The Longest-Running Evolution Experiment

  • Am Vor year

    VeritasiumVeritasium

    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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Ayisy Amirul
Ayisy Amirul

His team has been doing this for 33 years and not missed a single day? Now that’s commitment.

Vor year
Nightfall
Nightfall

Ill do you one better, 33 years these guys have been working Lol

Vor 7 Tage
DeputyFish
DeputyFish

@S F OH MY GOD! PEOPLE NEED MONEY?

Vor 11 Tage
G
G

Fr that’s 12k days of consistency, I pause and think to myself only if I had that discipline, what am I giving today for a better future. I have not found the answer. 😂💯🙏

Vor 24 Tage
Life On Lockdown
Life On Lockdown

@Jake Breedlove Exactly what is living already? Sorry I did this comment a long time ago so I don't remember, so I might not know which part you're referring to.

Vor 27 Tage
Akib Al Azad
Akib Al Azad

@Jake Breedlove alright don't know why you replied to a 7 month old reply to a one year old comment

Vor 27 Tage
grys
grys

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.

Vor 8 Monate
Trollmantha Trollington
Trollmantha Trollington

@Benjamin Roodenburg figurative language includes words that do not have something in common with the emotion being conveyed. It is sometimes through cultural context and some additional mental steps that the intended meaning is made clear. Familiarize yourself with, for example, the use of the phrase "scary good" used to indicate a perception of unexpectedly high level of quality. "Wicked smart" is another example: intelligence is not considered a symptom of the demoniac. "Small fortune" is another. fortunes are large amounts by definition. These are all colloquialisms, meant to convey meaning in a manner outside of the limits of pure denotation. As we all gain social insight we learn more of these literary strategies and the specific examples of our speaking culture. I will be the first to admit that I still have much to learn.

Vor 5 Tage
ረቂቅ Rekik
ረቂቅ Rekik

i gave the 666th like, lol

Vor 2 Monate
Triairius
Triairius

@Benjamin Roodenburg Look, you asked. I don't know what to tell you other than what I know. If you want to argue, there are better ways to do it than to rope in someone who genuinely is trying to answer what I thought was an honest question.

Vor 7 Monate
MaskOnFilterOff
MaskOnFilterOff

​@Benjamin Roodenburg It's a common way to say, essentially, "awe-inspiring". It's exaggerating the awe to the point of fear, since the two often go hand in hand. Think, like, an eldritch horror or "the fear of God" or something. If you think about it, you'll probably realize you've heard people say things like "this is scary good" or "she's so hot it's scary"? Strong negative descriptors are often used to emphasize something positive. It's similar to using "crazy good" (so good it seems unreal; no literal mental illness involved) or "stupid good" (so good that you're dumbfounded; nothing to do with literal stupidity).

Vor 7 Monate
Benjamin Roodenburg
Benjamin Roodenburg

@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.

Vor 7 Monate
MysticVitriol
MysticVitriol

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.

Vor 10 Monate
Tanee Dabney
Tanee Dabney

​@GamePhysics sounds like a solid way to speed up our demise

Vor 12 Tage
Friday Californiaa
Friday Californiaa

Top comment !

Vor Monat
Shreyas Shenoy
Shreyas Shenoy

@GamePhysics sadly it takes such a long time for these evolutions like on earth multicellular being came 600 m years ago so out of 4.1 b years life 3.5 billion years were spent on evolving from single to multicellular in sample as huge as earth !!

Vor Monat
Here'smytake
Here'smytake

Yes! You must imagine! It's the only way that would happen...

Vor Monat
Round Shades
Round Shades

They say this is entirely possibly what happened with multi cell organisms or even cells with multiple internal structures. On a different scale, it's also what happened to create sea slugs like the man of war, a few different growths but acting as one in the form of an organism/colony hybrid.

Vor Monat
Bill Willett
Bill Willett

Wonderful. I felt like a 5 year old learning something new about my world.

Vor 3 Monate
philo betto
philo betto

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

Vor 29 Tage
J
J

Triple thumbs up.

Vor 2 Monate
Rhys Williams
Rhys Williams

How many people do a repetative task for 33 years and still love it this much! This guys a legend.

Vor year
L Haviland
L Haviland

Some poor undergrad is doing the actual tedious vial work lol.

Vor year
Solar 24
Solar 24

What an absolutely astounding experiment I’ve never heard of. Hopefully we can keep it going

Vor 10 Monate
jon doe
jon doe

@Vinícius Machado Very good. I find the best way to learn a subject is to investigate opposing viewpoints. There is always bias on both sides and sometimes it takes a bias source to even discuss something as bias can be expressed in what we don't say as much as in what we do. If you fear reading AIG or the Discovery Institute it would be the same as me avoiding the journal Nature or Science Daily. I find interest in all sides improves my ability to critically evaluate what I see and decide, as objectively as possible, what I should believe is true. I'm glad to expose some of the topics on the forward edge of science. I made some small expression of what I think of them but hope you take the time to understand all sides and make your own objective conclusions. The more you know, the more you know you do not know. Definitive statements are at times a sign of ignorance and good pointer towards what to investigate, and that's what makes learning fun.

Vor 21 Tag
Vinícius Machado
Vinícius Machado

@jon doe I’ve never heard a biologist say that evolution breaks at protein level, but I’ve heard that it breaks down at the start of life. There is no good explanation for that yet, but we still believe in evolution. Why is pressure for adaptation not the same as selective pressure to evolve a mechanism that responds to pressure. As I said before, it’s advantageous to be able to need more or less food depending on availability of food, grow more or less depending on space, etc. Having said that, I am not a biologist, just someone that is interested in science, being evolution a strong topic in that interest. Nevertheless I am far from a specialist in the area, and as such, will not be able to carry out this discussion any longer, simply because I do not have the knowledge to argue for either side, as we got into a topic I have honestly never read much about. Nevertheless, I continue to believe evolution is the best explanation we have at the moment, and that epigenetics are part of it, even if you have made me reconsider much about how I view the theory, and am not as confident in it as I was before. I hope I was able to make you reconsider some things as well, even if you continue to believe evolution is the wrong explanation. Thanks for continuing the discussion for so long, though! It was very good to talk to someone with such a different perspective directly and respectfully!

Vor 21 Tag
Vinícius Machado
Vinícius Machado

@jon doe there is selective pressure to it, you gave an example in an earlier comment when you mentioned Darwin’s finches. They had those differences because of different gene expressions driven by food supplies. So being able to adapt as an individual is something that is useful if environment conditions change quickly. You said the theory is effective for paleontology, but doesn’t explain biodiversity. If it explains the different organisms that lived and understands why they adapted and how, why doesn’t it explain biodiversity? You said that it seems we are trying to prove evolution right, instead of looking at its flaws and finding something better. That would be a really big problem if that were the case, but I don’t believe it is. In physics, quantum field theory has some problems, but it meets observational data so well it’s hard to say it’s not right, but we know where it’s flaws lie, eu just haven’t come up with a good enough theory that explains those flaws and fits observational data. I think that the same problem happens with evolution.

Vor 22 Tage
Amirreza Azimi
Amirreza Azimi

The professor is so good at explaining what they do and what they have found!

Vor year
Ankit Tiwari
Ankit Tiwari

That happens when you have so much knowledge to start with AND you are practicing that knowledge and trying to build onto that knowledge for 36 years..

Vor Monat
SWITZ 00
SWITZ 00

Reminds me of my dad. Very passionate about their field of science.

Vor 2 Monate
K T
K T

It helps that it was simple, has measurable goals, and well thought out from the beginning. Also, the person was probably asking questions off a script, which was shared with the person who prepared beforehand. When there is straight stuff, down the middle, that makes it so much easier for the presenter to have a clean presentation and easier to watch and learn. What I want to know is, if the E.Coli were still E.Coli bacteria after 745000 generations?

Vor 4 Monate
Tony Hakston
Tony Hakston

@S. Ortola What you call a small change is actually pretty big. E. coli’s inability to metabolize citrate when exposed to air is notable to the point of being a defining feature of the species. Such a major change honestly warranted speciation. Heck, it’d be a big thing even if it weren’t a defining feature. Change in metabolic capability is very difficult to develop, which is why pandas STILL can’t effectively metabolize plants despite bamboo being their entire diet.

Vor year
S. Ortola
S. Ortola

But if the only significant change in 74500 generations is a small change in what these bacteria digest, the logical conclusion is that there did not happen much evolution at all. If that represents 1.1 million years in humans, in what way does it confirm human evolution?

Vor year
Parvathy Pramod
Parvathy Pramod

The world of bacteria and archaea is really different. Trust me when i say i was stunned when my professor said “We have more bacterial cells in our body than our cells” on my first microbiology class. Their world teaches us the ‘will to survive’ in any condition

Vor year
Kalibus Kristof
Kalibus Kristof

@DQMYNATOR 2.0 take me

Vor Monat
EebstertheGreat
EebstertheGreat

@EredilElexi An earlier estimate that there were about ten times as many bacterial cells in your gut as human cells in your body has been revised. A more recent published estimate is that there are about the same number, which still makes Parvathy's statement totally plausible. Nothing has been proven one way or another.

Vor 6 Monate
Struggle
Struggle

@EredilElexi Nah, it's true. Those bacterium though compared to the size of one human cell are relatively small though. So, in terms of mass of these cells we are majority human.

Vor 7 Monate
Sean Padden
Sean Padden

​@EredilElexi OK, you made a claim, provide evidence.

Vor 8 Monate
EredilElexi
EredilElexi

This has been proven wrong

Vor 8 Monate
Corne Mouton
Corne Mouton

How cool is Prof. Richard Lenski, damnit, was so fascinating listening to him. Interesting video, thank you!

Vor year
meowdderall
meowdderall

@Kongx8 extremely well put

Vor 2 Monate
Kongx8
Kongx8

@S. Ortola Aerobic citrate metabolism was not the only trait to evolve in this experiment, it was the trait that Veritasium wanted to focus on. This video briefly mentioned that most of the lineages evolved hypermutability (100-fold increase in mutation rate), slower cell growth, and several mutations across multiple genes that changed the cell size and shape. In addition, Lenski's papers mention that after 50,000 generations, there were a total of 14,572 fixed single point mutations between 2 of the lineages and the ancestral strain. For the subset of that mutations that changed the animo acid sequence, 50% occurred in 57 genes that are involved in glucose metabolism, cell wall synthesis, DNA super coiling and stress responses (Tenaillon 2016) (Lenski 2017). This suggests a very strong selective pressure on these genes to adapt to this experimental environment. Again, Veritasium skimmed on this part of Lenski's research as it is not interesting as scientists documenting the "birth" of new gene. You conflating all mutations as single point mutations which as have limited impact on the evolution of "complex" traits. Single points mutations are mostly "neutral" or "bad" as genes are already optimized for a certain function and are under a lot of selective pressure to maintain that function. The main driving force behind evolution of "complex" traits are another category of mutations called gene duplications, where a set of genes gets duplicated and are inserted into the genome. Now that the two copies of the same gene exist, one copy is not under same selective pressure anymore and is free to mutate with less negative repercussions. One possible outcome of this new gene is to gain a new function and be further optimized for that function with other types of mutations. The aerobic citrate metabolism in this video is an example of gene duplication. In E. coli, the gene that enables citrate metabolism, CitT, can only be turned on in anaerobic conditions. At generation 31500, CitT was duplicated and the copy inserted behind a genetic element that allowed for the new copy to be expressed in aerobic conditions. It then took another 1500 generations for the new CitT gene accumulate enough beneficial mutations in order efficiently utilize citrate and outcompete the rest of the culture (Blount 2012).

Vor 4 Monate
S. Ortola
S. Ortola

@Sandro Félix What about the fact that mutations are practically exclusively deleterious? The mathematics of millions of bad mutations compared to a few possibly beneficial ones is difficult to explain as the source of new and ever more complex functional life forms. All cancer for example is result of mutations.

Vor 8 Monate
Sandro Félix
Sandro Félix

@S. Ortola humans are complex organisms. We have millions of complex cells ready for mutations all the time, also the environment around us (virus, atmosphere, etc) push our evolution toward. The experiment is based on a simple bacteria on a controlled environment, so it is reasonable that the experiment showed less mutations than you thought it would happen

Vor 8 Monate
adam84144
adam84144

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.

Vor 7 Monate
SWITZ 00
SWITZ 00

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.

Vor 2 Monate
tzimiable
tzimiable

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.

Vor 13 Tage
Zeus KF
Zeus KF

You can tell that this professor really is interested in what he is doing.

Vor year
elastichedgehog
elastichedgehog

@-- ​ Good for him! Although, I doubt that was the case for most of his career and it certainly isn't the case for *most* academics.

Vor 7 Monate
--
--

@ChaCha how do you know how research grants are awarded?

Vor 7 Monate
--
--

@elastichedgehog > academia career not for the money Apparently Lenski had a $300k annual salary in 2019, according to govsalaries. Sounds pretty good money to me for fing around for 30 years.

Vor 7 Monate
T Greaux
T Greaux

You think? Maybe thats why he chose to dedicate his entire adult life to studying it and making a career out of it. Go figure

Vor 10 Monate
Fredward
Fredward

This has to be my favorite video of yours. I have watched it so many times. Not just because of the topic, but because of how it was presented. Every time I watch it, it never gets old. A great video overall.

Vor year
Felipe André
Felipe André

Derek, keep on telling us those beautiful stories. They are truly inspiring! Thanks

Vor 6 Tage
GamePhysics
GamePhysics

This is freaking amazing! Counting by hand when you have cameras and computers seems a bit oldschool, but I can respect the ritual.

Vor 8 Monate
boo Jay
boo Jay

Would be cool to see another video like this with Will Ratcliff who is doing a similar experiment with yeast to unravel the evolution of multicellularity. Sean Carroll did a podcast interview with Will which I highly recommend on Mindscape, but I'd like to see the Veritasium treatment to get more animations and visuals of the experiments.

Vor 11 Monate
Dexter Man
Dexter Man

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

Vor Monat
Jani Kärkkäinen
Jani Kärkkäinen

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.

Vor year
Claudio Hess
Claudio Hess

@ugetridofit you saw the video?? You must.

Vor 15 Tage
meowdderall
meowdderall

@ugetridofit most people work careers where you do something repetitive for the sole purpose of making enough money to survive until you eventually die. at least lenski is doing something hes passionate about and is very much learning something really cool

Vor 2 Monate
FiveHiveMind
FiveHiveMind

@Tyrell Wellick So, to sum up, you are claiming that Lenski is either wrong or lying, or am I misunderstanding you?

Vor year
FiveHiveMind
FiveHiveMind

@Tyrell Wellick I never said Darwinism wasn't a word. You do realize evolutionary theory is referred to as the modern synthesis, right?

Vor year
MrBetaKiller100
MrBetaKiller100

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. :)

Vor 7 Tage
BCOZMUSIC
BCOZMUSIC

Wait so are you telling me, if we had enough solution we could fill the Universe with life in 42 days?! I know it's not exactly that simple but that's pretty mind blowing!

Vor 7 Monate
woolfoma
woolfoma

Well, at a certain point the limit would be m/s that the bacteria can cross at a time limiting the propagation of the blob.

Vor 8 Tage
Leo Madero
Leo Madero

It is that simple. With enough solution anything is possible

Vor 4 Monate
Philip Dunne
Philip Dunne

This experiment is helping to refine the theory of evolution and is raising and answering really interesting questions. Great work.

Vor 11 Monate
Timbraska
Timbraska

The methods of the experiment really show how old it is. Like all that exachaning fluids by hand, analyzing with colours, counting by hand... Still very impressive that he had the resilience to keep it going.

Vor year
Apex Wolf
Apex Wolf

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 👑

Vor 6 Monate
Just a Dummy
Just a Dummy

People miss that the opening video of the Antibacterial-Resistant Bacteria showcases exactly why you shouldn’t overuse antibiotics.

Vor year
Wolfette Plays
Wolfette Plays

Exactly!!!

Vor 6 Monate
b199er
b199er

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.

Vor 5 Monate
Fraser3005
Fraser3005

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

Vor 7 Monate
Cody Goza
Cody Goza

That professor's passion and the way he explained things made me more interested in science than anything else has before. Very understandable.

Vor 11 Monate
Lorenzo Zolezzi(Caleb Brown)
Lorenzo Zolezzi(Caleb Brown)

This was mind blowing and jaw dropping. It gives me a whole new view on evolution.

Vor 6 Monate
Thomas Dohn
Thomas Dohn

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 🙂

Vor 7 Monate
LittleLight
LittleLight

he was so happy to tell someone about his experiment, made my heart warm xD

Vor year
Idjles Erle
Idjles Erle

And to tell someone who would gift him millions of views.

Vor year
Thalassaer
Thalassaer

srinivasula bhagat fix your irritable mood

Vor year
twinxcloudy!
twinxcloudy!

srinivasula bhagat xD doesn't mean laugh

Vor year
DDJ Channel
DDJ Channel

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.

Vor 5 Monate
Luke Antony Stevens
Luke Antony Stevens

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

Vor Monat
John Giallanza
John Giallanza

Veritasium's videos are always great, but 'bacteria Fight Club' took it to the next level. Bravo!

Vor 10 Monate
Michaël Katgerman
Michaël Katgerman

Nice Video 💦 Nice to know that these bacteria (test objects from nature) change in a closed environment and that is "naturally" checked in this laboratory. Have they also tested it with other conditions like light and nutrition that anyone knows? Greetzz MiKa

Vor year
Infinite Nothingness
Infinite Nothingness

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.

Vor 9 Monate
Strawberry Zebras
Strawberry Zebras

Never thought I'd see a YouTuber sponsored by paper towels

Vor year
Joonyah
Joonyah

@AxxL that’s why you got 87 likes on that comment over a year later

Vor 3 Tage
Alextech
Alextech

Who’s Kloom?

Vor 20 Tage
Josh Keeton
Josh Keeton

Anyone remember that really old paper towels YouTube video? So funny.

Vor 25 Tage
Darren Chen
Darren Chen

Buying bounty indirectly supports Veratasium. Nice.

Vor 28 Tage
Neon_nomad
Neon_nomad

He shouldve went with charmin

Vor Monat
Walid Spezzy
Walid Spezzy

beautiful video and the Professor is just what we need in our community.

Vor 5 Monate
Aidan Killeen
Aidan Killeen

That's incredible! At first, I really didn't think this would be very interesting, but it sure is a good thing that guy kept the project going.

Vor year
Bruce
Bruce

Couldn't take my eyes off. Amazing things never more eloquently described. Thanks!

Vor 4 Monate
Alex TW
Alex TW

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.

Vor 8 Monate
Triairius
Triairius

Wow. This is an incredible experiment! So freaking cool!

Vor 7 Monate
TechSource
TechSource

Absolutely loving these videos man. Keep up the grind!!!

Vor year
Dawn Ripper
Dawn Ripper

Yo, you're still alive? Haven't seen one of your videos since you got robbed cuz YT stopped recommending.

Vor year
devysk
devysk

make me a pc

Vor year
MASTER nobody
MASTER nobody

I dont like theory of evolution exist it is wrong science

Vor year
Curious Doc
Curious Doc

The Prof is such an engaging speaker! I could hear him talk science all day

Vor year
pazonk
pazonk

What is secksource doing here

Vor year
SirPano85
SirPano85

I work for the italian agriculture research council (CREA) like an agricultural worker and just to know we too do evolution experiments, for example we took differents populations of ancient grain and we cultiveted in 2 opposite side of Italy (near Bologna and the other one in Sicily), after some years of that the researcher looked what was changed in the two different environment, this is still running so we will see.

Vor year
Tomi
Tomi

Thats awesome. Saluti da Slovenia ;)

Vor 9 Monate
Thomas Trotter
Thomas Trotter

Fascinating stuff, as usual. Thanks! 👍

Vor year
aartadventure
aartadventure

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.

Vor 4 Monate
Luneytoon
Luneytoon

This channel is awesome! Even the people you interview are so passionate

Vor 10 Monate
Marc Crockett
Marc Crockett

When people are as passionate as Prof. Richard Lenski, you can't help but want to learn/ hear more

Vor year
Steve Winans
Steve Winans

is it Richard Lenski?

Vor 7 Monate
Thomas S.
Thomas S.

@John Doe how so?

Vor year
John Doe
John Doe

Sad that such passion is under full-scale assault in the West.

Vor year
Drew Withington
Drew Withington

He has a wonderful mind.

Vor year
PinusMugo
PinusMugo

It is so nice to hear people lifes observations and experiences in science. Powerfull stuff. I learned so much. :)

Vor year
Jason Tufts
Jason Tufts

That would be an experiment worth doing, even if others see it as un-needed knowing why or how evolution takes place and what can come of it can lead to a very important branch of knowledge and hopefully let us understand our own evolution. I do hope their team keeps the experiment running as they chose a medium that evolves far quicker then humans, so it will give far more data. I just hope more interesting data comes out of it in the long run.

Vor year
Lachie Perrem
Lachie Perrem

I don't care how many times I watched veritasium videos they always blow my mind

Vor 10 Monate
Ed Ku
Ed Ku

Great enthusiastic scientist. You can tell that he has his whole heart into this project. Thank you.

Vor year
ChrisBrengel
ChrisBrengel

Very fortunate is the man (person) who loves his job!

Vor year
Cherri Berri
Cherri Berri

WOAH! Pure chance, but as soon as I heard citrate was in the solution I thought to myself that that would be a secondary carbon source and that they'd oughtta keep an eye on it. Awesome!

Vor 10 Monate
Sciencerely
Sciencerely

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!

Vor year
Sivan Baiju
Sivan Baiju

@TW0F4C3D It's more correct to say that the mutation spread because people needed to rely on milk because a need to rely on milk doesn't develop the mutation, it's what helps the already existing mutation to spread.

Vor 2 Monate
Thành Vinh Nguyên Tô
Thành Vinh Nguyên Tô

What? I've always thought lactose intolerance was a rare thing. Milk is just so good

Vor 9 Monate
David Schmidt
David Schmidt

It's fascinating to hear a scientist at his level speak is entrancing. He's speaking from sheer, pure, accumulated knowledge and experience.

Vor year
Feeding Ravens
Feeding Ravens

My impression is that it is not only so that the copying method makes different errorrs (mutations), so that the organism can adapt to new environments, it is also so that the copying mechanism fluctuates, varies in the number of errors it makes. In times of a stable environment, the variants that produce only a small number of errors are favoured, as they keep the variations around the optimally adapted form of the organism small. But this error number variation may never stop fluctuating, because in the moment a bigger change of the environment occurs, you need the ability to quickly broaden the width of variations to "find" a quick solution for the new environment; and when the adaptation is complete, the low-range variation will become stronger again.

Vor year
Casey Michel
Casey Michel

I actually wish this video was longer!

Vor 7 Monate
AAAO OAAO
AAAO OAAO

Der Professor war mit echter Begeisterung bei Seiner Forschung - schön zu sehen :)

Vor year
Who the He**
Who the He**

A meticulous process that takes pure dedication.

Vor year
Sean Cullen
Sean Cullen

This video is a great example of why we should never stop funding basic science.

Vor year
Wolfette Plays
Wolfette Plays

@Fat Birb that was a fixed trial

Vor 6 Monate
Wolfette Plays
Wolfette Plays

@IExist and how do you know the powers at be aren’t making everything up wholesale? Exactly. You don’t.

Vor 6 Monate
Wolfette Plays
Wolfette Plays

@Sean Cullen that would be a net positive overall, we’d all be living far simpler lives and we wouldn’t be reliant on hedonism and constantly overdosing on dopamine

Vor 6 Monate
Mike Hughes
Mike Hughes

At first I thought the fluorescent material would move with the bacteria as in a local pattern. I didn’t realize there’d be this symbiotic relationship with humans…

Vor year
Wally Hookus
Wally Hookus

Kudos on your hand-held steady cam, very clean. You might like using a monopod in situations like that, that rig looks heavy! Thanks for all you do.

Vor year
Tank's RealLife
Tank's RealLife

I noticed how both of you had did the elbow bump to avoid physical contact with each other to reduce the spread germs but the other guy still touches the door handle and the elevator's door, that everyone has touched, with his bare hands. Should of just did the hand shake.

Vor 6 Tage
Mars
Mars

Comment about the sponsor: keep in mind that dish cloths are more friendly to the environment, so it's better to use them to clean casual messes, instead of constantly using paper towels that sometimes aren't biodegradable, or aren't recycled. Using soap to clean the dish cloth regularly should eliminate the bacteria problem in most cases. But ofc, sometimes using paper towels is better, specially for certain messes like cleaning up after using the toilet, cleaning messes from pets , cleaning certain toxic materials, nail polish, or anything that permanently damages the dish cloth or whatever cloth you use.

Vor year
Charles Bosse
Charles Bosse

A few more notes on this: you can microwave your dish cloths and sponges to sanitize them, assuming you aren't using them for hazardous chemicals and are just worried about spreading pathogens. Also, if you are going to use paper towels, there are several sources that use much more sustainable sources for the paper, from 90% or greater unbleached post-consumer recycled paper (Seventh Gen for example) to bamboo, which grows incredibly rapidly with much less land and lower water needs (Reel for example) than many of the "mainstream" paper towel, toilet paper, and facial tissue brands, which often use wood from virgin (never been cut by industrialized humans) forests to make paper which will be used at most once.

Vor 2 Monate
Ashurean
Ashurean

I was actually going to comment something along these lines. I feel it's better to have a bunch of towels that you cycle through and wash than to keep buying disposable towels into perpetuity.

Vor 7 Monate
Mark Witucke
Mark Witucke

Towels rubbed with white soap, then into a weak bleach solution at the end of each day. Bacteria problem solved. —A Cook

Vor 7 Monate
venki Perni
venki Perni

Thank you for sharing this with the world.

Vor 11 Monate
Tagetes
Tagetes

This is one of the strangest YouTube sponsorships I've seen in a while. Almost as strange as when literally everyone suddenly made videos about Dyson vacuums a few years ago

Vor year
I'm not arrogant, I'm just better than you.
I'm not arrogant, I'm just better than you.

@Lucien Hughes "No one is getting seriously ill from using reusable dishcloths." No one, really? Wouldn't that depend on how reusable dishcloths are being used and the type of microbes being spread? I assume you have some empirical evidence for your contention.

Vor year
Xplora213
Xplora213

Video on viruses... paper towel 🧻 sounds like a great combo to me.

Vor year
Jelmer
Jelmer

@Jake Hix Can't you see whats wrong with your statement? Youre practically saying "This is far more disruptive and wasteful than that, so we should focus on this first before we can work on that" if we want to combat waste and environmental damage we should focus on as much as possible at a time. Because by the time you get to the second problem it would've probably spun out of control by then. By the way.. that means 3.600.000.000 kg's or 7.800.000.000 pounds of paper towels are NOT getting recycled and probably ending up in landfills.. and were talking from the US alone...

Vor year
God 2: Electric Boogaloo
God 2: Electric Boogaloo

didn't veritasium get sponsored by google one time?

Vor year
ggg
ggg

It’s weird that he accepted, knowing that disposables are contributing to global warming

Vor year
Isaac Douglas
Isaac Douglas

This video was super cool!! Would love to see more videos on the mechanics of evolution

Vor year
Vlach
Vlach

because it doesn't exist

Vor year
YoniMek
YoniMek

I like how the researcher at the end gets so excited by the extrapolation power of his power curve. Still, a profound finding.

Vor 11 Monate
Iwan Korzhenevskiy
Iwan Korzhenevskiy

i wish you showed an entire house, because if anyone doesnt wash hands after touching dishcloths, these bacteria end up in quite unexpected places

Vor 7 Monate
Don
Don

Outstanding. Where else would a man like this professor get the time and opportunity to explain, IN HIS WORDS, what he and his colleagues are doing?? Very good indeed.

Vor year
Fumi
Fumi

@S. Ortola i mean, humans are made of more complex genetics and more compex variables and are already a super adaptive species. So comparing bacteria:humans won't really line up it's just a generational amount comparison, and not what happend.

Vor 4 Monate
S. Ortola
S. Ortola

But if the only significant change in 74500 generations is a small variation in what these bacteria digest, the logical conclusion is that there did not happen much evolution at all. If that represents 1.1 million years in humans, in what way does it confirm human evolution?

Vor year
Publio_Cornelio_Scipione 98
Publio_Cornelio_Scipione 98

Has anyone ever thought of colony counting with software to which the images of the samples are subjected?

Vor 6 Monate
Jorge Antonio Hernandez Navarrete
Jorge Antonio Hernandez Navarrete

That freezing bacteria technique, sounds like a Git for biologists.

Vor year
NightEule5
NightEule5

@MASTER nobody Ok? What makes it wrong?

Vor year
NightEule5
NightEule5

pretty much

Vor year
Juan Iglesias
Juan Iglesias

@Vigilant Cosmic Penguin tbh i'm slightly concerned about pushing to master. what if we end up with an e coli super race dominating our citrus fruits?

Vor year
Vigilant Cosmic Penguin
Vigilant Cosmic Penguin

The only difference being you don't have to worry about accidentally pushing something to master.

Vor year
Joe Beaudette
Joe Beaudette

This video is wonderful. I actually feel bad for creationists because this… this is divine beauty.

Vor year
Andre Angelo
Andre Angelo

This video was just amazing! Thank you for that!

Vor year
Marcus Daloia
Marcus Daloia

I have to imagine that these bacteria are getting really good at replicating fast in ideal conditions.

Vor 3 Monate
Michael Striker
Michael Striker

My only question is whether each penetration was 1 strain (weird for 1 strain to share its genetics across all of a given band, but bacteria gene exchange is weird, too) or several.

Vor year
高田貴行
高田貴行

At Kyoto University an experiment with flies raised in complete darkness began in 1954 and has now surpassed 1500 generations of them.

Vor 10 Monate
Plum Amazing
Plum Amazing

It sounds like the bacteria developed telepathy strong enough to get these humans to work to feed them yummy stuff for 30 years.

Vor year
TheGreatMoonFrog
TheGreatMoonFrog

This was life's long term game. Evolve some bacteria that can work together and eventually create complex life. Then have those complex colonies of bacteria evolve in complexity until the colonies start working together with other colonies. Keep doing that until some colonies of bacteria are so complex they want to feed the single celled bacteria in perfectly safe utopias. Long term victory.

Vor 10 Monate
Fuzzy Ankles
Fuzzy Ankles

when you look at that TED talk about bacteria communication.... its not so far from truth. "How bacteria "talk" - Bonnie Bassler"

Vor year
Rodrigo Bittar
Rodrigo Bittar

If that's the case, that'll be a damn risky game for bacteria. I mean all of them developing telepathy for only 1% of them actually getting any yummy stuff. The rest 99% of them went to bacterial crematory 🔥.

Vor year
Sakata Gintoki
Sakata Gintoki

1.5 million years in bacteria timeline

Vor year
A K
A K

lol

Vor year
murderdogg
murderdogg

7:57 looks like a -80°C freezer to me. Also, Veritasium channel and Derek are really, really on the top level of Youtube science vids.

Vor year
Sodeep
Sodeep

Cool experiment. My only concern is if human error can be produced faster than bacteria mutation. Too much lab work not to mess it up and contaminate once.

Vor 8 Monate
Stephen Collins
Stephen Collins

Now I'm wondering if you can model these populations with a logistic map in some way...

Vor 9 Monate
Mick ALLEN
Mick ALLEN

Brilliant presentation, very incitefull, evolution is a fascinating topic.

Vor 7 Monate
Oleran
Oleran

I wonder if any of those mutations could be profoundly beneficial to humans.

Vor year
Birding with Rishabh Ghoshal
Birding with Rishabh Ghoshal

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.

Vor year
TravisBickle Popsicle
TravisBickle Popsicle

@Doug Stevens That's true, I don't have 100% certainty that there is no Designer. No one knows one way or the other, really, which is why I don't understand how some people claim with 100% certainty that there is a Designer.

Vor year
TravisBickle Popsicle
TravisBickle Popsicle

@Doug Stevens Now you're telling me what my own opinions are. How do you think that's gonna work out for you? 'A designer is not clearly observable in the product' Right. No evidence. Maybe it's just your opinion that a designer was involved?

Vor year
TuxCommander
TuxCommander

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.

Vor 7 Monate
superGMoney
superGMoney

I would check out updates on this daily!! Have they started to eat through the plastic yet? Hold on I have a knock at the door - It's the bacteria!!! Seriously tho this experiment needs it's own channel! ❤ G

Vor 11 Monate
Arineey
Arineey

One of my favorite videos he’s made

Vor 8 Monate
RocketJo86
RocketJo86

This is really interesting, because I always imagined evolution as something that just happens. It can be accelerated by events and co-evolution, but it will happen all the time regardless, just by chance. But there seem to be a lot of people put there who can't or won't understand that more or less mathematical part of evolution. I had a discussion in a reddit grou about closed natural ecospheres and that there are some out there which lasted for several decades as of now. And one user wondered if evolution in a closed jar, just getting light as an energy source from the outside will be possible. And for some reason there where two diffrent train of thoughts present within the commentors. One that was unsure, but liked to play with the idea that life in those jars would be able to evolve and adapt. And the other - for some reason bigger - group that absolutly dismissed this idea, as there would be no way of mutating (because there aren't any mutagens or competition happening). But competition doesn't mean predation and they totally forgot that mutation don't necessarily need mutagens, just chance to happen. So there would be no reason not to think that all this algae and bacteria and coepods would not evolve. Sure, they would not start a civilization. But they will adapt to that stable, limited envronment just like the E. Coli did. I guess.

Vor 9 Monate
john doe
john doe

there is competition still? in this instance, the bacteria compete against eachother in the race against time. food isn't the limiting factor. it's time and space. what do you think?

Vor 8 Monate
Potaetou Potautoe
Potaetou Potautoe

Imagine a huge warehouse with robots doing all these experiments on their own and publishing all this data on the internet. How fast we could discover things if only we had labs and all our experiments were as easy as clicking some buttons or if complex just programming them to the computer.

Vor 5 Monate
Daveo Spurple
Daveo Spurple

I could listen to Prof. Richard Lenski talk about evolution for hours. I love hearing someone passionately talk about something they love.

Vor year
marw
marw

True

Vor year
stokkie01
stokkie01

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.

Vor year
Sanjay Pandey
Sanjay Pandey

The video was awesome and all, but the thing that most surprised me is Veritasium's (or even Youtube's) evolution. Never had I expected to see such a short sponsor.

Vor 11 Monate
sylvain raynaud
sylvain raynaud

The conclusion on never ending improvement would be interesting to put in perspective by comparing the robustness/adaptability to other environments of the ancestors versus specialized offsprings. Is the most evolved also the most fragile ??

Vor 7 Monate
Ambrosia Napier
Ambrosia Napier

In this case yes. They are surviving in a flask that is swirling and food provided. The e-coli didn’t need flagella to move so lost it. It actually just keeps loosing bits and genes. It only survives better than the less broken version because in the flask it doesn’t need those bits and spends less energy making and maintaining them. In a different environment the less broken ones would dominate again.

Vor Monat
Spiritman Productions
Spiritman Productions

Makes me wonder what the final bacterium will be, and, by extension, how you might define the perfect cell.

Vor 10 Monate
karthikeyan M.V
karthikeyan M.V

But goku will get to super sayan 3 will defeat it

Vor 9 Monate
Anonny Anonymous
Anonny Anonymous

Perfect Cell? Ask Goku how that ended.

Vor 10 Monate
L P
L P

@anulstudios It is a key, but not because of that reason. The main problem is that of self-reference. The perfect bacterium would be the one that no matter what mutation happened to its offspring, the parent could outcompete it. The trouble for the parent is to be able to model all of these possible descendants and devise the optimal competitive strategy depending on their particular functional enhancement. That probably cannot be done genetically, due to the sheer complexity, meaning the genome would need to be massive or work like an immune system of trial and error, which takes time and space. The (or at least one possible) solution is a computational system, for example our nervous tissue of maybe what some plants use to decide on a mycorrhizal relationship (if they have any say at all!).. Point is: multicellular need. The solution is that the perfect bacterium is not a bacterium anymore. This may be why things like us exist. Just my thoughts, may be wrong. Let me know.

Vor 10 Monate
anulstudios
anulstudios

There isn't, that's the key. Its environmentally based, suggesting a perfect environment is possible, which if so, would likely be competitionless and therefore you create a paradox where there's no evolution that could start it either

Vor 10 Monate
Kokonut Binks
Kokonut Binks

We went over this experiment in our college Evolution course a few weeks ago.

Vor 11 Monate
Ondra Pšenička
Ondra Pšenička

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...

Vor 10 Monate
David Spector
David Spector

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.

Vor 10 Monate
sku tny
sku tny

Everyone gangsta till the bacteria starts eating glass

Vor year
G
G

@Kalvin Cochran god bless you I hope you have a blessed and prosperous life Amen fellow Brotha.

Vor 24 Tage
Kalvin Cochran
Kalvin Cochran

@G thanks mate

Vor 24 Tage
G
G

@Kalvin Cochran nah people just speculating and thinking 🤔. They are basically saying what If, such as if the bacteria started eating the glass and whatever it surrounds and became this super bug. Lol 😆

Vor 28 Tage
Kalvin Cochran
Kalvin Cochran

Did I miss something??! When did they say that the bacteria began to eat glass/silicone?? Or is this reference to something else

Vor 28 Tage
Luis Saenz
Luis Saenz

😂

Vor Monat
NoNihilism
NoNihilism

Great video! I'm surprised he isn't predicting punctuated equilibrium. That's what I predict. Over time there'll be steadily increasing progress, but periodically there will be a great leap forward- like that line that evolved to metabolize citrate. Are you sure this is actually the longest running evolution experiment? Do you know about the Grants and their students studying Darwin's finches in the Gallapagos? They wrote a book about it The Beak of the Finch. Great book. If you've never read it, I highly recommend it.

Vor 2 Monate
Itheuser First
Itheuser First

Punctuated equiibriun haa been debunked.

Vor Tag
Dale Dreyer
Dale Dreyer

Would love to see the nucleic acid sequences of various generation.

Vor year
Mickelodian Surname
Mickelodian Surname

they are published... not all of them since there are literally millions of individuals... but as far as I know lots of them have been sequenced and uploaded to genbank. These bacteria have a fairly small genome.

Vor year
GeeQ
GeeQ

This is one of the greatest most fascinating things I've ever seen. Thank you for this wonderful knowledge.

Vor Monat
𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒅_𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒍
𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒅_𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒍

I really want this to keep going for a really long time until eventually (this probably wouldn’t happen) they evolve to eat each other and it turns into something completely different

Vor year

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