I worked at Prof. Hubler's lab as an undergrad. Great guy. RIP... :/ .. he was extremely interested in chaotic systems and how you can get emerging structures out of chaos.
If this experiment is indicative, the answer for how to get emerging structures out of chaos is: a lot of human intelligence to determine the right conditions.
pole dance... you left out the word dance there. ;-) Electron flow is to the negative pole. So "going from the positive pole". But this is a field thing as there is no current conduction (in this non-conductive oil) until first string contacts the ring. Only an attractor (the negative ring) and a source of free or otherwise motivated (high EMF) electrons spraying forth (or wanting to) from the Positive pole (when they move). In the case where they place the beads at the edge, there is still no current flow, only huge attraction and that is enough to actually "pull" "the rope" of beads from the attractor (ring), toward the source (wire) until contact. They probably grow slower from the ring wall toward the point source than the other way. Unless arc flash gap plays a part then the span changes.
Lol 😂 I miss being a kid and sitting in the back of a car during long road trips and just watching the rain drops reach the end of the window. I used to mentally bet and take note of each rain drop. Lmao
My 8 year old home schooled son has been experimenting with magnets and electromagnetism, and this video had him nearly jumping out of his seat! What a simple and beautiful experiment!
@@Ambipie everything that we consider alive has the following characteristics: they have some order, sensitivity or response to the environment, reproduction, growth and development, regulation, homeostasis, and energy processing. Not necessarily being made of organic matter. Theoretically speaking we could find a life form that is made of something we don't consider organic. Like, a life form whose "meat" is made of rock.
@@yseson_ that is not quite true. There is no variation between stems other than their starting location in the dish. Meaning their are no emerging trends and there is only one ultimate outcome for this group, which is one completed stem and bunch others just flailing around.
This was really cool, it almost looks like its alive. Reminds me of the "game of life" sims, just a few simple possibilities and conditions, and complexity can emerge.
@David Leo You think God creates trees but you don't understand how seeds work? Never said I was Atheist.... Binary thinking npcs, now that's "hilarious".
If it could self-replicate and maintain the amount of energy necessary for its functioning, it wouldn't be all that different than the amino acid chains that formed the basis of DNA on our planet over a billion years ago. Pretty crazy to think that somewhere in the universe other purposeful and conscious entities may exist that are made of other materials and don't really fit into our definition of life.
I mean....yes, it is. It searched for more connectors to bring into it's branch. It was aware of itself, it's want for more, and how to manipulate itself to seek more. That's life, if i ever saw it. He built a false brain.
You're ALL wrong!.. For IF you substitute the metal balls with a more poignant object held in either hand and apply .006% of the voltage applied in video presentation, IT"S PRECISELY HOW BIOLOGY IS CEASED!
@@MrSandy28 They don't seem to have hospitals here. Even though everything is white, and the place is full of old people. And there are clouds everywhere...
Unfortunately I dont know enough to explain but it seems to be the polarization from the metal itself, negative finding positive in a general direction and moving thru the aqueous solution as a medium. Very cool stuff!
moving electricity creates a magnetic field and it grows stronger the closer it gets to the positive or negative terminals which causes all the metallic balls to hook together... this is pretty useless and it looks like the dude is half assing an assignment or his "research". With the voltage he is playing with there is already an electrical connection from the positive to the negative through the air.
It's electrostatics, one of the 'strong' forces (in physics there are 2 strong forces and 2 weak forces. Electrostatics is one of the 'strong' forces). It's the same thing that makes your hair stand on end when you rub a balloon against it (when your hair is clean and dry and not greasy). Because of the high voltage difference between the positive and negative sides of the circuit, and electrons spreading down, the balls become charged and are attracted to the negative side of the circuit, but repelled from other balls that are positively charged. So when balls reach the negative side of the circuit they lose their positive charge and are attracted together, and attract other single balls that are still positively charged. But being very negatively charged also makes balls from different branches of the negative circuit repel, so branches tend to stay away from each other. It's the changing state of the charge on each ball that causes everything to move until it reaches equilibrium
@@craigcutler6919 It's not a magnetic field, that requires either a higher current (lots of particles) or fast-moving particles to have a significant effect. The magnetic forces here are minor compared to electrostatic forces
The motions appear uncannily organic, I love it. I wonder if slimemolds placed in the center just like the 1st demo w/ bait ringing the edge of a petri dish would follow the same branching ratio patterns up to point of contact or are more or less efficient.
The balls start to follow the nearly radial electric field, that is imposed by the outer ring and the center electrode. As the structure emerges, the radial field get disturbed by the local field around each connected ball. Slimemolds are probably attracted by nutrients. So one can expect that the same pattern will emerge when there is a nutrient concentration from the center to the outside.
I mean what’s the distinction between organic and this as inorganic? To me the only thing is the direct nature of this inorganic material- it receives the input and immediately reacts to it due to physics, whereas organic lifeforms such as us have a layer of complexity just because all of those inorganic systems (osmosis, electrical reactions with neurons, protein synthesis) combine to form a big system that has to think about reacting instead of just reacting. We trade efficiency like what’s happening naturally with these reactions for intelligence. Really cool stuff. Edit, yes I know about the difference in definitions of inorganic vs. organic matter, i was talking more about the theoretical differences.
@@Andriale You stole my words and made it better. It can be pretty interesting and scary to realize the thin layer between live and inert matter. What a wonderful universe
@@Pockeywn I mean..I don't think so. Amperage is more deadly than voltage. These power supplies run at what... 0.5 amps? And besides...most of it's for show. Mans an electrical engineer. He's paved his way with stunts like that...EXCEPT the Jacob's Ladder fiasco.
The balls are conductive, which means electrons are able to move around the metal lattice. Since there is a very strong electric field present, the electrons on each of the ball's surface position themselves closer to the positive electrode. If each of the balls does this exact same thing, you end up with a set of dipoles in the dish. Since the positively charged side of a ball is attracted to the negatively charged side of another ball, they link together. The oil acts as an insulator to ensure electrons do not pass between balls (if you used a conductive fluid, this effect would not happen). This is a purely electric force phenomenon: F = qE.
@@masterspark9880 the medicinal kind ;) but that's irrelevant, all mushroom exhibit pretty much the same behavior when in a petri dish, which looks remarkably like the self assembling wires in this video.
What was SO bizzare about the first demo... It reminded me of a human cell. And how one dominant trait can destroy the remaining traits... But ONLY after it organized the dominant pieces to reach its goal. When one looks at cells and how they can be destroyed and split apart... Or even killed... I can't help but think this simplistic experiment may be on to some amazing. Great work.
This could be taken as mockery, are you saying we shouldnt have air conditioning or refrigeration or something to that effect? Because we never get anywhere unless we understand how things work. I get it, most people think like cave men with no understanding beyond 'push button, make work'
@@davidross5640 Lot's of people make these sorts of comments. It's just an amusing comparison with no intended harm. If you scour many comments sections of certain RU-vid videos they exist in many forms. Some outrageously funny and some not very. I understand if this is your first time seeing this, but understand this wasn't intended to make harm.
@@MrMoralHighground yes, generated for him, as well as I, and even for you, the snarky asshole who finds it somehow gratifying to belittle someone for sharing their joy in having been recommended this video. Congratulations, you’re everything that’s wrong with society!
@@FactoryOne well why not try using your wrongly assumed superior intelligence to put me in my place, that will teach me..........just imagine, the snarky asshole who finds it somehow gratifying to beli......etc etc.........congratulations, you're everything that is wrong..............etc etc some irony in there somewhere
@@MrMoralHighground there’s no irony. You got called out for being a straight up douche of the internet and now you’re doing as good of a job as Matt Gaetz in saving face. You should quit while you’re behind.
Upsets me that this was over 7 years ago and is only recent getting attention in the past year or two. Only now are there certain teams looking into the possible applications of this kind of setup If only more people had seen this back then :( Better late than never.
Yeah, isn't this also how lightning is thought to strike? They call them streamers in that theory i think. Its interesting that the failed shooters don't just disintegrate right away, just like real lightning's branches that linger even when the majority of the discharge has already occurred
@@MrSlanderer Yes! I came here after having watched a viral history of life on earth. The mechanisms used by some viruses during cell invasion and self-replication seem as though they must be very much like the dynamics described here as "self-assemby"! As for the similarity of the emergent physical structures, broaden your scope and think of energy transfer patterns. The similarity in the form of river drainage basins, river deltas, vascular and nervous systems, branching in plants (esp in trees & large shrubs), command and feedback structures in almost all human organizations, lightning, ... and the list goes on. The organisations bit is interesting as it reflects what we are - we are products of a world of energy transfer patterns and, with a bit of translation, our endeavors necessarily follow similar patterns, as seen in the logical structure of government, military, commercial and educational organizations, genetic histories, etc, etc. All of these examples follow basically similar physical or logical templates ... or so it seems to me. Any thoughts on this observation?
@@DeclanMBrennan I work in a lab that works with microbiology specimens. I've seen hundreds of petri samples over the years, but there was one particular culture that stood out in my memory, one that grew to fill the petri dish it was in, including in thickness; mind you, the sample was only a few days old, and I could still make out the originating spots. The structure featured in this video brought back that memory, as it strongly resembled it. The video is like a sped-up demonstration of how certain fungi work, and laid to rest a question I didn't know I had. This technology has so many possible applications...
Ok, where's the follow up video going into more detail about these things playing Tetris? It's been 6 years, there should be an entire side of the internet devoted to petri dishes playing Tetris.
unlike what's said in the video, you can actually try this at home if you have some old CRT TV which use exactly that 20kV for focusing and deflecting the electrons
It can be intriguing you're right. As he said in the end, it's a good example of how simple local interactions can create complex dynamics. If you replace the beans with Amino acids, it becomes pretty conceivable how the electromagnetic interaction can lead to complex life forms as we have on earth.
It kind of reminds me of how humans act when they’re competing to achieve a certain goal, sabotaging and collaborating with others as needed in order to reach the goal first
@@dirtdiv3r you know, you are literally one minuscule speck in an infinite cosmos that doesn't care about you. in the end, you will return to dust, and no-one will remember your passing. so if you want to go around spreading your hateful nature, do it. but you and your family will be forgotten, maybe even scoffed at by historians and species to come, who laugh at dumb jokes they may make while staring at your remains.
"Unfortunately, this isn't an experiment you can try at home; you need huge voltages..." Me: [ripping a flyback transformer from an old TV] "Mhmm oh yeah I'll definitely stay away from those huge voltages, man, for sure"
Or fast... The attraction is there... the slurry slows the growth. They should try other oils. You could probably pull a B-B through warm wax with the right amount of attraction. Being only one 'candidate' it would likely be a very straight path through the candle to the outer 'plate'. Add more B-Bs and they all 'compete'. Hey another candidate for the fluid would be 3M's dielectric fluids Here's one... www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-products/~/3M-Novec-7700-Engineered-Fluid-100-ml-Glass-Bottle/?N=5002385+3288713617&preselect=8710710+8717595+8734647+8745514&rt=rud Then they can look at it in 3D as you add depth to the dish. This stuff is clear (transparent) and >25kV per 0.1 inch gap, btw. So 2.5kV per mil.
@@heikg look at what we have now, someone went "oh cool, 2 different silicons make a switch" And now we have connection to the world in our handsbecause of computers. Someone made a coil, and noticed it gets magnetic when you apply force, and now we have generators and electric cars, a lot of inventions have stories like this, someone does a small observation, and another person uses it in their, and another improves it, and we have a leap
@@Nuffsed81 once they made a connection to the edge they spread out kinda like a forcefield. i'm sure when someone figured out that "2 different silicons make a switch" they didn't conceive how it would one day help make a smartphone. Chill.
Because living organisms are actually built on forces like this at a molecular level. Maybe it's not always electro-magnetism, but mostly chemical interactions between organic chains of elements like carbon, hydrogen, sodium etc that are attracting, repulsing, combining with other molecules.
Tristan When I was a kid I had a neighbor who reversed the input/output on a model train step down transformer. Not sure what voltage, but he made a pretty impressive Jacob's Ladder. Not sure how long the transformer lasted.
oh you mean all those little kids who dont want to get a real job so set up a gofundme begging for money to buy hardware so they can become a hugely rich and successful streamer?
@@mitesh2k3 230 V RMS. 3 phases separated by 120 degrees (three phase is used for high power appliances like washing machines, for wall sockets you pick a phase more or less at random and use for separate areas of the house). You can get a peak voltage between phases of 400V (since you don't need a lot of current for this application; you just rectify and buffer that voltage with a capacitor and if there's enough resistance like this mineral oil it will drop imperceptibly to the next cycle)
That would require conducting balls with density similar to the viscous, non-conductive liquid. I imagine it would look pretty similar to this or to those "lightning balls" you can touch.
@@bencross5688 emergent systems like that are so cool. Thats one possible aspect of nanobots, things that have simple interactions locally and make some interesting behavior on the whole
This is so freaking cool. If we had done stuff like this in science class I would've actually paid attention. Hell I would've even wanted to learn more about it.
@@executorarktanis2323 I said "stuff *_like_* this". As in experiments involving applications of theories instead of just reviewing equations and taking notes.
Wow you are so creative and a joker. I wish I was half as creative and funny as you. Wow. Who knew algorithms can recommend videos years after they were posted. Not me.thank you for such an insightful comment
One of the most amazing things I've ever seen -- The fact that lightning is credited with igniting the explosion of Life on Earth makes it even more fascinating. subscribed CAN'T WAIT for more. bravo!
I know this is very much hashtag "im14andthisisdeep", but watching this made me wonder... Is life just an extremely advanced version of this phenomenon? Are cells, DNA and the building blocks of animals just metal balls in water, trying to connect to one another and conduct energy? Maybe I need some sleep.
No they are not similiar in any way. It is just that these metal beads moving unpredictably gave you the idea of them being related to alive. Because nothing is random, it is series and series of intricated predictable things happening together which makes it appear to be random. Living things are a great example of showing these "random" actions. The iron beads in this video was unpredictable enough for you to think of life when looking at it.
Bud, this is a Stanford University project. It's not like people weren't doing this exact same thing (doing research) in university labs for the past few-hundred+ years.
@@getmeoutofsanfrancisco9917 but now with the help of youtube, any kid can recreate this experiment for their science fair if they have access to a high voltage power supply
We are the manifestation of what we perceive as imagination of some other order. No doubt our own minds spawn such infinity. That may be the source of suffering.
