The Kid Should See This.
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There's just so much science, nature, music, art, technology, storytelling and assorted good stuff out there that my kids (and maybe your kids) haven't seen. It's most likely not stuff that was made for them...
But we don't underestimate kids around here.
Kid-friendly not-made-for-kids videos for all! Collected by Rion Nakaya and her four year old co-collector.
Tip Jar: Finding great content for this blog takes work! If you like the videos on this site, please support the science education projects that we've picked on DonorsChoose.org.
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From the team that brought us The Secret Life of Plankton and The Plankton Chronicles comes this wonderful TEDEd video from their amazing microscopic footage, re-created to explain How Life Begins in the Deep Ocean:
Where do squid, jellyfish and other sea creatures begin life? The story of a sea urchin reveals a stunningly beautiful saga of fertilization, development and growth in the ocean depths.
from TEDEd.
The Robust Ghost Pipefish’s capacity for camouflage never ceases to amaze me!
We came upon this adult pair, the smaller is the male, first, out in the open, and then swimming near some vegetation in the predominantly mucky area that characterizes Secret Bay. Isn’t the likeness to the sea vegetation remarkable?
If you look closely at the larger one, you can see its mouth and eyes moving as it adopts its typical vertical, head downward orientation.
There’s a great collection of Ghost Pipefish photos here. Plus, another video of them from our archives.
via La Boite Verte.
Don’t adjust your sound as this video has none, but wow, does it have a picture! This is a deepstaria enigmatica, a deep-sea jellyfish that was caught by a remotely operated underwater camera about 5000 feet (1500 m) down. Wikipedia places them “in Antarctic and near-Antarctic seas” and puts their size at “approx. 60 cm” (or almost 2 feet) wide. Impressive, nature. Impressive.
via io9.
“James Cameron and his team pull together a new CGI of how they believe the Titanic sank and reached the ocean floor…” which completely fascinated the kid. We get National Geographic magazine (which featured the Titanic for the April 15th, 100th anniversary of its sinking) and to see their still images turned into this animation was a treat for him. It was a treat for me to see him paying attention to the physics of it — how it sunk and broke in half from the stress, its size and weight, falling and hitting bottom in water. Also: bada bing, bada boom.
via Devour.
After watching The Secret Life of Plankton, oh how happy we were(!) to find Para Films‘ The Plankton Chronicles. There are so many beautiful videos shot in microscopic detail that we haven’t watched them all yet.
In this video, the Sea Urchin and its cone-shaped echinopluteus larvae demonstrate the cell-division cycle. Other excellent vids: Protists - Cells in the Sea, Iridescent Ctenophores, Pelagia - Fearsome Jellyfish, and Pteropods - Swimming Mollusks. Stunning film work and really breathtaking science.
We really love this video, The Secret Life of Plankton, from TEDEd. Marine biologist and science educator Tierney Thys and a team of scientists and film makers (Noé Sardet and Sharif Mirshak from Parafilms in Montreal) created this phenomenal six minute film about microscopic organisms using some excellent storytelling and new videography techniques (dark field optics and macro lenses or microscopes equipped with HD SLR cameras).
Tierney is also a TED speaker, having previously studied the Mola mola, a super-unique giant ocean sunfish that weighs over 2.5 tons and eats jellyfish. It’s a phenomenal looking creature. You can watch Tierney talk passionately about the Molas, the water, and her work as a Marine Biologist in a video at NationalGeographic.com. Highly recommended.
For a great set of plankton images, there is molecular geneticist Richard R Kirby’s book, Ocean Drifters: A Secret World Beneath the Waves, featured at Scientific American.
Thanks, Achim Brauweiler.
The kind of light that we see things in changes how we see those things. This reef tank is shot under actinic light, which not only “will facilitate photosynthesis or stimulate light sensitive species,” but it changes how the corals look, as well. From liveaquaria.com:
The light spectrum, or Kelvin rating, of aquarium lighting will also alter the appearance of corals… For example, bulbs that emit light heavy in the actinic blue range bring out dazzling fluorescent colors not visible under full spectrum daylight bulbs. While different hobbyists prefer different combinations of light spectrums, a typical lighting system for a reef aquarium consists of 50% white light with a high Kelvin rating and 50% blue, actinic light.
It’s also a lovely video of reef life to boot!
Even if your kid has seen this on the interwebs or tv already, they might want to see it again. This Beluga Whale is named Juno and lives at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. And yes, Juno likes mariachi music.
Thanks, Jenni.
The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the world’s oceans, and the lowest elevation of the surface of the Earth’s crust. It is located in the western Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands. The Trench is 2, 542 km (1,580 miles) long and 69 km (43 miles) at the widest point.
The Mariana Trench is formed by the shifting between two tectonic plates: the Pacific Plate and the Mariana Plate. The Trench is 11,033 metres (36,201 feet), (6033.5) fathoms deep, with pressure at the deepest part of the Mariana Trench is over 8 imperial tons per square inch – and is home to a rich variety of fellow-creatures…
Be sure to check out the photo link if you or the kid have yet to see what lurks down in the deep! And for related watching: a Mariana Trench dive video playlist of James Cameron’s recent groundbreaking journey to the bottom, or this video of his return.
