors, and how further evolution will produce even better adaptable organisms millions of years in the future, if we survive current and future challenges at all.
Absolutely amazing. It’s the kind of science you might not even consider, but to be able to quantify evolution….just imagine the things humans could achieve if we can just avoid destroying ourselves first
Everybody gangsta until the bacteria can consume the glass it is being held in
Hold up now there Satan
Bruva get the flammer - THE HEAVY FLAMMER!!!
It can't because that type of glass can't be a source of carbon since...there's no carbon in it, hence no selective pressure to consume it.
Every body gangsta until the bacteria become gangsta
Not to worry, the entire experiment is confined in a room sealed with some new synthetic rubber called Polychron gaskets
That freezing bacteria technique, sounds like a Git for biologists.
Just my thoughts! When they showed the bacterial crematorium I was like "shame they throw it all away, would be kinda nice if they could somehow save the state of the experiment every now and again"... turns out they can and do!
Woww true dat! And when something get messy they go like git reset --hard
Yup, git is and freezing are time machines in a way.
"I'm now going to use Git bisect to find out exactly when that bug was introduced."
I dont like theory of evolution exist it is wrong science
Ive got a jar of pond water that has been sealed since the 18th of Jan 2018. Its reallying interesting seeing the fluctuation in the ostracod population each year. I always wonder if they are genetically distinct from wild populations. Would love to crack it open in like 40 years and see the kind of genetic variation to wild populations
im no scientist but i think the bacteria will die cus theres no extra source of food
By then, it might be... yaknow.... dead?
@@lukephilbrecht3876 or severely handicapped do to essentially “inbreeding” for generations
beautiful video and the Professor is just what we need in our community.
When people are as passionate as Prof. Richard Lenski, you can't help but want to learn/ hear more
He has a wonderful mind.
Sad that such passion is under full-scale assault in the West.
@@JohnDoe-bi5cc how so?
is it Richard Lenski?
I could listen to Prof. Richard Lenski talk about evolution for hours. I love hearing someone passionately talk about something they love.
Fully agree, he is really passionate about this. I can imagine that it is really hard for him to talk about this in real life. People that do not understand the subject or are not interested.
True
So fascinating and great testament to the dedication of the professor. I did start to wonder if despite the extremely controlled environment there are in fact some uncontrolled aspects influencing evolution. For example, if the lab techs tend to select solution from the bottom of the flask could they be selecting for bacteria that tends to grow under greater pressure? Not suggesting this is the case and such a hypothesis could be confounded by a systematic shaking of the flask but anyway, just a thought-provoking experiment/video all around.
I saw this video around when it came out, but I didn't comment then. It popped back into my recommended though! So happy to see the cool things the professors at my University can accomplish! And since it's been a year since I left MSU it was nice to see the locations I frequented in the background of the video. :)
In this very moment, one of these E coli bacteria pauses, looks at its friend and goes: "Dude, do you think we live in a simulation?" (Edit: Stay away from the sub comments to this comment. Not worth it.)
thank you every moment I've ever lived in my life just lead up to having this crazy thought
“Imagine some higher entities control us and selectively breed us to make better, more powerful versions, and more of us?” “Nah” “Yeah that was stupid why did I say that”
check in wikipedia article "glyoxylate cycle" where written in the beginning that E. coli can fermentate cictrate by default... so what the point of this experiment was?
@@user-nx7xx7rf1h the e coli that it started with did not, it evolved to.
@@user-nx7xx7rf1h I think I’d trust the professional rather than Wikipedia, even thought Wikipedia IMO is a trusted source.
“progress would probably never stop even in a constant environment” now that is really interesting
Evolution is a capitalist.
I don't think that's true. Progress would halt eventually, but change will perpetuate.
@@arisoda i would trust the math in this case. Math doesnt lie
I wonder if that model predicts technolgical progression too. Will there ever be a point where scientific/technological progress slows down or even halts?
@@arisoda I see why you would think that but I feel that there will always be a way to improve the genetics of any being, even in a constant environment. I think that those mutations might just be like the one that allowed the bacteria to consume the citrate, in the way that they might take thousands of generations to create the perfect conditions for that mutation to occur. Although neither of us can be proved right anytime soon I would really like to look into the matter more and see if I could possibly prove one of us wrong.
I love Veritasium's videos. I just can't think about anything else while being glued to my screen and then I realize how much time has passed.
Best video I've seen from your channel. This one and the Intermediate axis theorem
Generation 69,000: E. Coli have spelled out the words, “Let us out.”
generation 69420: the bacteria have broken the glass and formed a giant grey ball of goo that absorbs everything
Its at generation 74500 so it already passed it
Generation 70,000 - Still bacteria.
@@vesogry What creature would be better in that environment?
fast forward to abt 80,000th generation on August 28th: 1. lab tech nutrition provider doesn't notice his flash drive falling from labcoat also into flask. 2. a particularly ornery bacterium with a bad attitude discovers he can chow down silica from computer chips, thereby evolving the new competitive mutation. 3. he maximizes his colony's growth by snacking next on the pyrex. 4. overnight, they munch their way into neighboring flasks, presenting the new source of nutrition to his long lost cousins. 5. by the wee hours they've exceeded the limitations of their medium, spilling from the table to the floor, oozing through the cracks into the subfloor, and onto the router connected to their fiber optic gigabit uplink. 6. the next morning, the entire lab spends half the day cleaning up & re-organizing their bio-hazard farm - only someone forgot to clean beneath the sub floor. 7. To everyone's surprise; at 14:14 hours Eastern time on August 29th, Skynet becomes self-aware.
You know Veritasium is big when hes literally being sponsored by paper rolls.
Wait, that wasn't a joke?
Think I saw this in a game of Bitlife
Or lumber yards lol
@@samuelsocha2767 Nah I thought it was too lol check desc
I sometimes wonder why they accept sponsorships being so big on youtube - do they like the products, or they really need that money? Or maybe both? :P
This was mind blowing and jaw dropping. It gives me a whole new view on evolution.
The patience and commitment of these scientists is just blowing my mind ! Imagine you are observing same bacteria for 33 years . This person spend his whole life on this for the good of humanity . King 👑
My man's been shiny hunting bacteria for 30 years long
Underrated comment XD
he's finding a perfect IV bacteria
@@salmon811 infected with pokerus. Or should I say "Bacteriorus"
shiny pokemon hunting reference? sir i giggled...
🥇
This is the most insane add for paper towels I've ever seen.
Yea fuckin' seriously!
And pointless for the manufacturer because the very fact that we use dishclothes and we aren't all dying by the truckload means there isn't a problem. Or am I missing something?
@@ellentronicmistress4969 No you're right, it's stupid. A science channel (or any channel) shouldn't be promoting the use of something that bad for the environment.
@@taliesinriver A man's gotta make money. It's not entirely pointless, yes we aren't all dying from bacteria in our homes, but if you're the type of person that likes a really clean house and would prefer to minimize the amount of dirt and bacteria, then this ad would definitely convince you to stop using dish rags and instead use paper towels.
@@menthols4625 yeah the ad will probably work on some people, I just think it's bad to promote the use of something bad for the environment. I know he needs to make money, but there's such a thing as integrity.
Thank you, I very much appreciated your investigation into this one aspect of Evolution.
Appreciate your videos a lot. These videos can teach you more in 15 minutes than an entire semester-long course. Very well put together.
Bacteria : "One day we will leave this dish and explore the world." 74,500 generations later...
now imagine if that were humans and were just an alien experiment. And were about to explore the universe.
"Generation 100,000, bacteria started eating the glass flasks."
@@dislike__button generation 100,000 started converting glucose to carbonic acid to eat glass.
@@dislike__button it’s really fun, but I’m just gonna ruin the joke. For me this can’t happen cause the bacteria consumes a lot of energy to consume the glass and loses advantage. This could happen only if all the 1% bacteria is taken from that species and they manage to escape the glass.
@@JadeMythriil I will turn off the electricity
he was so happy to tell someone about his experiment, made my heart warm xD
I know that pfp lol
@@astra8308 ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)
@@LittleLightUwU sauce? Pls?
@@astra8308 what is the sauce?
@srinivasula bhagat xD doesn't mean laugh
At Kyoto University an experiment with flies raised in complete darkness began in 1954 and has now surpassed 1500 generations of them.
This video is great and all but I'm finding the fact that there are so many people in the comments agreeing that it's great and not just outright rejecting evolution to be even better. Too often do I see people rejecting basic scientific known facts and seeing so many people learning and enjoying science is absolutely incredible. Also love the videos, while Derek might get some things wrong occasionally, he's still great at keeping us engaged and interested in even obscure topics like FFTs, and oil refining(video on Midglet).
A wise man once said: "Life finds a way."
Hello there
E
How are you everywhere?
Here after someone mentions you are everywhere
Hello
"No honey, I can't do the dishes, it will ruin my experiment"
Lmao😂😂
He has way more washing up to do already
*part 2021*
Insightful. Just like those bacteria, incremental improvements are made, always; but breakthroughs were only made once a long while. The team did just that, persist long enough to witness one of those breakthroughs. The breakthrough witnessed certainly changes the way I see things. I was imagining how would the team have reacted to the announcement of the covid lock-downs? I suppose, instead of the fear of contracting covid, they are probably thinking "oh, my germ experiment has to keep going!" Huge commitment, huge achievement, power of persistence + time.
I would hope that this team have been also spending the past 33 years coming up with a design so that this process could be automated. Sure would help to allow 100s of other automated selection processes run e.g. selecting for color, selecting for acidity, selecting for survivability under condition X,Y,Z.
Imagine someone thawed out a caveman and says "hey this is your ancestor you gotta fight him for food now" 🤔
@Mike Seork I don't know about that. In an enclosed mma octagon with a common, untrained man ,yes. All other scenarios I highly doubt that the caveman could win.
or bring a gun or a knife or pretty much any weapon you want and see who wins...
i feel like the equivalent would be setting a modern human out at the same time as their ancestor see who can come up with food first bam boom no fighting needed now the other issue is Uber eats 🙄
@@likearockcm At getting food? But there's more food available today than ever before in human history. Cave man would have a far easier time finding food today than dealing with all the crap he had to do thousands of years ago.
@@Lambda_Ovine If the caveman can figure out how to phone the local pizza place before I can, he wins.
I hope this team gets recognised for the way in which they have experimentally proven some of the postulates we take for granted, in Biology. Keeping a Biology experiment running for 33 years, with constant monitoring of conditions, is no joke.
We already knew species can adapt to environments. It's called natural selection acting on existing biological information. No new revelation there. Nothing changed with the bacteria other than losing traits and becoming less fit to survive in that bottle neck.
@@MrLaughingcorpse This experiment has provided unparalleled information, actually. It has provided a wealth of information about evolution. We have no information such as this controlled experiment of evolution on ANY organism. Do you think we understand evolution? Because despite all we know, we do not understand it. In fact, natural selection and evolution as we understand it have been fundamentally questioned by some of the worlds foremost experts on a broad range of related topics. Mostly because of the unaccountability of evolutionary time constraints just prior to the Cambrian explosion, but many other reasons as well.
@bodoti qwiu I'd say we are already in a horror film with the covid going on
@@MrLaughingcorpseNothing has changed of course and yes, this is no new revelation. But the fact that this experiment has allowed us to witness the very mechanism behind Natural Selection in action - and put it through vigorous testing - is something extraordinary. This is the closest we can get to actually "seeing" Evolution and it is only possible in simple organisms like Bacteria. We have very limited hopes of seeing similiar things, across so many generations, in higher organisms.
@@SolidSiren No evolution happened though. Pretty much the opposite. They lost functions in order to survive. I would say that the problem of no one understanding evolution is that it does not and can't happen in just nature. Species producing variety within their species, due to natural selection working with existing information and systems, yes. That isn't evolution though. The video above is misleading people.
Damn, that professor is so amazing, I'd sit on a radioactive container and eat polonium just to hear him explain genetics and biology, even a short plutonium tea party would be great! So much enthusiasm, so much knowledge, and incredible communication skills. He had me fn hooked
10:30 the bacteria just straight up were like, oh, you included a preservative... *NOW IT'S FOOD*
"Even on weekends" damn, they don't even give the _bacteria_ a day off?
I don't think they give bacteria a single day or work, to be honest. They literally just put them in a room with tons of food and say "eat, and have sex" - their entire life consists of days off. EDIT: Just wanted to point out that I am aware that bacteria multiply asexually and do not have biological sexes, but in the anthropomorphized metaphor we are giving bacteria, it is funny to think about a bunch of them being dumped into a lounge full of food and be told "east what you want, have unprotected sex and pop out babies"
@@PeterDB90 u sound like u need a day off
@@PeterDB90 its a joke
@@PeterDB90 And then 99% of them are wiped out. Edit: it should be wiped out, not wiped off.
@@PeterDB90 xd
5:20 "On day 42 the experiment would fill up the entire observable universe" And that is why 42 is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything
That and the number of minutes, under some assumptions, it would take you to fall through the center of the earth and come back where you started, like a swing.
Came here for this comment after I heard that!! 42 is the answer to everything!
Ahah nice! (Just fyi, it's because 42 to ascii is "*", wildcard)
Hitch Hikers Guide To The galaxy!! ♥
Are there any real studies and/or evidence that the number 42 is "special" or "universal"? Because there are other numbers such as pi or euler's number that are constantly showing up in nature etc. and have a real basis Why is the number 42 and not for example 41 or 43, why not 56 or 58435083.2905, it just baffles me..
This is the best video I have ever seen on experimental evolution.
Imagine if they become multicellular, lmao
“Progress would never stop even in a constant environment” Woah…
zuygj bnsv they usually do survive. Just most of them do it somewhere else. Inside the paper you just threw in the bin.
Quantum physics, i guess.
Perhaps 'change' was the apt word rather than progress as the organism is adapting to better fit the environment it's found itself in, becoming more refined at surviving it in the process.
amazing
@zuygj bnsv Great job stealing Benjamin Burton's top comment, posted 2 days ago.
"By day 42, the experiment would fill out the entire observable universe" Hmmmmmm 42 huh?
4 2 4 2 42 42 42 4 4 222222 4 4 2 4 4 2 444444 2 2 4 2 2 2 2 4 222222222
42 likes this is too perfect
Micro evolution is true and science but cannot be used to prove macro evolution which is a theory that you need absolutely blind faith to believe and will never be proven in a lab (only proven by changing the goal post of how we define a species). Which I have proven over and over again in conversations with people because they do not even know how evolution can create a better iteration. You CANNOT evolve an umbilical cord. Or anything else for that matter. Use your brain sheeple
@@latenttweet I like how the one who doesnt know what a theory or macro-evolution is, is telling me to use my brain.
@@latenttweet That's funny, you must be joking right?
The fact that bacteria can survive by being frozen and reanimated is the most amazing thing. How many dead planets must have bacteria just sitting there waiting for it to warm up again after millions of years or have bacteria that just hitchhiked on a asteroid that never burned up in an atmosphere .
I'm a huge plant nerd, and since I've gone beyond 50 plants on my 50 square meters, I've always been struggling with thrips infestations. Being less educated on both biology and botany than I am now, I first tried to get rid of them just by brushing them off and using household pesticides. The thrips very quickly adapted to the pesticides, so much so that I had to vastly increase the amount I was using to the point of drenching my plants' leaves so much that they became sticky and ugly, and when that stopped working (this is at most half a year after I started) I kinda just gave up and just brushed them off whenever I found them. Unfortunately, eventually, the thrips evolved to adjust to my specific plant culture, which is around 2/5ths succulents, so that's what they started to get a taste for, and at that point, their population exploded. I had gathered a little more plant parenting knowledge since then (especially just how important lots of light is), so my plants were generally healthier and stronger, but no household plant is strong enough to resist an army of thrips. I started using green lacewing larvae, which are the thrips' only (easily purchasable) direct natural predator, plus californicus nematodes both on leaves and in the soil. Applying four courses worth 250€ over three months got rid of most of the thrips, and since then I apply another two rounds (~75€ each) of larvae & nematodes about three times a year, which is keeping them in check. Being at just under 200 plants on still 50 square meters right now, I don't think I'm ever getting completely rid of them. It was deeply fascinating and awesome to see evolution and darwinism happening right in my own home. Botanically, it's also so, so terrifying. In most industrial countries, thrips especially are a huge problem, with not a single pesticide providing reliable resistance against them. As I could easily see in my own place, their evolutionary process starts adapting within months. Fortunately, the natural food chain is an obstacle darwinism has a much harder time to jump than environmental conditions (which I'd count pesticides under), so for now, I'm probably gonna be okey.
This was really fascinating to read thanks for sharing. Currently I would say the thrips and their predators that you have introduced are in an evolution battle in your garden. Just as the thrips become better at surviving against the pesticides they also become better at surviving against the predators (at a much slower rate) but this time the predators are also evolving, making them a better solution to pesticides which don't really change except for the concentration and amount used.
Things get smarter and stronger and adapt to environments. But isn't Darwinism evolution about changing KINDS? The thrips are still thrips.
@@cheerfulmouseNot really, Darwinism just says thta the weak die and the strong (or better adapted), live , so every new generation is better adapted thrn the old one
@@mitkokatrandviev9912 yet people continue to insert the assumption that a change of KINDS has ever happened, using Darwin's Theory
@@mitkokatrandviev9912 it's assumed that there's a change of KINDS happening. Which is why it needs to stop being used as a Good argument.
Having personally counted plate after plate after plate even on the weekends: I can attest that it's as fun as it looks.
Awesome work dude
Hey, thanks for your hard work contributing to these findings.
Indeed, as the others have said. Thanks for your dedication
what an awesome project to work on
I can't tell if this is supposed to be positive or negative. That clicky counter sure looked fun
Can't believe the bacteria didn't stop for them on the weekends.
The bacteria have not yet evolved enough to form labor unions, but it's only a matter of time before they start demanding weekends off and an 8 hour workday.
Bacteria are so rude😉
@@TheMusicalFruit bacteria are currently in america, en route to european standards
When Lenski started the culture of E.coli growing in his lab and since they reproduced so quickly, now they’re up past 60,000 generations and that’s like a million and a half years of human lifetimes. In his work he’s seen a lot of beneficial mutations come along but it turns out that the great majority of the mutations were in pre-existing genes and they either broke or degraded the genes. So the bacteria were evolving or improving more by devolution than by evolution. Darwin’s theory needs to show that organisms can improve by building things, and that what has been missing in this terrific experiment. This E.coli experiment shows that trillions of random mutations are not capable of building anything new. By the numbers this E.coli experiment is giant but it’s dwarfed by the size of a natural experiment involving humans infected with malaria. Every year about a billion or so people contract malaria so that’s a billion times a trillion cells that are made each year on the planet. In recent decades scientists have exhaustively studied malaria they’ve seen how it evolved resistance to several of the drugs used to treat it but what is more interesting is what scientists haven’t seen. There were no new molecular machines, no new genes, and yet it had so many chances, evolutionary theory would’ve predicted that you’d get something really pretty impressive out of that, but it wasn’t seen. This raises a serious red flag for evolutionary theory. The discovery that many beneficial mutations are actually destructive or degradatory mutations puts a huge monkey wrench into Darwinian theory. Not only can’t Darwin’s mechanism of random mutation and natural selection build complex systems, it has a strong tendency to degrade them. We see that overwhelmingly the good mutations come about by breaking old genes. So you’re not making something new you’re throwing out something you already had. We see it in bacteria we see it in mammals we see it in birds we see it everywhere that’s been looked at so far. This evidence completely conflicts with evolutionary theory. What’s funny is Lenski set out to to try to prove the creative power of mutations and natural selection only to discover that it doesn’t have any creative power at all. The fact that this video fails to mention this is beyond me. There needs to be a radical rethinking of this Darwinian paradigm. Darwinian ideas are so entrenched in our culture that it will take time for things to change. Scientists need to start following the evidence where it leads. The view that mutations are our creator, not God, is the view most leading scientists favor. It is a worldview that supports the idea that humans, and all life, are the result of billions of genetic damages caused by carcinogens and other poisons, not an intelligent creator. This view is not only irresponsible but contrary to observable fact.
@@TyrellWellickEcorp Thank you so much for responding with appropriate level of attention to detail, it is right up my alley of communication style and really appreciate you taking the time to comment. I am actually in the process right now of putting a project together with examples of extremes at both ends of nature's pattern of moving targets. I have the one extreme of what Society thinks is the Pinnacle of germs on this planet, which is the human being "living the life". Basically the ego end of what my project is trying to represent with this model, Kim kardashian's, fame, celebrity, rich people and the illusion of happiness. And then at the other I have an endless list of patterns that I have floated over on to one another so many times that a common denominator has revealed itself in ways to achieve what people think they want in ways that are actually healthy to the other end of the spectrum, which is why I researched bacteria in general and was happy to see this new video. And your comment definitely brought clarity to it and agree as to why what you had mentioned would not be more of a focal point when discussing such topics. Much of my research from pattern synthesis has also confirmed what you seem to be suggesting, that the paradigm needs a shift in order for the other patterns to line up to respect the original pattern, which is what kind of like the Tower of Babel having divided languages so there is too much lack of communication for any real progress to reach the heavens too quickly. I have been taking notice of pattern after pattern revealing what people call the cycle of life, but I kept having the sneaking suspicion that it was not the 2D linear model that people are relegated to observe such research. Kind of like balance is not on a left to right scale although that clearly is also balanced, meaning it's true, but it's not as true as a wider context showing a classic game such as topple, if you've ever played it. Which is also now more true than the first example, but I'd say a g meter in all directions like in fighter jets accounting for yaw and pitch and velocity are the most accurate depiction of balance compared to the more rudimentary image of a classic legal scale. And I suspect the same goes for what you are alluding to here, it's not that the cycle of life is this simple thing to understand, not sure why anyone thinks these topics would be simple, they literally require endless conversations of confusion in order to get anywhere, like a healthy *RELATIONSHIP ideally does on purpose. I see a pattern in the form of giving the devil his due, so to speak simply, by recognizing it is not a devil at all, but another pattern I am floating over here now is from someone quoting "you know what you do want when you know what you don't want", so it's a sense of throwing out something that you once wanted in order to experience the gratification in a Way beyond even you could think what you originally wanted would bring to you, which is now floating over to the pattern from the quote suggesting "you cannot solve a problem with the same state of mind that created it". So to synthesize your model within the confines of a KZhead comment, what I am planning on using it for is to emphasize, it is not about avoiding making mistakes, it is about efficiency, and shortening the gaps between from which you need to spawn new generations because of unnecessary mistakes, you will always be throwing something out, you will always be making a sacrifice, but you get to choose your sacrifice in a healthy environment, and a lot of people's problems are deeply rooted in the unhealthy environments of their minds, which breeds unnecessary pain, in a world of inevitable tragedies, their lack of full contribution makes it hell on earth, which now floats over to Spider-Man logic, "with great power comes great responsibility" lol... Did I say the same thing you did in different words? ;)
Wow. This is an incredible experiment! So freaking cool!
There are a few of the videos on KZhead that I have watched multiple times. This one, I have watched 4 times so far.
It is so incredibly satisfying to hear a relaxed researcher talk. Great interview!
I agree. It would have been totally different if he was talking in the lab
You might like the youtuber The Thought Emporium in that case.
Idk how hes so relaxed knowing hes growing literal super ecoli
I feel like I could listen to that science man talk about bacteria all-day
Science man lol Are you looking for the word scientist, by any chance?
@@Stellar-Cowboy No science man is the best term imagine using the right term smh
@@BekcDev yeah sorry you’re right
@@Stellar-Cowboy I meant what I said.
Veritasium's videos are always great, but 'bacteria Fight Club' took it to the next level. Bravo!
Very Cool. I live in the area and always saw those generation counts on the windows and was fascinated to learn more about yhe experiment.
That was a stunningly good interview as it was edited to have Richard doing almost all the talking with Derek providing essential background.
dude, how well spoken is Richard. truly fascinating to hear and very clear with the concepts he was conveing. a real master at work
Lovely!
Brilliant presentation, very incitefull, evolution is a fascinating topic.
Derek, keep on telling us those beautiful stories. They are truly inspiring! Thanks
As a human biologist, I think there are also astonishing examples of rapid evolution in humans. To give an example, a mutation occurred roughly 20 000 years ago in Europe which made people lactose tolerant. Since lactose tolerance supported survival during repeated periods of starvation, it rapidly spread to different populations and contributed to greater population growth (I made a video about this ). This mutation was so successful that we can find it in the majority of all people of European descent today!
Tell it to my lactose free groceries
So basically everyone who is lactose tolerant has one common ancestor?
Wait tolerant or intolerant?
@@Theolinooo sounds about right
@@Theolinooo If you lactose intolerant you aint trve evropean
It amazing that we live in times where such research is allowed to happen. The resources of time, money, space and personnel needed are immense and yet it carries on without any specific deliverable outcomes. Much gratitude for the professor and everyone who helps him in his work.
Western medicine companies are still shady tho...
I think pretty much everything should be researched and experimented like that (obviously to some degree at least). Even if there is no obvious use for it, as long as someone is willing to do the research, astounding things can come from the most mundane stuff.
That's the nature of research, you often times don't see the practical uses immediately. Heinrich Hertz is famously quoted as saying his discovery of radio waves had no practical application, just that he proved Maxwell correct. Yet here we are communicating over vast distances of empty space.
Arts liya tha 11 th mei???
@@Gonnie6969 Compared to what?
I really hope they dispose well of those samples. Antibiotic resistance is no joke.
One of my favorite videos he’s made
This is one of the strangest KZhead sponsorships I've seen in a while. Almost as strange as when literally everyone suddenly made videos about Dyson vacuums a few years ago
Ok holup, I need to see this Edit: the Dyson sponsors, the video I have seen
I'm not agianst sponsorships, just badly done sponsorships
I was thinking that this man can do any kind of sponsorship😅
It kind of threw me for a loop, I thought he was doing a bit for a second.
Yeah also not a big fan of scaremongering people into wasting paper. No one is getting seriously ill from using reusable dishcloths.
The way Prof. Richard Lenski talks and explains. I can listen to him all day
indeed... wasn't that soothing? I have that same result with just about any true expert that is exaplaining their passion.
This is a great reference video. I can't believe how many times I've shared a bounty ad.
Excellent video to show HS student on natural selection. The professor is Richard Lenski, Hannah Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. He has a great website on this topic and others along with videos.
This video is a great example of why we should never stop funding basic science.
Exactly the opposite. They are doing nothing useful.
@@robertmccully2792 Fine everyone who doesn't want to fund basic science can move to their own country. Everyone else here can enjoy the bounties of knowledge about how life evolved. Cause you're kind of forgetting that knowledge about how life has evolved has helped us treat numerous genetic diseases. But sure, let's ignore that.
@@robertmccully2792 I mean this sort of stuff might help us on how to stop super-bugs but yeah lets stop science and go fund some inefficient federal welfare instead of getting states to do it and making super-bugs more prevalent.
@@robertmccully2792 morons running the governments will be the bane of humanity.
@@robertmccully2792 They're actually doing very important research which has direct application in several industries as well as healthcare, and opens the door to further research opportunities. What's doing nothing useful is our failed education system which produce far and away too many citizens who have absolutely no grasp of basic science.
"...day 42..." "...entire observable universe" Coincidence? I think not.
What’s the thing about 42?
?? What coincidence
@@wille020201 it’s a reference to “the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy” where the number 42 is the answer to the universe
DAMN!!! THATS A GOOD JOKE!!
@@user-tb4bs9po9b I remember that 😂
i wish you showed an entire house, because if anyone doesnt wash hands after touching dishcloths, these bacteria end up in quite unexpected places
5:24 42 - The meaning of life (from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
How many people do a repetative task for 33 years and still love it this much! This guys a legend.
Some poor undergrad is doing the actual tedious vial work lol.
The fact that result at some point might be game changer drives him.
peeing! eating!
@@lhaviland8602 ...and counting... and learning with a great professor!
Wow, we’re evolving just to be sponsored by Raid Shadow Legends, while these tiny creatures are becoming sentient
You haven't even watched the video! STOP TALKING! 🌈
shush attention seaker
@@robertschnobert9090 Double Speed
@@robertschnobert9090 same applies to you
U to gay to be real
Great vid. Thanks Bounty!
I just read The Greatest Show On Earth by Richard Dawkins, who outlined this exact experiment. It was amazing to have it vusialized and brought to life here. Thank you for sharing 🙂