I absolutely *love* how Jon Larsen wasn't a researcher in the field - he followed a passion for science _in extreme depth_ and made some remarkable discoveries. It's a really great demonstration of how a great scientist truly can come from anywhere and anyone. They just have to dive in. Nice one Jon 🙌
@Daniel Kintigh You are probably right. I have not considered that and they should have mentioned it or linked some papers on the topic if there are actually some.
You guys are absolutely crushing it over here at VS; the mixture of journalistic storytelling and scientific process is pretty exquisite (high production value doesn't hurt, either!).
So long they don't try to be "edgy and suspenseful" science is entertaining done right and boring done wrong, when you start doing something for "the sake of the show" instead of "the sake of science"
Okay man now I get it that the hint was about meteorites. 🙃 This channel is great. I prefer watching these informative videos over listening to some music. It makes me feel fresh, happy and fills me with optimism.😀😉
Unfortunately, most of the spherical ones are the iron oxide spherules that turned out to be duds. They were still really amazing to look at, but overall nowhere near as close to the actual micrometeorites that Jon has found. He's sending us an actual MM to check out, and we'll post it somewhere to show! - Cory
MORE OF THIS. I teach High School Science, and I think seeing how real people do modern science is a really important part of sparking curiosity and a love of science.
That's science. It's just the boring part, the one you grind until you get results so you can change your hypothesis or reevaluate the process you used to get those results so you could try again.
If it was important or financially rewarding to mine micrometeorites, some new tech could be made for automating a first phase of filtration. For example, image processing techniques could be used to classify the tiny objects as definitely terrestrial so you can focus on the shiny, smooth, or spherical objects that are much more likely to be micrometeorites instead of sifting through terrestrial dust 99% of the time.
Wonderful job. Plus there's this overall touch of humility and dedication you put in your research, which is wonderful and makes every video so intriguing to watch.
Best video I have seen in a whole year. #1. This was very exciting to watch. Thank you very much. Now I will be looking in a microscope. You did an excellent job.
I did this in the 1970's. Cow magnets in the roof drains of college buildings. In the end I could not find a way to tell them from welding spatter or fly ash from mining, coal burning, or incinerators. That book looks really useful. Maybe I'll try again.
I had a science book for kids when I was a kid, around 1974, was a recent book, and it had chapters on experiments with Planaria, something on moon observations, sections on minerals, and a part on finding micrometers on roofs with a magnet and a bag. I don't know the name of the book, but it was what you're doing here. The main difference was the book basically implied that everything you find that's small and magnetic was a micrometeorite, where you guys have shown that most are micrometeor wrongs. Great video by the way.
Hi Benjamin, it is! I have suggested to arrange for a workshop where we can go stardust hunting together. Meanwhile more info (daily updates) at facebook.com/micrometeorites - see you there!
I agree with Benjamin Xue. Is there any way we can get involved. I personally have found something very similar but much older, glassy carbon schedules in the shell of a Keokuk geode from the Warsaw formation in an outcropping in Keokuk, Iowa, approximately 340 million years old. They are jet black and I ran into the same problem in viewing them under higher magnification. When initial focus is achieved just a pinprick at the top center comes into focus, after that a Taurus or ring as you focus further down, making it very difficult to get a good look. These varied in size from nearly 2mm down to micrometer in size. Some where broken and small gas pockets were observed. When tested it was found that the gas pockets contained isotopes of He3 and He4. In my region are anticlinal structures that form wave sets where there is a large primary wave followed by secondary, tertiary, quaternary ad infinitum . The amplitude of each wave in a set decreases and the distance between each wave in a set decreases and appear to coalesce in a northeasterly direction. There are multiple wave sets stretching out across SE Iowa, NE MO, and west central ILL. There is a slight change of angle from one set to the next indicating that these are lines tangent to the arc of a great circle. When I penciled in the center of the arc in a rudimentary fashion on an old atlas of N America I found the center to be near Sudbury Ontario Canada. This was back in 1984 I think. When I researched what could be found around Sudbury, which I had never heard of prior to this I found that the area had a robust mining industry and when i found what they were mining i got pretty excited. Pt group metals, in unbelievably huge amounts! I thought possibly that this may be the Permian Impactor but the site has been dated since then to much earlier, something like 1.4 b. I beg to disagree but many folks with that magic two letters in front of their name, ie., Dr. tell me I'm nuts. I have no doubt that the rocks in the area are that old but my contention is that it is not what's there that dates the impact , it is what is not there anymore, what was blasted, vaporized and subsequently eroded over the millennia that followed. All of the basement complexes of granites that underlie the state of IA are tilted upward in the direction of Sudbury , which I believe to be the central uplift or bulge to one of the most catastrophic events in our planets history. One that wiped out 90+% of all life on our planet. Sorry I was so long winded but it is kind of complicated. If anyone is interested I do have some rudimentary photo's of the glassy carbon spherules taken with a cheap add on microscope on my stupidphone. I would appreciate any comments and especially any help in resolving my dilemma. Just for kicks I would also like help in getting to Canada to investigate an unrelated , so far unidentified impact structure i stumbled across in Southern Ontario, actually possibly a double impact, one approx 2km across the other about .5km which slightly overlaps the larger. I can't afford to do it myself and I am getting old and not as mobile as I once was. Finding and identifying a previously unknown structure would be quite an adventure and feather in the cap of anyone involved. I doubt if there is anything of value other than prestige to be gained. s.a.m. aka; GENERALISSIMO MAXIMUS MAYHEM CHAOS GRAND SUPREME HIGH COMMANDER CHAOS SUPREME HIGH COMMAND HEADQUARTERS Is there anybody out there?
Micrometeorites, a small glimpse into our vast universe. Imagine the wonders these tiny little specs must have witnessed, the events they must have experienced, to eventually end up on earth. Truly fascinating!
@Will Pack "According to some calculations, the Earth is losing 50,000 metric tons of mass every single year, even though an extra 40,000 metric tons of space dust converge onto the Earth’s gravity well, it’s still losing weight."
Really appreciate your honesty. Admitting that you found nothing after so much time and effort, is the dedication to scinetific endeavour that I wish to see in everybody.
@Luca Onorati Not a major problem. We have a lot of terrestrial examples and there are unsupervised techniques like clustering or outlier detection that can help find micrometeroites.
I've found 3 fist sized meteorites in the past year, I also managed to find some slag from the bronze age while digging for them, managed to contribute to both history and my collection at the same time :)
Thanks for this terrific video. When I first heard about micro-meteorites, I pried a neodymium magnet off my refrigerator door, and went down the steps in front of my house to a concrete pad near the gate, this is where mud always collects after a rain, and... I found a lot of iron bits none of which suggested meteorites. All the first reports had made finding micro-meteorites as easy as just checking the gutters. This is more scientific, a bit harder to do, no guaranteed results but far more rewarding. Thanks. Investigation idea: I got interested in dust because of sinus problems. I learned that a lot of dust from cars with drum brakes was asbestos, and that anywhere near a road had lots of sooty black dust from the vulcanized rubber wearing off tires. Later in my bedroom I kept finding white dust. I changed out all my pillow covers with hypo-allergenic ones, but the white dust persisted. I think it's from using toilet paper as tissue. Is this the case? and how dangerous is this our lungs? Also aerosols and body powders. Related to this are air filters. I have a few of these. When they are brand new it's like I'm at the beach. This never lasts more than a couple of weeks. So how effective are HEPA air filters? How bad is it to vacuum the surface of the prefilters to extend their lives? and should we just do what the manufacture says and replace all the expensive HEPA filters every six months? I know that the worst dust is supposed to be PM 2.5 microns and smaller. This is because particles this size can get embedded in the lungs and even enter the body. While I was learning about this I learned that plaque build up in our vascular system is some cholesterol, but mostly macrophages. Could these build ups be macrophages capturing this dust that has entered our body? I've read a few books on dust and while very interesting, there are many studies on the effect of specific chronic effects of 'dust' smoking, coal mining, asbestos workers, etc... but no one seems to have investigated the different ways dust affects us. A bit more reassuring is knowing that even particles much smaller than the openings in filters are also collected simply as a function of the near infinite surfaces in filters.
I saw a video years ago where a guy put a 5 gallon bucket with a magnet in it at the outlet of the gutter system on his roof, and used a hose to spray the roof and gutters out, and found some that way. Great video!
Tough hobby. I used to find Paleolithic stone points. It was easy to spot them for me but others just couldn't...but then I also see a lot of patterns in nature that others don't. You should do a show on micro landscapes.
Hi there, if you want to get more info about micrometeorites and how to find them you are welcome to our Facebook community: facebook.com/micrometeorites - thousands of pictures, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial. Daily updates. This is where Jan and I share all our research in real time, and where micrometeorite collectors from all over the world exchange information. I answer questions, and verify micrometeorites. Yes, we are also sorry that the Verge did not find any MMs in this search, but that's how it is at times. Especially to begin with when you have not encountered ET under the microscope yet. As soon as you have started to know them it becomes more easy to find them. Most micrometeorites are small, dark aerodynamic rocks, not spherical metal beads. I suspect the Verge crew might have looked in the wrong direction? Best wishes, Jon Larsen, starhunter. See you at facebook.com/micrometeorites
We're excited to get your micrometeorite in the mail so we know what to look for next time!! Thanks for your help through this, Jon & Jan. - Verge Science
@@VergeScience Let's do a workshop/field search together one day. With some some preparation we may get access to a couple of favourable roofs, and I'll gladly walk a group of interested people through the entire process. I have actually just finished a short presentation of the methodology: www.amazon.com/Search-Stardust-Micrometeorites-Terrestrial-Imposters-dp-076035264X/dp/076035264X/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid= - but nothing beats the real thing!
@@VergeScience I think I've spotted two weak points in this presentation, which could be the reason why no micrometeorites were found and why most of the spherules you sent to me were industrial metal (iron oxide) spheres: At 3:07 I am quoted that app. 80% of the micrometeorites are "metallic", which is not correct. This should have been that app. 80% of the micrometeorites are magnetic. The interstitial metal (magnetite crystals) is not neccessary visible at all, and most micrometeorites apper as elongated black "stones", and not metallic spheres. Only app. 2% (!) of the micrometeorites are rond metallic spheres, and these are still indistinguishable from the most common type of industrial sherules. Statistically you would have found 98 stony micrometeorites before you encounter your first metallic micrometeorite, and by then you would have seen millions of industrial metal spherules. Secondly, at 4:07 you use a 300µm mesh, but most micrometeorites are around to 300µm, so you might have screened a too small fraction. I recommend to focus on the fraction 200 to 400 µm. At a regular basis micrometeorites >400µm and even >500µm do apper, and they are much easier to recognize than the smallest (1200 to 200µm fraction) because you can see the characteristic Surface textures more clearly. With experience things get easier. Just for fun I calculated that on a hunting day on the roof I have found up to one micrometeorite every tenth minute, he-he! Btw, here is the book you use in this otherwice excellent presentation: www.amazon.com/Search-Stardust-Micrometeorites-Terrestrial-Imposters-dp-076035264X/dp/076035264X/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid= - it has one full chapter about the iron oxides, the imposterous metal spheres. Happy hunting!
I'm actually so keen to now! If only I had the resources or expertise to do this! Although based on Cory's face at the end the process looks extremely exhausting and soul-crushing if you don't find any!
Spot on, Cory, William, and Alex. And a HUGE shout out to Jan Braly Kihle and Jon Larsen. Isn’t it interesting that such smallness brings such wonder. Perhaps best of all is seeing the 11 year old come out for everyone involved...just pure curiosity! Love it!
The existence of micrometeorites must have been known or speculated about before Prof. Larsen because an older kid told me about them around 1961-2 (and described a method he had read about for finding them). I had always assumed they were just lying around and were probably much easier to find (or catch) than is described in the video.
I learned about these as a kid a few decades ago. I put a big pan on my roof all summer and then used a strong magnet to see what I had. Low and behold, I had a couple tiny chunks of magnetic material. Don't know if they were micro meteorites, but it definitely peaked my interest! May have to do that again this summer.
You are probably going to get better results on a roof that has: large surface. Steep grade (high angles). Non-granular and preferably non-metallic roofing texture (although assuming they don't make it through, metal sheet roofing can work great) And like they said, low traffic as far as people and machinery go. Ideally you want roof that can be washed or swept off, collected and then separated. Having a downpipe for rain drainage is excellent because you can guide the pipe into a cistern where the heavy or magnetic bits are captured. Keep In mind that they are very small and will easily rust into nothingness if not done correctly. You want to capture them but you also can't let them sit under water for any real amount of time. Maybe just use water for the initial washing of the roof but make sure to dry them out straight away. Even a light oil can be used to prevent oxidation or to store them long term. You can even put magnets on the roof in the certain spots that make sense in the path that the meteorites would have to take as they come off the roof or are washed towards the gutter or edges etc.
I sort of like the disappointment in not finding any. It shows that sometimes you dont' find something interesting at first, but it's still possible. Very realistic
We are :( Jon is sending the samples back, so I'm going to check the boxes and see if they just weren't spotted. The ones that were lost were non-metallic, so they were just rolling around the boxes, which probably made them difficult to find.
No it isn't, Micrometeorites are formed at 500 degree Celsius or above, at that temperature the DNA strands would split up and form Nitrates, Nitrites, Carboxides, and Hydrieds, although if the Micrometeorites had not being crystalline in structure , the UV radiations from the sun could have reverse combined them into DNA or RNA.
Probably whole particle would be covered with bacteria. All from earth of course. There Is no way dna molecule would make it through extreme temp during atmosphere entrance.
That was awesome. Science you can do in your backyard. Not just any old science, groundbreaking science. I just may get off my computer chair and try that. And that would be something very, very few have accomplished.
Why are you not using machine learning systems on this problem? You're classifying stuff based on a big set of input signals. It's an easy match for some of the newer systems, and the newer systems are cheap to set up. Yes, I know you don't have a lot of resources to learn Tensorflow and stuff, but the beauty of your project is that it's already high-profile, and the people studying and selling "AI" are looking for that. So... contact the cloud folks at Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Alibaba, and anybody else who's trying to sell a classification tool on their cloud service. They'll almost certainly tell you it's a great idea so just sign up for their free trial and read the tutorial blah blah blah, but that's where your search really begins. Try to convince them that this project is high profile (over 200K views at the moment), and even if you had the resources to implement it yourself, their cloud service will look better if their own ML engineers make sure that the project is successful and gets lots of views and blog posts and is published in a proper journal as a breakthrough way to easily identify tiny particles. The applications of such a system go way past identifying micrometeorites, so the first cloud service to score a win in that area will get sweet sci street cred, and of course publicity for their ML service. Most of the services might pass, but you only need one. Seriously, give it a shot. The clouds are in competition right now to sell their ML packages, so they are looking for high-profile success stories which used their service. If every single cloud service turns you down, ask a few universities for students or a prof who's looking for a good research topic in ML. I can't guarantee success, but I think it's easily worth the effort of asking around. I'd consider it myself except that I'm already committed to projects at work (I'm a research engineer). P.S. If you do tackle this, please keep in mind that you're not limited finding patterns in a big set of nice clear images that were taken manually. Yes, much of the earlier work on recognizing faces and such used nice clear photos, but the algorithms just need a signal, so consider magnets, sounds, spectra, and other inputs. As for images, microscope photography is a pain, so my first application of ML would be to speed up the data collection process, perhaps by getting it to do some of the focusing and sorting. Then just keep extending the ML to isolate the items of interest -- essentially signal/noise separation.
Can you explain more on what you mean for a lay person? Do you mean an actual robot sorting through piles of dust, or having people upload their findings to a database and function like google reverse image search?
Are Jon’s means of classifying the candidates you identified purely image based? If so it may not be too difficult to automate the classification using deep learning (depending on the size of the available training set), and develop a pipeline to systematically take images and narrow down potential micrometeorites automatically. This could greatly increase the productivity of researchers in the field, and due to the abundance of these things, could open up a new data-driven window on the interplanetary medium. Worth some investment I should think.
Not all are there was one that was elongated. But i would guess most of them are spherical as they tumble when entering the atmosphere and therefore heat is distributed uniformally around the micrometeorite, also the size of them doesnt allow enough heat to be deflected on one side stopping the other side being heated therefore yiu get a uniform temperature distribution in and around them. Ut we should never ever assume, so they should perhaps experiment and work out why.
They are big enough to not vaporize when they hit the atmosphere, yet completely melt. The surface tension of a suspended liquid makes it minimize its surface area - and a sphere is the minimal surface for a given volume in 3D space. They're small enough that they quickly lose heat and solidify in that shape as they continue to fall to Earth.
@@timeastman8319 so similar to how you drop water from a high building it spreads and forms droplets in a size that it dictated by the surface tension and also i believe the atmospheric pressure has a difference as well.
Great job guys, bummer that you weren’t able to find any micro meteorites but definitely a noble effort. I’ve lived in NYC my entire life but for 2 years I did live on L.I. and actually got a chance to experience a meteor shower, absolutely one of the most amazing events I’ve ever witnessed, it was just dark enough to be able to see them streaking through the sky.
I remember visiting the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History in the late 1960's and seeing a display on how to collect micrometeorites in a barrel. Additionally, recall reading at least one article in the early to mid 1970's in a magazine. Others have done this decades ago.
Even the terrestrial objects are incredible. I do a lot of electrical & mechanical work, next time I’m sweeping the metal dust I just made, I’ll think of this.
I really appreciate this video. I think its so important to show that a lot of science is ultimately about failing over and over, and then continuing the hunt. Great stuff
This was a really encouraging video. I'm interested to know if anyone has calculations about how much less the planet weighs at various geological marking points.
Another possible technique I've seen for collecting fragments, is putting a bucket with a strong magnet in it at the bottom of the pipe coming from a roof gutter, and simply washing the gutter out with a hose (probably works best with a gable roof). Tiny meteorite particles that have accumulated on the roof will wash into the bucket and stick to the magnet.
I was collecting micro meteors when I was 10 years old during the bombing of my country in 1999 by America. I collected them by putting a large magnet in a bucket that was drilled around the holes and placed in a water drain from the roof during rain and leave it overnight. The next day the whole bucket glow green like a Chernobyl.
If you can, try to collect off a surface that doesn't overwhelm you with false positives. I have a roof that is very large and very smooth. I have been collecting everything that lands on and runs off the roof for the past year. I'm just now in the process of going through all the specimens. :)
Micrometeorite collection is very much like mushroom hunting, both are a form of modern-day treasure hunting that anyone with a little bit of education and passion can do. With some practice, a few books, and an eye on the weather, it doesn't take long to start making incredible discoveries in the most unlikely places, like a city park, a nearby forest, even in a sand-covered desert. Both activities share a key commonality, they give you the opportunity to find things that, most likely, no one on Earth has ever seen before. There are just so many different species of fungi around the world that mycologists are nowhere close to identifying all of them yet. It's a powerful, even addictive, feeling to discover something a few millimeters across hiding under a single leaf that you checked on a whim that cannot be found in any textbook or database. This was a great video, and after watching I've got a strong urge to start building a small micrometeorite collection device with a smooth, flat surface surrounded by high walls on top of a tall wooden structure. Time to go look through my neodymium magnet collection and calibrate my microscopes! :D
What experiments should we tackle next?
How to make your own thermal imager
Both travel at the speed of light. LIGO confirmed that gravitational waves also travel at the speed of light. @Tony Stark
Why does it feel good to poop?
Please do a video on the double slit experiment
Light fidelity technology
I absolutely *love* how Jon Larsen wasn't a researcher in the field - he followed a passion for science _in extreme depth_ and made some remarkable discoveries. It's a really great demonstration of how a great scientist truly can come from anywhere and anyone. They just have to dive in. Nice one Jon 🙌
@Janis Hey! :)
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Yep. Jon transferred his passion for Jazz into a passion for these micrometeorites. Cool.
Aspect Science:
Well, it just goes to show that he's not a dilettante.
Anybody can be a scientist as long as they follow the scientific method.
This is the quality content I subscribed for
Definitely
@Daniel Kintigh They are owned by Vox so it's not rare at all.
Don't title it "here's how to find them.." if you did not found them!!
@Daniel Kintigh You are probably right. I have not considered that and they should have mentioned it or linked some papers on the topic if there are actually some.
@Recreational Plutonium Why should it be a paid comment? I liked this video as well. He got 800 likes, so he's probably not alone :D
mesmerizing; you had my full attention throughout.
@Samuel Shin Uhhhh. Can't all that go on simultaneously? Or do we need to prioritize?
You guys are absolutely crushing it over here at VS; the mixture of journalistic storytelling and scientific process is pretty exquisite (high production value doesn't hurt, either!).
I agree! This channel is just getting better and better!
There's nothing more pompous than saying that something is "exquisite".
The amount of disdain you expressed over word choice is simply exquisite.
@@joshuatatro4503 Flabbergasting.
Absolutely loving the content!
Verge Science is the channel that UA-cam has been needing for so many years now. Thank you for what you do!
Veritasium, Vox, Sci Show, Vintage Space, Physics Girl.. all have been doing great too :)
Ever heard of vsause or vertasium or smartereveryday, they are really good check them out
So long they don't try to be "edgy and suspenseful" science is entertaining done right and boring done wrong, when you start doing something for "the sake of the show" instead of "the sake of science"
This is definitely one of the meatier subjects you've tackled. (Also, this is awesome. Please make more.)
Meteor?
@MinuteEarth I look forward to everyone's comets in the discussion
And parts of it were just out of this world.
The subject of micro-metoerites had little impact on me.
There is no more _space_ for puns like these!
Fantastic experiment, thank you so much for sharing, specially because the results weren't as expected :)
Colonel RPG Oh. Was not expecting to see you here Colonel
@@TrufasMushroom Hi there! :D
A negative result is still a result. And it is great to see you documenting that side of the scientific process. Keep up the good work.
This needs a spoiler alert
@@ohboy1113 Or just read comments after the video
SaltySoySauce Do you honestly only read comments after the video?
@@ohboy1113 Isn't that the point 🤔
SaltySoySauce I don’t know but I don’t have the patience for that.
Okay man now I get it that the hint was about meteorites. 🙃
This channel is great. I prefer watching these informative videos over listening to some music. It makes me feel fresh, happy and fills me with optimism.😀😉
It's pretty cool to see that most of them are spherical
Justin Y. First like
The King HAS RETURNED!
You are everywhere
Unfortunately, most of the spherical ones are the iron oxide spherules that turned out to be duds. They were still really amazing to look at, but overall nowhere near as close to the actual micrometeorites that Jon has found. He's sending us an actual MM to check out, and we'll post it somewhere to show! - Cory
We know you snuck out the true samples.
I think 'nothing found in the box' means, 'I'm claiming your micrometeorite for myself.'
yeah that is weird
With how small they are they probably made it through the lid gap. They should have submerged them in vials full of water.
@@SaneAsylum Nice try Jon
@@victorunbea8451 Hahahaha
@Blind Bob One word... AAAAAAAAACHO
MORE OF THIS. I teach High School Science, and I think seeing how real people do modern science is a really important part of sparking curiosity and a love of science.
Tiny meteorites are everywhere. Here’s how to find them.
SPOILER: we didn't find them.
They did show HOW to find them. They said themselves that they did not find any.
James Henry no, they showed you how to look for them then, not how to find them.
Yeah, I laughed when i watched the original video... using a magnet on a building's rooftop🤦♂️
oh no they found some, the dude who took said there wasnt anything in container stole the stardust.
That's science. It's just the boring part, the one you grind until you get results so you can change your hypothesis or reevaluate the process you used to get those results so you could try again.
Love it when a layman stuns the professionals by simply being passionate about something. Bravo!
If it was important or financially rewarding to mine micrometeorites, some new tech could be made for automating a first phase of filtration. For example, image processing techniques could be used to classify the tiny objects as definitely terrestrial so you can focus on the shiny, smooth, or spherical objects that are much more likely to be micrometeorites instead of sifting through terrestrial dust 99% of the time.
Wonderful job. Plus there's this overall touch of humility and dedication you put in your research, which is wonderful and makes every video so intriguing to watch.
Best video I have seen in a whole year. #1. This was very exciting to watch. Thank you very much. Now I will be looking in a microscope. You did an excellent job.
I did this in the 1970's. Cow magnets in the roof drains of college buildings. In the end I could not find a way to tell them from welding spatter or fly ash from mining, coal burning, or incinerators. That book looks really useful. Maybe I'll try again.
Journalism meets art meets science.
Loving it!
This was way better than I thought it would be. Very interesting subject!
That's testament to Verge Science's great story-telling and video production abilities! And I completely agree!
2:29 meteorite with Verge Logo 🤯🤯🤯
Damn! Good spot! That's sweet!
Clever!
Amazing idea for a series
This is the hard work dedicated by the verge science and these scientists and the result, one of the greatest quality videos on youtube.
10 minutes well spent. Great video!
I had a science book for kids when I was a kid, around 1974, was a recent book, and it had chapters on experiments with Planaria, something on moon observations, sections on minerals, and a part on finding micrometers on roofs with a magnet and a bag. I don't know the name of the book, but it was what you're doing here. The main difference was the book basically implied that everything you find that's small and magnetic was a micrometeorite, where you guys have shown that most are micrometeor wrongs. Great video by the way.
This video DEMANDS a part two! Is there a way for all us to get involved?
Hi Benjamin, it is! I have suggested to arrange for a workshop where we can go stardust hunting together. Meanwhile more info (daily updates) at facebook.com/micrometeorites - see you there!
I agree with Benjamin Xue. Is there any way we can get involved. I personally have found something very similar but much older, glassy carbon schedules in the shell of a Keokuk geode from the Warsaw formation in an outcropping in Keokuk, Iowa, approximately 340 million years old. They are jet black and I ran into the same problem in viewing them under higher magnification. When initial focus is achieved just a pinprick at the top center comes into focus, after that a Taurus or ring as you focus further down, making it very difficult to get a good look.
These varied in size from nearly 2mm down to micrometer in size. Some where broken and small gas pockets were observed. When tested it was found that the gas pockets contained isotopes of He3 and He4.
In my region are anticlinal structures that form wave sets where there is a large primary wave followed by secondary, tertiary, quaternary ad infinitum . The amplitude of each wave in a set decreases and the distance between each wave in a set decreases and appear to coalesce in a northeasterly direction.
There are multiple wave sets stretching out across SE Iowa, NE MO, and west central ILL. There is a slight change of angle from one set to the next indicating that these are lines tangent to the arc of a great circle. When I penciled in the center of the arc in a rudimentary fashion on an old atlas of N America I found the center to be near Sudbury Ontario Canada.
This was back in 1984 I think. When I researched what could be found around Sudbury, which I had never heard of prior to this I found that the area had a robust mining industry and when i found what they were mining i got pretty excited. Pt group metals, in unbelievably huge amounts!
I thought possibly that this may be the Permian Impactor but the site has been dated since then to much earlier, something like 1.4 b. I beg to disagree but many folks with that magic two letters in front of their name, ie., Dr. tell me I'm nuts.
I have no doubt that the rocks in the area are that old but my contention is that it is not what's there that dates the impact , it is what is not there anymore, what was blasted, vaporized and subsequently eroded over the millennia that followed.
All of the basement complexes of granites that underlie the state of IA are tilted upward in the direction of Sudbury , which I believe to be the central uplift or bulge to one of the most catastrophic events in our planets history. One that wiped out 90+% of all life on our planet.
Sorry I was so long winded but it is kind of complicated. If anyone is interested I do have some rudimentary photo's of the glassy carbon spherules taken with a cheap add on microscope on my stupidphone. I would appreciate any comments and especially any help in resolving my dilemma.
Just for kicks I would also like help in getting to Canada to investigate an unrelated , so far unidentified impact structure i stumbled across in Southern Ontario, actually possibly a double impact, one approx 2km across the other about .5km which slightly overlaps the larger.
I can't afford to do it myself and I am getting old and not as mobile as I once was. Finding and identifying a previously unknown structure would be quite an adventure and feather in the cap of anyone involved. I doubt if there is anything of value other than prestige to be gained.
s.a.m.
aka; GENERALISSIMO MAXIMUS MAYHEM
CHAOS GRAND SUPREME HIGH COMMANDER
CHAOS SUPREME HIGH COMMAND HEADQUARTERS
Is there anybody out there?
Duh , might help if I left an address.
chaossupremeuniversalcmdhq@gmail.com
Micrometeorites, a small glimpse into our vast universe.
Imagine the wonders these tiny little specs must have witnessed, the events they must have experienced, to eventually end up on earth.
Truly fascinating!
So you could assume the earth is getting bigger each year?
@Will Pack "According to some calculations, the Earth is losing 50,000 metric tons
of mass every single year, even though an extra 40,000 metric tons of
space dust converge onto the Earth’s gravity well, it’s still losing
weight."
@Ewa Feen and how does that suppose to correlate with earth getting bigger/smaller
god this is the best channel on yt
every week i wait for these videos and none of them disappoint
I don’t comment often, but I really enjoyed this kind of story telling and I am already looking forward to the next episode. Keep it up.
I do this on my house after it rains. I run my Magnet Stick at all four down spouts and pick up dozens of Micro Meteorites... Fun and easy to do!!! :)
Growing up in the 70's, my science teacher taught me that I could find them in rain gutters.
Really appreciate your honesty. Admitting that you found nothing after so much time and effort, is the dedication to scinetific endeavour that I wish to see in everybody.
Has anybody ever applied machine-learning techniques to separate micro-meteorites from the detritus? Sounds like an idea for a research paper.
I thought the same. Also a motorized microscope stage is needed
@Luca Onorati Not a major problem. We have a lot of terrestrial examples and there are unsupervised techniques like clustering or outlier detection that can help find micrometeroites.
We already tried it at Inatrode!
Ram THom Did it work, out of interest?
@@harryflashman8996 Oh shoot, i was trying to troll and make a office space joke about it...lol but its not a bad idea
I've found 3 fist sized meteorites in the past year, I also managed to find some slag from the bronze age while digging for them, managed to contribute to both history and my collection at the same time :)
Thanks for this terrific video. When I first heard about micro-meteorites, I pried a neodymium magnet off my refrigerator door, and went down the steps in front of my house to a concrete pad near the gate, this is where mud always collects after a rain, and... I found a lot of iron bits none of which suggested meteorites. All the first reports had made finding micro-meteorites as easy as just checking the gutters. This is more scientific, a bit harder to do, no guaranteed results but far more rewarding. Thanks.
Investigation idea: I got interested in dust because of sinus problems. I learned that a lot of dust from cars with drum brakes was asbestos, and that anywhere near a road had lots of sooty black dust from the vulcanized rubber wearing off tires. Later in my bedroom I kept finding white dust. I changed out all my pillow covers with hypo-allergenic ones, but the white dust persisted. I think it's from using toilet paper as tissue. Is this the case? and how dangerous is this our lungs? Also aerosols and body powders. Related to this are air filters. I have a few of these. When they are brand new it's like I'm at the beach. This never lasts more than a couple of weeks. So how effective are HEPA air filters? How bad is it to vacuum the surface of the prefilters to extend their lives? and should we just do what the manufacture says and replace all the expensive HEPA filters every six months? I know that the worst dust is supposed to be PM 2.5 microns and smaller. This is because particles this size can get embedded in the lungs and even enter the body.
While I was learning about this I learned that plaque build up in our vascular system is some cholesterol, but mostly macrophages. Could these build ups be macrophages capturing this dust that has entered our body?
I've read a few books on dust and while very interesting, there are many studies on the effect of specific chronic effects of 'dust' smoking, coal mining, asbestos workers, etc... but no one seems to have investigated the different ways dust affects us.
A bit more reassuring is knowing that even particles much smaller than the openings in filters are also collected simply as a function of the near infinite surfaces in filters.
The stories those little micro meteorites could tell us and what it has seen.Truly amazing sights
Well, try taking a syringe and make a smal water drop on the end of it you'll be more precise and more dexterous. Cheers!
This is the reason why even though I’m not subbed to the Verge channel, I’m subbed here. You guys make way more interesting content. Keep it up!
I really like the idea of the new series and this specific experiment. I wonder what could be achieved by an image recognition AI.
Amazing how complex and detailed the simulation is.
TL;DW -- Found 15 possible specimens, but none were definitely from space
I saw a video years ago where a guy put a 5 gallon bucket with a magnet in it at the outlet of the gutter system on his roof, and used a hose to spray the roof and gutters out, and found some that way. Great video!
Love these videos
Tough hobby. I used to find Paleolithic stone points. It was easy to spot them for me but others just couldn't...but then I also see a lot of patterns in nature that others don't. You should do a show on micro landscapes.
"Specimen not found in box" = he took them to claim them for his own :-)
50 years later: "hehe pulled a sneaky on ya", read his diary which was recovered from late Jon Larsen's home...
There's a kids book I used to have that used to say how to collect micro meteorites yourself, using cloth or something on a window.
Don't the micrometeorites at 2:29 look like the verge logo??
Crystalline forms of some metal(s) most probably. Check out bismuth crystals, pretty cool.
Iluminati confirmed
Awesome content! My back cried a little watching him hunched over hunting diligently though.
Just ordered Jon's book 😀
Same here
This is awesome. It can change the field of meteorology completely.
Hi there, if you want to get more info about micrometeorites and how to find them you are welcome to our Facebook community: facebook.com/micrometeorites - thousands of pictures, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial. Daily updates. This is where Jan and I share all our research in real time, and where micrometeorite collectors from all over the world exchange information. I answer questions, and verify micrometeorites. Yes, we are also sorry that the Verge did not find any MMs in this search, but that's how it is at times. Especially to begin with when you have not encountered ET under the microscope yet. As soon as you have started to know them it becomes more easy to find them. Most micrometeorites are small, dark aerodynamic rocks, not spherical metal beads. I suspect the Verge crew might have looked in the wrong direction? Best wishes, Jon Larsen, starhunter. See you at facebook.com/micrometeorites
We're excited to get your micrometeorite in the mail so we know what to look for next time!! Thanks for your help through this, Jon & Jan. - Verge Science
@@VergeScience Let's do a workshop/field search together one day. With some some preparation we may get access to a couple of favourable roofs, and I'll gladly walk a group of interested people through the entire process. I have actually just finished a short presentation of the methodology: www.amazon.com/Search-Stardust-Micrometeorites-Terrestrial-Imposters-dp-076035264X/dp/076035264X/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid= - but nothing beats the real thing!
@@VergeScience I think I've spotted two weak points in this presentation, which could be the reason why no micrometeorites were found and why most of the spherules you sent to me were industrial metal (iron oxide) spheres: At 3:07 I am quoted that app. 80% of the micrometeorites are "metallic", which is not correct. This should have been that app. 80% of the micrometeorites are magnetic. The interstitial metal (magnetite crystals) is not neccessary visible at all, and most micrometeorites apper as elongated black "stones", and not metallic spheres. Only app. 2% (!) of the micrometeorites are rond metallic spheres, and these are still indistinguishable from the most common type of industrial sherules. Statistically you would have found 98 stony micrometeorites before you encounter your first metallic micrometeorite, and by then you would have seen millions of industrial metal spherules.
Secondly, at 4:07 you use a 300µm mesh, but most micrometeorites are around to 300µm, so you might have screened a too small fraction. I recommend to focus on the fraction 200 to 400 µm. At a regular basis micrometeorites >400µm and even >500µm do apper, and they are much easier to recognize than the smallest (1200 to 200µm fraction) because you can see the characteristic Surface textures more clearly.
With experience things get easier. Just for fun I calculated that on a hunting day on the roof I have found up to one micrometeorite every tenth minute, he-he! Btw, here is the book you use in this otherwice excellent presentation: www.amazon.com/Search-Stardust-Micrometeorites-Terrestrial-Imposters-dp-076035264X/dp/076035264X/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid= - it has one full chapter about the iron oxides, the imposterous metal spheres. Happy hunting!
Didn't expect to be as captivated as I was. It was mysterious, curious, scientific, and full of passion. Good stuff!
Love the graphics, when will you go 4K? imagine that
Do you watch on a 4K tv?
Im hubmle and love this channel. So cool to see and learn about stuff like this. And wow the micrometeorites looks soooo nice!Fakultet
Let's go to catch some micro-meteroids!
I'm actually so keen to now! If only I had the resources or expertise to do this! Although based on Cory's face at the end the process looks extremely exhausting and soul-crushing if you don't find any!
Spot on, Cory, William, and Alex. And a HUGE shout out to Jan Braly Kihle and Jon Larsen. Isn’t it interesting that such smallness brings such wonder. Perhaps best of all is seeing the 11 year old come out for everyone involved...just pure curiosity! Love it!
The existence of micrometeorites must have been known or speculated about before Prof. Larsen because an older kid told me about them around 1961-2 (and described a method he had read about for finding them). I had always assumed they were just lying around and were probably much easier to find (or catch) than is described in the video.
I learned about these as a kid a few decades ago. I put a big pan on my roof all summer and then used a strong magnet to see what I had. Low and behold, I had a couple tiny chunks of magnetic material. Don't know if they were micro meteorites, but it definitely peaked my interest! May have to do that again this summer.
knowing that meteorites are quite valuable, I'm suspicious about the 2 that 'disappeared' in the mail.
not that valuable unless big^^
Those tiny beads are worth nothing
Trial and error is great, I really dig verge. Cool cool cool
You are probably going to get better results on a roof that has: large surface. Steep grade (high angles). Non-granular and preferably non-metallic roofing texture (although assuming they don't make it through, metal sheet roofing can work great) And like they said, low traffic as far as people and machinery go. Ideally you want roof that can be washed or swept off, collected and then separated. Having a downpipe for rain drainage is excellent because you can guide the pipe into a cistern where the heavy or magnetic bits are captured. Keep In mind that they are very small and will easily rust into nothingness if not done correctly. You want to capture them but you also can't let them sit under water for any real amount of time. Maybe just use water for the initial washing of the roof but make sure to dry them out straight away. Even a light oil can be used to prevent oxidation or to store them long term. You can even put magnets on the roof in the certain spots that make sense in the path that the meteorites would have to take as they come off the roof or are washed towards the gutter or edges etc.
John's work is awesome. Greetings from Norway. Thanks for this upload. Great content.
That’s insane
I sort of like the disappointment in not finding any. It shows that sometimes you dont' find something interesting at first, but it's still possible. Very realistic
Maybe there's a whole mini universe around us. 🤔
There is, a whole mini universe on each square inch of skin.
Good to show that science isn't always easy and progress doesn't proceed in straight lines (history usually showcases only the successful paths)
Anyone thinking about what the heck happened to the two missing samples.
We are :( Jon is sending the samples back, so I'm going to check the boxes and see if they just weren't spotted. The ones that were lost were non-metallic, so they were just rolling around the boxes, which probably made them difficult to find.
Now this is verge science material. Thank you quality folks out there dedicated to do this. 😁😁
is it possible a micrometeorite carry dna molecule ?
No it isn't, Micrometeorites are formed at 500 degree Celsius or above, at that temperature the DNA strands would split up and form Nitrates, Nitrites, Carboxides, and Hydrieds, although if the Micrometeorites had not being crystalline in structure , the UV radiations from the sun could have reverse combined them into DNA or RNA.
Probably whole particle would be covered with bacteria. All from earth of course. There Is no way dna molecule would make it through extreme temp during atmosphere entrance.
That was awesome. Science you can do in your backyard. Not just any old science, groundbreaking science. I just may get off my computer chair and try that. And that would be something very, very few have accomplished.
"No two micrometeorites are alike" well, considering they are formed like snowflakes, it makes sense they'd be as varied.
How are snowflakes not alike?
what a fantastic heart felt episode
Why don't you try to make Sonoluminescence.
I love the passion of searching for something special.
That's why you'll often find me at the local school for the disadvantaged.
Thank you for not sensationalizing your experiment results and being really down to earth (pun intended). Super cool stuff, subscribed.
Why are you not using machine learning systems on this problem? You're classifying stuff based on a big set of input signals. It's an easy match for some of the newer systems, and the newer systems are cheap to set up.
Yes, I know you don't have a lot of resources to learn Tensorflow and stuff, but the beauty of your project is that it's already high-profile, and the people studying and selling "AI" are looking for that. So... contact the cloud folks at Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Alibaba, and anybody else who's trying to sell a classification tool on their cloud service. They'll almost certainly tell you it's a great idea so just sign up for their free trial and read the tutorial blah blah blah, but that's where your search really begins.
Try to convince them that this project is high profile (over 200K views at the moment), and even if you had the resources to implement it yourself, their cloud service will look better if their own ML engineers make sure that the project is successful and gets lots of views and blog posts and is published in a proper journal as a breakthrough way to easily identify tiny particles. The applications of such a system go way past identifying micrometeorites, so the first cloud service to score a win in that area will get sweet sci street cred, and of course publicity for their ML service.
Most of the services might pass, but you only need one. Seriously, give it a shot. The clouds are in competition right now to sell their ML packages, so they are looking for high-profile success stories which used their service. If every single cloud service turns you down, ask a few universities for students or a prof who's looking for a good research topic in ML. I can't guarantee success, but I think it's easily worth the effort of asking around. I'd consider it myself except that I'm already committed to projects at work (I'm a research engineer).
P.S. If you do tackle this, please keep in mind that you're not limited finding patterns in a big set of nice clear images that were taken manually. Yes, much of the earlier work on recognizing faces and such used nice clear photos, but the algorithms just need a signal, so consider magnets, sounds, spectra, and other inputs. As for images, microscope photography is a pain, so my first application of ML would be to speed up the data collection process, perhaps by getting it to do some of the focusing and sorting. Then just keep extending the ML to isolate the items of interest -- essentially signal/noise separation.
That's true! Jon Larsen should collab with someone like Andrew Ng
Can you explain more on what you mean for a lay person? Do you mean an actual robot sorting through piles of dust, or having people upload their findings to a database and function like google reverse image search?
Sounds like a nightmare, why not pay experts instead
You made a looooong novel about hate oof
good job guys. I am an amateur meteorite collector and have a ton of possibilities collected over many years. keep up the good videos. humbly...allan
Are Jon’s means of classifying the candidates you identified purely image based? If so it may not be too difficult to automate the classification using deep learning (depending on the size of the available training set), and develop a pipeline to systematically take images and narrow down potential micrometeorites automatically. This could greatly increase the productivity of researchers in the field, and due to the abundance of these things, could open up a new data-driven window on the interplanetary medium. Worth some investment I should think.
This entire series is amazing, insane details of those micrometeorites.
I feel extremely bad you didn't get very positive results .
Better luck next time
We were just as bummed as you!! - Cory
It was a radio program or something with him here in Norway some time ago, actually pretty facinating
Why all are spherical??
Not all are there was one that was elongated. But i would guess most of them are spherical as they tumble when entering the atmosphere and therefore heat is distributed uniformally around the micrometeorite, also the size of them doesnt allow enough heat to be deflected on one side stopping the other side being heated therefore yiu get a uniform temperature distribution in and around them.
Ut we should never ever assume, so they should perhaps experiment and work out why.
@@falsehoodrefuted true i did guess that, anyway thnxx for the info, hope to know more about it.
They are big enough to not vaporize when they hit the atmosphere, yet completely melt. The surface tension of a suspended liquid makes it minimize its surface area - and a sphere is the minimal surface for a given volume in 3D space. They're small enough that they quickly lose heat and solidify in that shape as they continue to fall to Earth.
@@timeastman8319 see thats a more scientific answer right there. And that actually makes sense as well.
@@timeastman8319 so similar to how you drop water from a high building it spreads and forms droplets in a size that it dictated by the surface tension and also i believe the atmospheric pressure has a difference as well.
Great job guys, bummer that you weren’t able to find any micro meteorites but definitely a noble effort. I’ve lived in NYC my entire life but for 2 years I did live on L.I. and actually got a chance to experience a meteor shower, absolutely one of the most amazing events I’ve ever witnessed, it was just dark enough to be able to see them streaking through the sky.
well that was a waste of time. That could have been a 45 second video.
I remember visiting the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History in the late 1960's and seeing a display on how to collect micrometeorites in a barrel. Additionally, recall reading at least one article in the early to mid 1970's in a magazine. Others have done this decades ago.
Even the terrestrial objects are incredible. I do a lot of electrical & mechanical work, next time I’m sweeping the metal dust I just made, I’ll think of this.
Time spent discovering these beauties is appreciated. Results are very cool.
MORE MORE MORE! This was phenomenal! PLEASE continue with videos like these!
I really appreciate this video. I think its so important to show that a lot of science is ultimately about failing over and over, and then continuing the hunt. Great stuff
That hardwork and pain man just for us viewers,you deserve a couple million subs
This rocks!
(Pun intended)
Can't wait to see more of these trial and error episodes.
This was a really encouraging video. I'm interested to know if anyone has calculations about how much less the planet weighs at various geological marking points.
Another possible technique I've seen for collecting fragments, is putting a bucket with a strong magnet in it at the bottom of the pipe coming from a roof gutter, and simply washing the gutter out with a hose (probably works best with a gable roof). Tiny meteorite particles that have accumulated on the roof will wash into the bucket and stick to the magnet.
I was collecting micro meteors when I was 10 years old during the bombing of my country in 1999 by America. I collected them by putting a large magnet in a bucket that was drilled around the holes and placed in a water drain from the roof during rain and leave it overnight. The next day the whole bucket glow green like a Chernobyl.
nani tf
Tf
I saw the thumbnail almost didn't watch it. But really enjoyed it. I will look out for more of your videos well done.
If you can, try to collect off a surface that doesn't overwhelm you with false positives. I have a roof that is very large and very smooth. I have been collecting everything that lands on and runs off the roof for the past year. I'm just now in the process of going through all the specimens. :)
Really good quality you produce here!
Micrometeorite collection is very much like mushroom hunting, both are a form of modern-day treasure hunting that anyone with a little bit of education and passion can do. With some practice, a few books, and an eye on the weather, it doesn't take long to start making incredible discoveries in the most unlikely places, like a city park, a nearby forest, even in a sand-covered desert. Both activities share a key commonality, they give you the opportunity to find things that, most likely, no one on Earth has ever seen before. There are just so many different species of fungi around the world that mycologists are nowhere close to identifying all of them yet. It's a powerful, even addictive, feeling to discover something a few millimeters across hiding under a single leaf that you checked on a whim that cannot be found in any textbook or database. This was a great video, and after watching I've got a strong urge to start building a small micrometeorite collection device with a smooth, flat surface surrounded by high walls on top of a tall wooden structure. Time to go look through my neodymium magnet collection and calibrate my microscopes! :D
Mushroom hunting is exactly the way I think of it!!!!