Tiny Worm Flash Mob Caught Under the Microscope

Vinegar eel "flash mob" caught under the microscope! Researchers were stunned when they measured the force of the roiling worm swarm.

Transcript

00:00A single droplet of water rests under a microscope, but this tiny sea is far from calm.

00:06Thousands of squiggly white worms known as nematodes, or more specifically vinegar eels,

00:12surge through the droplet, gathering at its center and running laps around its edges.

00:17Scientists have discovered more than 25,000 species of nematodes living all over the world,

00:23each of them with their own quirks.

00:25And for the vinegar eels, that quirk is dancing.

00:28Like birds or fish, vinegar eels travel in swarms.

00:33When scientists watched these nematodes swim under the microscope,

00:36they saw the eels move randomly around the droplet at first, but after an hour, a strange order emerged.

00:42The eels started swimming in synchronous, moving in the same direction at the same time,

00:47and even oscillating their bodies back and forth with the same rhythm.

00:51Scientists don't know how or why vinegar eels swim this way, but they know they're a force to be reckoned with.

00:56Once the nematodes started swimming in sync,

00:59they exerted a force on the droplet that could move an object more than 100 times the weight of their bodies.

01:05Now that is one funky flash mob.

01:09This research was published January 10th in the journal Soft Matter.

01:13This time, I am Hungry.

01:26This show was published January 10th in the journal Fortione.