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My New Obsession

2019-06-28 · announcement · Hank · 3:45 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Projects (also: Science & nature) · mode: Announcements · tags: self promotion

Hank describes his fascination with the microcosmos, a nearly alien world in a drop of water, and announces Journey to the Microcosmos, a chill weekly YouTube channel he made with James, a microscopist in Poland, with music by Andrew Huang and Complexly design and editing.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The microcosmos: an ecosystem in a drop of water, nearly alien, and why Hank is astounded by it

  • ★★ Hank says thousands of organisms can live and thrive in a single drop of water, an ecosystem in a space the size of a fingertip. — 00:00:08
  • ★★ Hank says there is a whole world within arm's reach that exists outside our notice; the microcosmos is as close as we have come to something truly alien. — 00:00:32
  • ★★ Hank can't quite explain why microscopic life astounds him; maybe because it was invisible and unknown for almost all of human history. (hedged) — 00:01:15
  • ★★ Hank says the discovery of the microcosmos transformed how we saw life and ourselves and led directly to the improvement of billions of lives. — 00:01:28
  • ★ Hank adds that maybe it is just because the microcosmos is really pretty, its organisms are our neighbors, and he wants to know more about them. (hedged) — 00:01:47
  • ★★ Hank watches many YouTube videos of microscopic life and got so obsessed that he asked one of his favorite creators, James in Poland, to make a YouTube channel with him. — 00:01:55 · YouTube

00:02:02 — Launch of Journey to the Microcosmos with James: schedule, credits, tardigrades, Stentor coeruleus, chill tone

  • ★★★ After months of work, Hank and James's channel Journey to the Microcosmos has launched: the first episode is out and a new one will come every week. — 00:02:16 · Journey to the Microcosmos
  • ★★ The channel features original music by Andrew Huang and design and editing by Complexly staff. — 00:02:29 · Journey to the Microcosmos, Complexly
  • ★★ The channel plans to follow a family of tardigrades as they hatch, grow and develop. — 00:02:36 · Journey to the Microcosmos
  • ★★ Hank says Stentor coeruleus is one of the largest single-celled organisms on Earth, big enough to be seen with the naked eye. — 00:02:52
  • ★ Hank calls Stentor coeruleus big, beautiful and voracious: the blue whale of pond scum. (playful) — 00:03:00
  • ★★ Unlike much of Hank's earlier rapid-fire educational work, the channel is chill and laid back, matching how he feels sometimes these days, though that is not to say there won't be drama. — 00:03:12 · Journey to the Microcosmos

00:03:33 — Sign-off

In the description and comments

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Mentioned

Central: Journey to the Microcosmos · microorganism

Also: Blue whale · Instagram · Poland · Stentor coeruleus · tardigrade · YouTube

Only in the description or credits: Andrew Huang · Complexly · James (person, mentioned from 2019)

Also centred on microorganism: Tiny Chickens Invade, But Still I Vote · In Which Hank Worries for a Little Bit and then Looks at Microbes

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