In Search of the Blackest Thing on Earth
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- Опубліковано 5 гру 2022
- Take the 2023 PBS Audience Survey: to.pbs.org/pbssurvey2023a1
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There are some startlingly black animals out there, whether they’re in the deep ocean or in the darkest corners of the rainforest. But humans have created some stunningly black substances too, using science and engineering. So who wins, nature or humans? In this video, I go in search of the blackest black things on Earth to see what’s really the blackest… and why.
Additional media provided by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)
Thank you to Ryan Lavery at the Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of Natural History
References: sites.google.com/view/referen...
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⚫So who gets the trophy for blackest black? Scientists or nature? ⚫
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"you be the judge, I don't know."
Well we can't even see it because our viewing screens are light projectors that can't show the absence of light.
@@osmosisjones4912 "an example of how we can trust out own brains"
Maybe, but it's just one example against a plethora of optical and auditory illusions that would suggest trust isn't so trustworthy.
@@osmosisjones4912 "optical it's not your brain"
It's your brain that interprets everything you see. In fact, I believe the eyes are sometimes considered to be part of the brain.
"The blackest bird's only job is to pass on his genetic material. He doesn't help raise the kids or anything. The female birds love these birds the most due to their attitude, confidence, and dance moves." 🤣
I will lead you to the blackest black that will be known to mankind. It resides in the apartment unit above mine... If you look into its empty head, you will see nothing but void, flash a light in it and see it disappear. Come now, come all, to see the darkness incarnate. Free of charge.
When it comes to identifying what’s black or not, I’d say there is a gray area.
Good one! 🤣
The best puns are always the worst.🤣
Meh.
Fun fact
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
@@BruhGamer05 Actually it's :
Never gonna run around and desert you
He single handedly made the color black a more interesting topic than all of my Science classes I took in my life
Then check out the video about "brown" by technology connections.
By singlehandedly you mean an entire production team supporting him
I mean, history made it pretty interesting too.
@@Buriaku Brown: It's orange with context!
A UA-cam channel caters to what viewers want to see or it won’t make money? We need to spread this completely new and totally not obvious concept around UA-cam.
“Do you think there’s something out there blacker than this”
My sister: “ME!”
oh hell nahh
I still feel like that bird is staring into my soul 😳
And that is before taking into account that our screens aren't black enough to actually show this blackness.
Nevermore.
Yeah
@@Shuizid i was gonna say 'cool to have an oled display', but then that's under a reflective glass sheet😂
@@hoodio Even then - the blank material just isn't as black as those ultra-blacks.
The nano structures that trap the light remind me of an idea I had as a kid. Before I understood how one-way mirrors worked, I thought you could make a cube of them with the "reflective side" facing in on all sides. This would allow light to get in but not to escape and you'd have a never-ending light source. Then kid me realized: Wait, if the light is trapped inside, it wouldn't be able to get out for you to see it. So it would actually be a dark cube, but if you smashed it all the light would escape and you'd have a sudden bright flash.
Obviously none of this is actually how things work, but it's a cool fictitious device that I'll always remember "inventing" when I was little.
No no. You were onto things. 1st that is the entry point for a classic definition of a perfect black body. The light cannot disappear like that because it does transfer momentum/energy. It's also the idea to extract energy from black holes. You create a structure like yours around the black hole, shoot a photon inside and use relativistic effects to increase it's energy. So you shoot in low energy photon, close the morrow, and after some time open up to let high energy photons out.
It's not quite the same, but this is partially how lasers work. A laser has an energised crystal between 2 mirrors that bounce light back and forth, causing more photons to be emitted by the crystal.
@@OmateYayami No he is still wrong, problem one is that no surface is 100% reflective, some light is absorbed with each reflection. Problem two is that light loses energy the longer it travels until it redshifts into nothingness. Problem three is that the light bouncing around inside of the cube isn't random, it's all traveling the same route predefined by the mirror configuration, when the cube is smashed the light would all shoot out in ONE direction, maybe you'd see a flash, maybe you'd see a glow, or nothing.
As for the black hole mirror you pointed out(Penrose Sphere) it's not "after some time" unless you want to die. Anyone trying to super radiant scatter light on a blackhole will need to release the energy almost as soon as it goes in, because it's traveling at the speed of light while being influenced by the only thing faster than the speed of light. The beauty of a penrose sphere is that the energy you gain is insanely fast with radio waves becoming gamma in a fraction of a second.
lol i had this idea too as a little one.
@@setcheck67 Oh yeah, you are totally right, but I meant that idea as a pretty close starting point to the really popular scientific ones. You can't let bounce light of mirror for too long cause it will heat up and radiate energy at the other side etc. With the cube I guess the outcome will also change depending on the source of light. I just meant that it's not a stupid kid's idea that doesn't make sense at all, with out going too much into details. It's nice you filled in the gaps. Cheers.
My lawyer suggested not making any jokes on this topic.
"finally UA-cam recommending something good" 👴🏻
I got one in my basement yk
The award goes to the album "Smell the Glove" by Spinal Tap. There can be none more blacker.
🤘YES!!!🤘
I would argue for Metallica’s self-titled album.
Agreed and seconded
You have to ask, how much more black can it get.... none, none more black
🤘🏻
4:10 Crazy to think some people judge people based on how dense their pigment granules are packed.
👍🏻👍🏼👍🏽👍🏾👍🏿
Agreed, we should judge them by the synapses between their neurons
People who do that are so dense !
I judge people on their self-reported numbers in their “bank accounts”.
Right?? I only judge people by how they respond to bad puns.
that's not why.
Did you see the QI episode with the pinkest pink? It was created in response to Anish Kapoor's blackest black that absorbs 99.6% of all light so very close to this. Kapoor got exclusive rights to use the black so the other artist created the pinkest pink that anyone was allowed to use except Kapoor. When you buy it you have to submit a sworn document stating you are not Kapoor nor affiliated in any way with him.
Whoo! Just sent me down a rabbit hole reading about Kapoor and Semple--Semple being the creator of Pinkest Pink. Kapoor seems like a truly terrible excuse for a human being, and Semple's revenge is one of the best stories I've heard in a while!
Kapoor is an extreme hypocrite, I still remember when he gladly participated (as the main actor) in a short video by Amnesty International about human rights abuses by China, only to a few months later - without any shame - do multiple exhibitions supported by the chinese government.
Kapoor really has neither a soul nor artistic talent, which is sadly so common these days in the art market.
@@GordonSeal I did not know that.
Looks like someone commented then deleted saying that Simple is just doing this to make money and that his pigments aren't that great. So wanted to add that multiple news articles say that he does not profit from his pigments at all. And as for the quality, I always took this to be more performance art from an indie pigment maker, I wouldn't expect the world's top tier pigments in that context.
P-E to the T-T-Y! 😂
Still brighter than my future
yikes lol
you and everyone else buddy.
Dark
Fr tho
Ruh roh
Me on my way to leave the most ridiculous comment after reading the title
Can you talk about thirsty cement and how using this in roads or parking lots can save millions of tons of sand and reduce flooding and increase groundwater aquifer levels.
"There are different kinds of black"
All my goth friends "YEAH!"
The boys in da hood also say “YEAH,BRO! “
I'd point out that ultrablack would make for a terrible camouflage suit. You'd be so black that you'd stick out as a void in the night, perfectly visible against the not-as-black background
I’ve heard that wearing either dark brown or navy blue is actually better nighttime camouflage than black for this exact reason since the night sky is never truly black.
@@peggedyourdad9560 that's why it's called Navy Blue
@@peggedyourdad9560 thats true. Even Ninja's in feudal Japan were Not wearing Black.
They used Dark blue, dark green or dark purple to blend in with the night sky.
Imagine trying to be stealthy in super black and it happens to be full moon or any moonlight at all? Everyone and their mom could see you
Yeah, Dated a girl that made that joke I have natural camouflage🤨🙄🙄🤦🏿♂️.
Few moments later.
Easily was able to find me walking to my dad's place because according to her I stick out in the darkness.
🤷🏿♂️Which one is it my dear🤣
I mean if a void stare back at me I will run away regardless what shape that void is
Internet has ruin me, i can't finish this watching this video without giggling
Remember, this is PBS not HBO 😁
There are gonna be so many memes from this
You are a great science narrator. I love the content and the way you share the info.
Thanks
I've seen breakdowns on the blackest blacks before, so I didn't think I was really going to enjoy this, but I've already watched it twice really nicely done buddy.
If I saw that bright blue-green smiley face in a void shadow upon waking up, I'd probably have a heart attack.
I think about it like looking into a mirror tunnel (two mirrors facing eachother). It gets darker and greener, because the absolute path the light traces get REALLY long, and it loses energy as it bounces off of the surfaces. Eventually it just runs out of energy like anything that's interacting with an internal system.
This reminds me of Disaster Area's stunt ship in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Zaphod's first comment is "Now, that is really bad for the eyes," to which Ford replies "It's so black. You can hardly even make out its shape. Light just falls into it!"
Of course, watching a video like this is problematic, because there's a limit to the darkest black that a camera can record, and there's a limit to the darkest black a screen can display. Once it's displaying 0 in each of the red, blue and green channels, it can't get any blacker.
A scrolled down through the comments, hoping to find a reference to Disaster Area’s stunt ship, and was about to give up when I saw yours. I’ll reply to your comment to hopefully boost it up higher…
GNU Douglas Adams
Good thing I remembered to pack my towel!
1:13 - "Blacker Than Black" .... a great title for Chris Rock's next HBO comedy special! 😎
This on a 4k OLED screen is insane.
oh... this gonna get memed out of context
"Hello smart people; Joe here. What does it mean for something to be black?"
@@cjyoung4080 are you saying 98% of black people commit violent crimes and 2% go to prison for it? I don't understand.
@@cjyoung4080 Does that mean being white is 98% genocide and 2% denying it?
Im not your target audience but I like your content. It's like childrens program but for grownups. It feel cosy and relaxing to watch them. Unless It's something to sad. You have a lot of intressnting calming videos so Im not complaining about the sad stuff, just thank for the calming videos. They are nice.
this content is literally for anyone and everyone
You don't like science? I don't understand your issues
@@Hawk7886 Religious moment
@@tolstartheking??
"It's blacker than black!" The whole Metal-Community: "Finally!"
Blacker than the blackest black times infinity.
I always learn something new from you thank you for doing what you do keep making new videos my kids and I thank u we watch all your videos
Brought to you by viewers like you, thank you.
The "5 out of 1000 photons" on-screen caption was a marvelous touch. I consider myself to have a fairly good grasp on percentages, but even I thought, "Oh, that's super convenient" so I can just imagine how much most other people might feel about it. I wish this were used more often, particularly for fractional percentages. Good stuff.
Man, I love this channel.
I'm playing around with some of that Black 3.0 paint and it's pretty cool
This whole discussion kept making me think of This Is Spinal Tap and their discussion of the their album about how much more blacker could it be and the answer is none, none more black.
"I know this one" - 👴🏻
One of the funniest and most interestingly educational video I’ve seen
Just done with the survey and Thank you all for ya hard work,keep going.Merry cristmas to everyone. ;3
My question is, if it absorbs so much light, be it by pigments or nanostructures, would the organism heat up? Even if it's by the smallest fraction, does it heat up? Because light or photons as we know, carry some energy, right?
Yes, it does, and it emits a lot of infrared radiation, the pigments or structures are only targeting a range of electromagnetic radiation, however, vantablack is also a great heat conductor, so it would mostly give off its heat to other contacting bodies. But it could be really great as a heat radiator in space.
No since anything good at absorbing light also has to be good at radiating light. Black just makes it reach equilibrium faster.
Probably.
The energy has to go somewhere, and heat is the standard default, so it's the most likely outcome.
Haha I love you got 3 answers, yes, no, probably xD. And they are all at least kinda right. I think "yes" is most correct. Because the process of reaching the equilibrium is heating up. To radiate away light stuff needs to have thermal energy to convert it to photons, so the question is what is the temperature of equilibrium but it will be higher when you shine light on it than when you don't. Light is a constant source of energy, so the temperature has to rise. But I guess it's true that when you turn the light off a black object will radiate energy away faster than a white one.
Watch the Action Lab video on this question. Comparing white to super black clothing, it didn't really make a difference. Anything will heat up if you shine light on it. Having said that, I await his video about a substance that gets colder when you shine light on it. lol
5:15 there is nothing i love more then hearing about scientists having to get (/invent) more accurate measuring devices because they are ApPeRaNtLy about to redefine something
*ApPaReNtLy
Sorry, I had to lol
That happens all the time, dude. We're limited by our instruments. Do you not understand this?
@@Hawk7886 No need to be rude.
@@semaj_5022 original comment was also rude.
@@Axodus Not at all. Sarcastic, sure, but not rude. It's all good though, just a little reminder that the choice to be nice is always available for all of us.
The bird has a pattern that looks like mumbo jumbo's mustache.
Beautiful and insightful!
0:40 - Amazing that those sleeping birds didn't wake up, not even the one she held up @ 0:55
they uh… arent alive…
Wow beautiful bird, blue is so rare in nature and it’s got it all
Nature: LOOK AT WHAT THEY NEED TO MIMIC A FRACTION OF OUR POWER
0:48 Lmao, that ball looks like its CGI because of how black it is
The blackest black i ever experienced was in the anechoic chamber in the basement of the science building at my alma mater. It was also the most silent. I felt as if the black silence was pressing in around me.
You should try this.
Sounds like a horror movie waiting to happen.
Try a float chamber for extra...uh...immersion.
@@Olikiscrazy Tried it. Not even close.
*My favourite video* 👴🏻
0:35 You almost got me there, Joe. ;))
As a young pyro, I would often burn stuff with a lighter. When the soot collects on an object it looks a lot like that. Just SO BLACK the visual cues of depth and contour begin to blur and you feel your eyes aren't focusing anymore. Like how that blackened mask "illusion" works.
Since he never said it, theres 2 types of blackest paint rn that exist
theres the ine available to the general public
and then theres the fancy one which is toxic (i think) called vanta black
Those birds are so beautiful! If I remember correctly, they're called bowerbirds...
This awakes wonderful memories of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Racing animation - *Chef's kiss*
Fun fact: The video would have looked unimpressive and confusing to you if you hadn't watched it with an modern OLED screen. If this vid had been released in say 2008, your low quality LCD would have shown all the "blacks" as dark grey.
I'd wager that most people still don't have OLED screens, especially on non-smartphone devices
we got a genius over here
I do think the most impressive part about the back is how it removes all depth and texture and highlights of the objects, even someone on a less quality screen would be able to see the flatness of the object
wow, what amazing insight /s
I want to paint my room that color. Then I could add some black to brighten things up a bit! 🖤
amazing episode
Maaan I love this channel
Hi Joe, This subject is interesting. I wish people can change pigments like some animals.
I have done the survey. Why do they ask you to do it? They can see the data!
i'll have to take your word for it as those fish don't look especially black from here, even in the videos
LMAO when he said, "It's a pretty accurate name, actually, when you take a look at it." 🤣
0:01
EA: "sorry, but you gotta pay $2m to unlock 1% of this item"
When Chuck Norris holds that black diamond it shines perfectly
Even the best monitor you can think of can't display those black properly. I want to see some Ventablack myself. it would be the closest thing to seeing the Event Horizon of a black hole.
That bird with is weird black and iridescence is just so mezmerizing to look at.
This isn’t vantablack. Vantablack is toxic and owned by Anish Kapoor. What they’re showing is Ultrablack, which isn’t toxic and even darker.
7:05
That orange had me, not gonna lie.
Yeah, had me in the first half ngl
I...can't... Even... Those birds.... What is happening 🤣🤣🤣 Fantastic video, nature is spectacular, thank you for this!!
now i know why my canon lens hood has a coating of black fuzz which i now assume is for catching light before it reflects into lens
“black, black, orange” made me lol ❤
Do birds that trap light with their feathers get extremely hot? Or have they evolved a system of addressing the heat?
I have just adopted a crossbreed (kelpie x staffy). The photo and the website description had her listed as black and white but the "black" is really varying shades of burnt umber. She has a swirl of tiny white dots around her ears and the whole effect reminds me of twilight. The listening to stars idea led me to think of radio astronomy related names so I googled female radio astronomers and came across Ruby Payne Scott who worked here in Adelaide but is unfairly forgotten (I had never heard of her, there isn't a building or a street named after her and she never got a New Year's or Queen's Birthday honour), I feel because she took on the government over married female employees being forced to resign when they get married and she was a "communist" in the mid 20th century.
So, did you name your "Listens-To-Stars" Kelpie "*Ruby*" after the radio-astronomer who got the bad deal? I would have.💖
@@DrachenGothik666 Yes I did. It passes the "can you see yourself shouting that name in public" test. lol
1:55 that labcoat guy looks line Nick Lucid from science asylum
Thank you for the Amazing video! how these animals evolved? (btw they absorb more photons and are more energetic and hot always?🙃)
These very black objects are actually known as "black body emitters"
They absorb almost all the incident visible light. However, they emit thermal radiation dependent on their temperature so are very visible when viewed with a thermal imager
This is scary. The exact question stated in the title was what I wondered on the ride to my work this morning.
Are you in STEM?
the blackest thing on earth is my antique farming tools
"This is the blackest thing in the world." Meanwhile ManlikeIssac:
This reminds me of the time Surrey Nanosystems collaborated with BMW to make some SUV's covered in VantaBlack paint. Sadly we never got to see the first of these SUV's that was involved in a fender bender at an intersection when the driver of the other car failed to see the BMW at night 😁. Proof that being the blackest thing is not always a good thing.
_Wednesday Addams has joined the chat_
I seriously thought the video was going to end when he said " of SpaceTime. "
So cool to see our technology advancing with inspiration from nature itself.
You can clearly see that humans best tech still can't beat nature.
Try again.
I love your channel. I always enjoy the content
This reminds me of a book I'd read years back I think the author was Gene wolf and the name of the book was shadow of the executioner? Maybe? But either way, the main character was an executioner by profession and by law he had to wear a cloak that what's so black you wouldn't be able to see folds one layered upon itself. They refer to that color as fulligan. I've always wondered where they got the name from
Shadow of the Torturer. Great book series.
@@barracoder that's the one. I think I've only read the first book in the series. And even that was longer ago than I'd care to admit.
Thank you for another great video! You make my "blain" very happy 💖
2:13 she's trying to hold in that giggle 😂
I would like to see how these ultra black objects (and birds) look with an infrared camera. Do these pigments also trap the IR waves or does it cause the object glow more in the IR?
no
The blackest thing I’ve seen is the Great Rift of the Milky Way. It was mind blowing because we already think of a very dark Bortle 1 night sky as black, but this was somehow blacker.
Great work Thank you
Makes me wonder, what's the most reflective material?
Stupid question.. but where do all those photons go when they are absorbed/trapped in these light cages?
That's not a stupid question at all... although I believe energy is absorbed and light is transferred into non-visible forms of light like heat.
@@bigpurplepops sounds about right. Thanks
Thank you!!! Ugh I love people like you. I was thinking of the exact same question while watching this and was prepared for my next rabbit hole of UA-cam videos explaining the same!
You may be surprised to learn evolution figured out a way to do this first.
Nope, evolution doesn’t surprise me anymore, it has come up with the greatest things we’ve ever seen. It’s literally gone from goo to walking on the surface of the moon.
I love that bird of paradise, so amazing!
soot is a good alternative for low budget projects where light reflection not wanted
What happens to the trapped photons in the carbon nanotubes and the bird feathers? Are they eventually absorbed by something? Are they just bouncing around forever? Would light be released if the structures were broken?
Absorbed
Frequency lowers, wavelength increases so light turns to heat
A different way to look at birds of paradise and their selection is the amount of "genetic value" they can place in superfluous things and still live.
If they were able to not only survive, but also have unnecessary hindrances while doing so, that means their genetic data must be top-notch.
' ... leave Pigments behind ...! ... " ... Brillant! ...
@8:44 why no gloves when touching specimens? How do you clean of the acid residue and then re-apply bird gland grease?
I'm always amazed at how people in Western culture think of nature as if it is some sort of outside phenomena apart from ourselves. Or we think of ourselves as some outside phenomena outside of nature. The nano structures we produce no matter how we produce it.. are as natural a process as the nanostructures developed over an extended period of time by our other species family on this planet. We have just recently figured out how to do it within a shorter time frame. We never the less use every organic and inorganic part of nature within and outside of ourselves to make these compounds and structures just as everything else in nature does. There is and should be no distinction in what we manifest and what the rest of nature manifests .. how can there be? We are all a product of that same master process..... nature.
I believe Joe uses the word "evolution" rather than "nature" to describe what created those blackest coverings on animals. Evolution is a distinctly different process compared to creating pigments through science and engineering. I don't see a contradiction here =)
Don't drink the Kool aid
In Africa: "Damnit, it ain't here." 👴🏽
Seems like a great way for scientists at DARPA to develop camouflage paint.
I love how he admitted the fishes names were pretty accurate