Nope, not just you. I watch SciShow at the end of the day, right before going to bed and absolutely love it when Michael is the presenter. Such a warm voice.
Question. What happens if you freeze a tree with liquid nitrogen and stored it for several years then brought it back to room temp? What about a million years?
I have experienced trees "exploding" at both extremes, in the bitter cold in VT and in a massive wildfire in CA, and in wildfires its a true complete explosion. Crazy
With the tree's survival depending on them completing the vitrification process before that critical temperature is reached, to avoid the danger that differences between Fahrenheit and Centigrade might confuse trees - with lethat consequences! So it was decided to make it so that the critical temperature - minus 40 degrees - would be identical in both Centigrade and Fahrenheit! Good thinking!
@@peterbonnema8913 see this guy knows! Or! Why don't they cut down the smaller weaker trees and... And set light to them! Wait... This is getting dark. Trees are kind they won't murder other trees. Apart Fri ivy they are bastards! Don't trust em'
How do you look younger now than when you started presenting?? Also, when you said about sometimes having too much helium... I bust out laughing, because that is exactly what I would have done as a kid!!
He put on a little bit of weight. Sometimes gaining a little weight makes the face look younger. One of my favorite memories from high school was when my AP German teacher had some helium balloons. That day, the other two students in the class didn't show up, so it was only me, the teacher, and the assistant teacher. Each of us had a helium balloon, and we could only speak in German after breathing it in, no English. It was downright hysterical.
Aeturnalis perhaps? I dunno if it’s weight, he looks pretty trim too! Lol that sounds fun!! We once watched the simpsons in french class because my poor teacher had a nasty ear infection and we were rowdy high school students forced to learn a language, so she needed a rest and we behaved much better that way :/ I feel so bad for how I treated her looking back!!
Seems clear that some trees are working at being able to survive WHATEVER extreme conditions might result from our planet-trashing ways. My guess - they're working towards being able to survive inter-planetery space. It would serve us right if the trees colonized Mars, leaving us behind on a doomed Earth.
Oh shut up. The trees will be just fine, just as they’ve been just fine through the multi times the earth has experienced cataclysms beyond anything humans have done . Not to mention the ignorance of your statement as if these trees just magically now started being able to do this, rather than evolving over 1000’s upon 1000’s of years. Our planet is fine and will be just fine, for millions of years after everything we’ve ever created, has been reclaimed by the earth.
@@michaelesposito2629 Evidence to the contrary is quite abundant. Never in the history of the planet, have the atmospheric CO2 levels changed so quickly as the last 200 years. If we don't find a way to reverse it, the planet will have a really hard time for the next millennium or so.
James Burleson wtf do you think the trees survive and thrive on? As far as the next millennium or so.... again, the planet couldn’t give a rats ass about millenniums. It’s a blink of an eye. CO2 levels have been 10 times higher than they are now. Planet didn’t have a hard time then, and it won’t have a hard time now
@@michaelesposito2629 PLEASE don't tell me I'm going to have to resort to ending with winking emojis so people will get that i'm kidding. Think before you leap - I had to be either kidding OR, if serious, SO cognitively challenged that a) no snarky reply could hope to set me straight... and b)anyone responding to a comment from such a wack-job in the manner that you did would be perceived as shooting handicapped fish in a barrel. The upshot of this is that you look either foolish for missing the intent of the post or cruel and a little pathetic in your selection of targets whose humiliation (I'm speculating) you might percieve as casting you in a favorable light. Hope I am not being TOO harsh, but your tone suggests that my response is appropriate - though IF I am wrong (as is always, in all matters possible) then please accept my apologies and we can let this drop. Anyway, :-) Okay? lol
Maple syrup, being the product of maple trees protecting themselves from freezing, might help you deal with winters in Montana. And maple syrup has the lowest glycemic index of any natural sugar, and it tastes really good - the thought of a hot stack of pancakes with maple syrup (and some bacon on the side) makes me feel warm inside...
About 11 years ago, my husband and I moved into a new apartment complex. We had lots of new, small trees dotted all over, but on the edge of the property there was this giant tree, very old, taller than all three stories of the apartment complex. That winter, 2009-2010, we had several flash freezes before it finally stayed cold. Nobody thought anything about it. Fast forward to June, 2010. In June, we here in Lake Township, Ohio, were dealt a pretty brutal blow. Overnight, the 5th-6th, we went through two freak storms that laid down four EF4 (borderline EF5) tornados. Where we live, this was extremely unusual. Anyway, the first one touched down down the road from us, on the opposite side of an intersection we lived near. We didn't get the brunt of any of those tornados, but we got some exceptional winds and bursts of sudden barometric pressure changes that led to me blowing out an eardrum. The front door to our building never really sat perfectly within its frame unless you stopped to pull up on the handle and pull it in, so that night the winds ripped the door off of our building since it wasn't entirely closed. When all was clear, around 4am, we went back up to our third floor apartment and went to bed. Within about a week, I discovered a leak in the roof that was creating a stain on my kitchen ceiling, and maintenance came, called in roofers, and it was fixed. A few weeks later, another big thunderstorm came through in the morning. I woke up to what sounded like our shower running, but my husband was still asleep. I stepped into the living room to find that the fluctuations in pressure that night had popped the sealant that kept the big, half-circle, decorative bay window above the balcony/patio doors from leaking or moving in its frame. Water was POURING in all around that window and we had to rush and pull everything away from the water flowing into the apartment. Called maintenance (who just stood there with his jaw on the floor, shocked that the entire window hadn't fallen in yet), who called management, who called an inspection team. They concluded that the entire building was shifted just enough off it's foundation and that everybody who lived in the building would have to be moved, starting with us. And so we did, and we're also given a month's rent for free, and we ended up in an even newer apartment. So, what does all of this have to do with this video? Well, our now-former apartment was at the very end of the building, and from my bedroom window, every day I would wake up to shapes and designs all over my bedroom wall due to the sunrise passing through that huge tree. I adored that tree. I grew up in the same area and I know that tree has been there for a lot longer than I have lived. And two weeks after they had moved my building and the next two buildings out, that tree, in the middle of a bright, sunny day, snapped and fell through into what was my bedroom, and the bedroom of our former neighbor below us. Just like that. We took a walk over to see where exactly this tree had fallen, and from what my husband could make out, it would have gone directly across the middle of our bed. It happened around 5:30am, so we would have likely been asleep. Investigators and some scientists came to the conclusion that those snap freezes we had probably did 95% if the damage to the interior of the tree, and the winds from the tornado in our area made it twist and turn and sway enough to make it extremely vulnerable, until it just gave way to death. ETA: Those tornados caused an immense amount of damage. Our center for Lake Township Police/Fire/Rescue was a 100% loss, one person killed. Our high school was also a 100% loss. Many homes were wiped clean off their foundations, and a further 6 people lost their lives. I do not live in Tornado Alley, and even severe thunderstorms are rare around here because of a lake effect we get from Lake Erie. Storms that take a direct approach as us usually fall apart, reach a certain area and change direction, or split apart into two storms, one heading southeast and one heading northeast. The entire Toledo-metro area, except for Monclova and another few suburbs to the west, is like living in a little bubble created by Lake Erie. That day, until 7pm, we had only a 5% threat for severe weather. When those hit, our threat level hadn't been moved past 15%. For whatever reason, our little bubble moved at the last minute and pushed two severe thunderstorms into each other creating this one huge severe storm. The last time this area saw tornados above EF3 was back in the 1800's. I will never forget what happened to my town and my home that night as long as I live. I have no idea if the news ever covered that tree coming down because I still can't bring myself to watch any of the videos regarding that night, but if anyone wants to try to see, you can look up "Lake Township Tornado" for all of the videos regarding that night.
That's awesome. One thing though, I learned that plant cellular structure has cell walls which keep the plant together, there aren't spaces between them and that the cell membranes don't actually touch each other. But I guess the cells can shrink inside each "cubicle" leaving watery liquid outside the membrane?
Most of the planet was nothing like -50C even when it was at it's worst. The average temperature globally was only about 8C colder than it is now according to NASA.
@@gordonlawrence1448 Average or median? Important difference. Especially considering all the trees mentioned are native to the coldest places on earth.
Mean average is what is meant in normal conversation when the type of average is not mentioned. Median average is almost never used for weather (I cannot find a singe instance of it's use) and modal average is used extremely rarely.
"... liquid nitrogen - a temperature of -196°C" .... you might want to rephrase this to "the boiling point of nitrogen"! Nitrogen can be much colder than -196°C... Same for Helium..
Helium cannot get much colder than the 'boiling point'. Like, around 4.22 degrees colder. Really, though, for all intents and purposes to a tree, -196C is the same as -210C... the freezing point of Nitrogen. If you're going to quibble about 14 degrees or 4 degrees on a youtube pop-science video, I'm going to just call that pedantry.
Except it usually won’t be. We exist in a place that is well over the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, so it will constantly be receiving heat from its environment, and as such (especially when you put stuff in it) will most often tend to remain at its boiling point, since liquid boiling into gas carries heat away from the liquid (just enough to keep it at its boiling point).
@@khaucan5068 Condensing is gas going to liquid, the oppoisite of liquid going to gas (boiling). So, yes. Gas (condenses to) Liquid (freezes to) Solid (melts to) liquid (evaportatres to) gas (ionizes to) plasma (4th phase of matter) There's a 5th phase of matter, too, a bose-einstein condensate, but I'm not sure if there is a term for the phase transition. Maybe... conglomerates? It happens at the lowest (literally) of temperatures in only some materials (like helium). It's when the wave functions of each atom overlap sufficiently that the macroscopic substance behaves quantum mechanically, at least a little. EDIT: This image from wikipedia is an amazing summary. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_transition#/media/File:Phase_change_-_en.svg EDIT2: And the liquid Bose-Einstein phase transition is called Quantum Condensation.
Informative and hilarious - that part about scientists mucking about with liquid helium... yeah that happens. I know I was critical yesterday, but it bears mentioning that most of your content is excellent.
In the Winter of 1991, and ice storm killed 1/3 of the trees in Rochester, NY. That night, my neighborhood near the UoR sounded like we were in middle of a gunfight, due to the constantly exploding trees in the densely forested areas.
The trees here just migrate southward for the winter. Every November you get huge flocks of them flying to Vegas or Disneyland for the winter. They only fly late at night so mostly people don't notice. The saddest part is the sparrows and wrens sitting dejectedly on rocks wondering where their nests went.
I was always under the impression that the sap of the tree wet down to the roots in the fall, and back up to the limbs in the spring to feed the leaf buds. i was also told that Maple trees need a certain amount of freezing weather to produce enough sap for the crop next spring. Thx for this video. learned sumtin new today, so the day isn't wasted after all.
As far as I am aware, there is no correlation between a fluid's viscosity, and it's freezing temperature. Further so, this is a slippery slope when the liquid in question is water, for the freezing point depends solely on the pressure, and the amount of dissolved ions, which may vary in the amount which each specific type of ion affects the viscosity when being dissolved in water.
I heard trees in Russia just turn water molecules into vodka and survive winter by getting absolutely hammered... you know like other living things there
I just read an article about how they're growing plants on the space station I'm wondering how tall a tree could grow and also how it would grow. Here on Earth there's a limit to the heights of trees because of gravity. The trees can't pull the water all the way up to the top after a certain height. Around the upper 300s lower 400s of feet
@@matt2m I don't know the exact math and I'm just guessing here but with Mars gravity you'd probably end up with a tree that's 600 700 ft tall that would be insanely awesome
Do y'all or can y'all make some vids on the "sentience" of plant life? Trees communicating through root systems, flowers knowing when to bloom, grass warning other grass that it's about to get mowed, stuff like that.
The thumbnail mentioned trees turning into glass, and I watched the whole video waiting for an explanation. I was disappointed with the brief splash of jargon. I wound up having to re-watch the segment, and then research it off site, to get a picture of how what the trees do count as turning into glass.
Some of this information is vital for ultra-cold survival. If you hear trees exploding in the distance, then one of two things is going on - a very cold front coming in which will result in a rapid drop in temperature (even at -30C) or if it's already colder than that then the temperature is getting close to the "death threshold". The death threshold is where people start dying from lungs freezing as the body cannot warm the air up enough to stop it. -55C for an average adult male -50C for an average woman and about -42C for a smaller child. The other test is the "crackle test". IE spit and if it crackles before hitting the ground you need to find shelter and/or heat fast before your lungs freeze. Unfortunately this happens at about -55C to -60C so not good enough for women or kids.
As a scientist in a lab who has dunked several, several, personal items in liquid nitrogen... I would say that experiment and Michael's reaction to it make absolute sense. It may seem like he's laughing at the absurdity of the idea, but it's a facetious laugh because he obviously would have done the same thing had he been a botanist with access to liquid helium.
I'm REALLY interested to know how the researchers explained wanting to dunk living trees in liquid helium. It sounds like a drunken dare, but liquid helium being no joke and not quickly obtained...
How do seeds survive extreme cold (the same way as trees?) and some survive forest fires. Are seeds alive? or are they in some state of suspended animation? (There's a date palm tree in Israel that was grown from a seed (unearthed in a vase) that was centuries old and is the first time in centuries that that variety of date palm tree is growing.)
I know that of you disturb supercooled water it can just spontaneously freeze. So, if there's a supercolled tree, if i just hit it hard enough, or if there's a sonic boom, or an earthquake, will that freeze all of its cells and kill it?
Very intersting topic! I just wish the video had also explained what happens when the trees thaw. That must be a complicated process too, with a lot that could go wrong? Turning the inside of cells to glass...might that be a way to send humans into cryosleep? I guess this would require genetic modification first, to make those same compounds the trees make. But same question: will they survive being reheated.
@@dr.blockcraft6633 Oh, yeah, you're right! I didn't think of the cell walls vs. membranes thing. But concerning brain activity: maybe is used the term "cryosleep" inaccurately. I was referring to freezing dead humans to preserve them and reanimate them in the future. So in that case brain activity would already have stopped.
So japanese white birch are literally invincible against cold, since there is basically nowhere in the universe outside of a lab that gets that cold (ignoring lasers and the event horizons of black holes)
Mary Sue: No, it's an actual, serious, sincere question. I've seen people attempt to make glass knives before (including forging an obsidian knife), so I was wondering about woodglass.
@@sdfkjgh Oh, in this case I have absolutely no idea. But since this phenomenon occurs only at low temperatures it would be difficult to really do something with it. It would probably feel like working with a mixture of wood and ice, I imagine not that special since the general structure of the wood stays the same.
This is the first Scishow episode that I didn't understand. Granted I'm not a native english speaker, but up until this point this hasn't been a problem. Can someone explain what "Glass" means in this context? I only know that word as ... well: Glass. (Transparent. Made from sand, I think? Used for all kinds of things like windows and picture frames and such?) How is it possible for a tree to turn into glass and reverse that after it gets warm again? I simply do not understand. :(
That's potentially promising for food preservation technology. Ordinary freezing retains most of the nutrients, but messes with the structure and texture of foods. Vitrifying wouldn't.
Michael can't keep a straight face trying to rationalize the backstory behind trees and liquid helium. 10/10
Love Michael breaking the presenter character and laughing at the absurdity of dunking a tree in liquid helium
Vectored Thrust that is literally the process of how we learn. Have learned, and will continue to use to learn.
@@clxwncrxwn still a silly thing to do if you think about it
I want that video to exist.
.
wrr, no such thing as breakx or not, say, laugh any nmw
Anyone else find Michael's voice soothing and relaxing to listen to? Just me? Okay....
Nope, not just you. I watch SciShow at the end of the day, right before going to bed and absolutely love it when Michael is the presenter. Such a warm voice.
Not so sure about soothing, but he is my favorite presenter.
I love his voice and I found him the prettier.
Is it just me or is his voice similar to Hank's?
@@mokovec Just you, i think 🤔 His dynamic demeanour, on the other hand, *_is_* similar to Hank's.
"As far as I know, humans still can't turn themselves into glass."
Challenge accepted.
Debbie Harry claimed to have a heart of glass...
Alright, get in the kiln
If u succeed tell me my niece keeps blocking my view of the t.v
Vitrification by volcanic lava like some poor people that were caught in its path from a long time ago? Sure.
Guess when I die I'll go turn my ashes into a window
tardigrade: ahhh help! im turning into glass! help!!!
japanese white birch: calm down honey you're making a scene
ahahaha, yes, this pretty much qualifies that tree species as an extremophile.
Question. What happens if you freeze a tree with liquid nitrogen and stored it for several years then brought it back to room temp? What about a million years?
That question right there is precisely why you should be using your time theorising, and experimenting through science.
I have experienced trees "exploding" at both extremes, in the bitter cold in VT and in a massive wildfire in CA, and in wildfires its a true complete explosion. Crazy
I've never seen a tree explode. O_O
Positive lightning bolts do a pretty good job of it, too.
I'm from Canada and it's pretty common at say -50c or so
Never seen it first hand but I've seen videos and it really is awesome and amazing to see
mammals: its getting cold, guess its time for my winter coat
plants: its getting cold, guess ill die
Mood
I guess I'll glass
Plants are Gen Zers, confirmed. 🤣
@@SunflowerSpotlight god dang perrenials
Glass Trees would be a great name of a goth band.
Sounds like a wicked harsh / awesome band name
With the tree's survival depending on them completing the vitrification process before that critical temperature is reached, to avoid the danger that differences between Fahrenheit and Centigrade might confuse trees - with lethat consequences! So it was decided to make it so that the critical temperature - minus 40 degrees - would be identical in both Centigrade and Fahrenheit! Good thinking!
0:54 This kills the cell.
If you want to survive the winter like a real alpaca, try eating some abani berries
Or multilateral or if u live in AK
4:08 - Probably my favorite moment in a SciShow vid in a long time. Your delivery is so on point!
Im early, so just wanna say thx for the amazing content Scishow people!
why don't they just shiver like us. i find having a good old fashioned moan helps too. stooopid trees!
I dunno moaning trees? If that happened in a forest I’d freak out.
funkeybikemonkey .Trees can’t move.They are supposed to be silly.
Walloping willow.
Or why don't they just rub their leafs against eachother. That's what I do.
@@peterbonnema8913 see this guy knows! Or! Why don't they cut down the smaller weaker trees and... And set light to them! Wait... This is getting dark. Trees are kind they won't murder other trees. Apart Fri ivy they are bastards! Don't trust em'
More videos with Michael hosting! And Hank on Microcosmos.
Yes! I find Michael the most handsome.
@@linefortier8595 my crouching tiger hidden madam might too. I may have to re-evaluate my statement... (of course not, bring on SciShowQuiz)
How do you look younger now than when you started presenting??
Also, when you said about sometimes having too much helium... I bust out laughing, because that is exactly what I would have done as a kid!!
He put on a little bit of weight. Sometimes gaining a little weight makes the face look younger.
One of my favorite memories from high school was when my AP German teacher had some helium balloons. That day, the other two students in the class didn't show up, so it was only me, the teacher, and the assistant teacher. Each of us had a helium balloon, and we could only speak in German after breathing it in, no English. It was downright hysterical.
he ages backwards, like merlin
Aeturnalis perhaps? I dunno if it’s weight, he looks pretty trim too!
Lol that sounds fun!! We once watched the simpsons in french class because my poor teacher had a nasty ear infection and we were rowdy high school students forced to learn a language, so she needed a rest and we behaved much better that way :/ I feel so bad for how I treated her looking back!!
He probably has more money now than when he started. Money let's you take better care of yourself.
:O
2:57 "You might be familiar with this liquid, we call it _sap"_
**shows resin**
😒
Thank you, SciShow for being amazing!
Figure this one out and you humans will finally be able to do cryogenics without basically killing the subject
hmmm
RIP the people who cryogenically froze themselves. At least they went out peacefully.
You wrote that as if you aren't human
@@jakandaxter1 Its 2020, not every human defines as a human.
@@jakandaxter1 Trees got UA-cam now.
I'm getting semantic satiation on the word "cell" now.
cell sell sail sell cell sell cell cell sell sell sell cell sail sale cell sale sail cell
Within cells interlinked. Within cells interlinked. Within cells interlinked... Cells
@@alex0589 You missed it.
@@LordWargus you're not even close to baseline
Thank you for telling me the term for saying a word so much it looses its meaning
We need to learn from those trees to achieve cryosleep
That is seriously so cool. I didn't know about that and it's amazing.
Seems clear that some trees are working at being able to survive WHATEVER extreme conditions might result from our planet-trashing ways. My guess - they're working towards being able to survive inter-planetery space. It would serve us right if the trees colonized Mars, leaving us behind on a doomed Earth.
Oh shut up. The trees will be just fine, just as they’ve been just fine through the multi times the earth has experienced cataclysms beyond anything humans have done . Not to mention the ignorance of your statement as if these trees just magically now started being able to do this, rather than evolving over 1000’s upon 1000’s of years. Our planet is fine and will be just fine, for millions of years after everything we’ve ever created, has been reclaimed by the earth.
@@michaelesposito2629 Evidence to the contrary is quite abundant. Never in the history of the planet, have the atmospheric CO2 levels changed so quickly as the last 200 years. If we don't find a way to reverse it, the planet will have a really hard time for the next millennium or so.
James Burleson wtf do you think the trees survive and thrive on? As far as the next millennium or so.... again, the planet couldn’t give a rats ass about millenniums. It’s a blink of an eye. CO2 levels have been 10 times higher than they are now. Planet didn’t have a hard time then, and it won’t have a hard time now
@@michaelesposito2629 PLEASE don't tell me I'm going to have to resort to ending with winking emojis so people will get that
i'm kidding. Think before you leap - I had to be either kidding OR, if serious, SO cognitively challenged that a) no snarky reply could hope to set me straight... and b)anyone responding to a comment from such a wack-job in the manner that you did would be perceived as shooting handicapped fish in a barrel. The upshot of this is that you look either foolish for missing the intent of the post or cruel and a little pathetic in your selection of targets whose humiliation (I'm speculating) you might percieve as casting you in a favorable light. Hope I am not being TOO harsh, but your tone suggests that my response is appropriate - though IF I am wrong (as is always, in all matters possible) then please accept my apologies and we can let this drop. Anyway, :-) Okay? lol
@@timsullivan4566 0/10 reply, no wink-y face ;P
Maple syrup, being the product of maple trees protecting themselves from freezing, might help you deal with winters in Montana. And maple syrup has the lowest glycemic index of any natural sugar, and it tastes really good - the thought of a hot stack of pancakes with maple syrup (and some bacon on the side) makes me feel warm inside...
About 11 years ago, my husband and I moved into a new apartment complex. We had lots of new, small trees dotted all over, but on the edge of the property there was this giant tree, very old, taller than all three stories of the apartment complex. That winter, 2009-2010, we had several flash freezes before it finally stayed cold. Nobody thought anything about it. Fast forward to June, 2010. In June, we here in Lake Township, Ohio, were dealt a pretty brutal blow. Overnight, the 5th-6th, we went through two freak storms that laid down four EF4 (borderline EF5) tornados. Where we live, this was extremely unusual. Anyway, the first one touched down down the road from us, on the opposite side of an intersection we lived near. We didn't get the brunt of any of those tornados, but we got some exceptional winds and bursts of sudden barometric pressure changes that led to me blowing out an eardrum. The front door to our building never really sat perfectly within its frame unless you stopped to pull up on the handle and pull it in, so that night the winds ripped the door off of our building since it wasn't entirely closed. When all was clear, around 4am, we went back up to our third floor apartment and went to bed. Within about a week, I discovered a leak in the roof that was creating a stain on my kitchen ceiling, and maintenance came, called in roofers, and it was fixed. A few weeks later, another big thunderstorm came through in the morning. I woke up to what sounded like our shower running, but my husband was still asleep. I stepped into the living room to find that the fluctuations in pressure that night had popped the sealant that kept the big, half-circle, decorative bay window above the balcony/patio doors from leaking or moving in its frame. Water was POURING in all around that window and we had to rush and pull everything away from the water flowing into the apartment. Called maintenance (who just stood there with his jaw on the floor, shocked that the entire window hadn't fallen in yet), who called management, who called an inspection team. They concluded that the entire building was shifted just enough off it's foundation and that everybody who lived in the building would have to be moved, starting with us. And so we did, and we're also given a month's rent for free, and we ended up in an even newer apartment. So, what does all of this have to do with this video? Well, our now-former apartment was at the very end of the building, and from my bedroom window, every day I would wake up to shapes and designs all over my bedroom wall due to the sunrise passing through that huge tree. I adored that tree. I grew up in the same area and I know that tree has been there for a lot longer than I have lived. And two weeks after they had moved my building and the next two buildings out, that tree, in the middle of a bright, sunny day, snapped and fell through into what was my bedroom, and the bedroom of our former neighbor below us. Just like that. We took a walk over to see where exactly this tree had fallen, and from what my husband could make out, it would have gone directly across the middle of our bed. It happened around 5:30am, so we would have likely been asleep. Investigators and some scientists came to the conclusion that those snap freezes we had probably did 95% if the damage to the interior of the tree, and the winds from the tornado in our area made it twist and turn and sway enough to make it extremely vulnerable, until it just gave way to death. ETA: Those tornados caused an immense amount of damage. Our center for Lake Township Police/Fire/Rescue was a 100% loss, one person killed. Our high school was also a 100% loss. Many homes were wiped clean off their foundations, and a further 6 people lost their lives. I do not live in Tornado Alley, and even severe thunderstorms are rare around here because of a lake effect we get from Lake Erie. Storms that take a direct approach as us usually fall apart, reach a certain area and change direction, or split apart into two storms, one heading southeast and one heading northeast. The entire Toledo-metro area, except for Monclova and another few suburbs to the west, is like living in a little bubble created by Lake Erie. That day, until 7pm, we had only a 5% threat for severe weather. When those hit, our threat level hadn't been moved past 15%. For whatever reason, our little bubble moved at the last minute and pushed two severe thunderstorms into each other creating this one huge severe storm. The last time this area saw tornados above EF3 was back in the 1800's. I will never forget what happened to my town and my home that night as long as I live. I have no idea if the news ever covered that tree coming down because I still can't bring myself to watch any of the videos regarding that night, but if anyone wants to try to see, you can look up "Lake Township Tornado" for all of the videos regarding that night.
That's awesome. One thing though, I learned that plant cellular structure has cell walls which keep the plant together, there aren't spaces between them and that the cell membranes don't actually touch each other. But I guess the cells can shrink inside each "cubicle" leaving watery liquid outside the membrane?
Living in The Great White North, I can say that wood (live or lumber) cuts much nicer @ -40C.
At 4:20, and no dendrologist ever thought about inhaling some Helium and say “I’m Groot!”?
Alex Landherr possibly, they just didn’t record that in papers...
What do you think the office Christmas party consists of?
At 4:20 of course
I mean, inhaling liquid helium _might_ be a bit of a health concern.
Life is amazing
Some of these trees that survive low temperatures, could be some of the species that survived the winter conditions, caused by the Ice Ages.🌳🌲
Most of the planet was nothing like -50C even when it was at it's worst. The average temperature globally was only about 8C colder than it is now according to NASA.
@@gordonlawrence1448 Average or median? Important difference. Especially considering all the trees mentioned are native to the coldest places on earth.
Mean average is what is meant in normal conversation when the type of average is not mentioned. Median average is almost never used for weather (I cannot find a singe instance of it's use) and modal average is used extremely rarely.
These glass trees would be perfect to grow on Mars and the Moon.
"... liquid nitrogen - a temperature of -196°C" .... you might want to rephrase this to "the boiling point of nitrogen"!
Nitrogen can be much colder than -196°C...
Same for Helium..
I have think about this some time. Is the boiling point also a condensing point for a liquid ??
Helium cannot get much colder than the 'boiling point'. Like, around 4.22 degrees colder. Really, though, for all intents and purposes to a tree, -196C is the same as -210C... the freezing point of Nitrogen. If you're going to quibble about 14 degrees or 4 degrees on a youtube pop-science video, I'm going to just call that pedantry.
Except it usually won’t be. We exist in a place that is well over the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, so it will constantly be receiving heat from its environment, and as such (especially when you put stuff in it) will most often tend to remain at its boiling point, since liquid boiling into gas carries heat away from the liquid (just enough to keep it at its boiling point).
@@khaucan5068
Condensing is gas going to liquid, the oppoisite of liquid going to gas (boiling). So, yes.
Gas (condenses to) Liquid (freezes to) Solid (melts to) liquid (evaportatres to) gas (ionizes to) plasma (4th phase of matter)
There's a 5th phase of matter, too, a bose-einstein condensate, but I'm not sure if there is a term for the phase transition. Maybe... conglomerates? It happens at the lowest (literally) of temperatures in only some materials (like helium). It's when the wave functions of each atom overlap sufficiently that the macroscopic substance behaves quantum mechanically, at least a little.
EDIT: This image from wikipedia is an amazing summary.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_transition#/media/File:Phase_change_-_en.svg
EDIT2: And the liquid Bose-Einstein phase transition is called Quantum Condensation.
Commenting for support
4th tree strategy was successfully used long ago by the Canadian Coconut Palm - go south for the winter and apply for permanent residency.
Informative and hilarious - that part about scientists mucking about with liquid helium... yeah that happens. I know I was critical yesterday, but it bears mentioning that most of your content is excellent.
Learned the word vitrification from ancient aliens, so thanks history channel for teaching me somethng usefull
Luv this dude for his comedy👏
That a hecking stand ability if I've ever seen one.
Trees are some of my favourite organisms
In the Winter of 1991, and ice storm killed 1/3 of the trees in Rochester, NY. That night, my neighborhood near the UoR sounded like we were in middle of a gunfight, due to the constantly exploding trees in the densely forested areas.
The trees here just migrate southward for the winter. Every November you get huge flocks of them flying to Vegas or Disneyland for the winter. They only fly late at night so mostly people don't notice. The saddest part is the sparrows and wrens sitting dejectedly on rocks wondering where their nests went.
So in order to achieve cryostasis we much first harness the power of tree glass. Brilliant!
"This kill the crab"
He’s back! I thought he was gone
That helium joke was hilarious! 😂
Unbelievable great show.
I was always under the impression that the sap of the tree wet down to the roots in the fall, and back up to the limbs in the spring to feed the leaf buds. i was also told that Maple trees need a certain amount of freezing weather to produce enough sap for the crop next spring. Thx for this video. learned sumtin new today, so the day isn't wasted after all.
My Fav Host on SciShow ;D
As far as I am aware, there is no correlation between a fluid's viscosity, and it's freezing temperature. Further so, this is a slippery slope when the liquid in question is water, for the freezing point depends solely on the pressure, and the amount of dissolved ions, which may vary in the amount which each specific type of ion affects the viscosity when being dissolved in water.
I think you just described all freezing points, not just water. The metal at the center of the earth does the same thing.
Man trees are so freakin cool!
4:09
Holy crap, isn't -269 C only a few degrees away from Absolute Zero? And the tree can survive that?!
4:10 is probably the funniest thing I've seen on this channel
I heard trees in Russia just turn water molecules into vodka and survive winter by getting absolutely hammered... you know like other living things there
we could use vitrification for suspended animation/hibernation for space voyages
This actually makes it hopeful that those tree genetics could help colonists survive space travel.
Black locust is pretty awesome
Well done!
“Luckily for the vast majority of the world’s surface, this limit isn’t important” (pained Minnesotan laughter)
Love the videos! Keep up the great work! That’s awesome you guys live Montana! I do too!
I just read an article about how they're growing plants on the space station I'm wondering how tall a tree could grow and also how it would grow.
Here on Earth there's a limit to the heights of trees because of gravity. The trees can't pull the water all the way up to the top after a certain height. Around the upper 300s lower 400s of feet
Chris Heichel what about mars bring redwood seeds for the first super domes
@@matt2m I don't know the exact math and I'm just guessing here but with Mars gravity you'd probably end up with a tree that's 600 700 ft tall that would be insanely awesome
Do y'all or can y'all make some vids on the "sentience" of plant life?
Trees communicating through root systems, flowers knowing when to bloom, grass warning other grass that it's about to get mowed, stuff like that.
4:09 had a missed opportunity for a "Helium & chill" joke !
Fascinating!
If you've ever seen a tree explode because of an extreme cold drop in temperature it's really freaking awesome.
will never, and could never have encountered temperatures that low in nature, but somehow resistant to it....sounds like something to investigate
Am I the only one who does better in the cold than the heat?
The thumbnail mentioned trees turning into glass, and I watched the whole video waiting for an explanation. I was disappointed with the brief splash of jargon. I wound up having to re-watch the segment, and then research it off site, to get a picture of how what the trees do count as turning into glass.
Amazing stuff but what about the trees with anti-freeze?
The first life on this planet was plants. The first special adaptations of this wonderful world!
Cool trees.
Trees are so cool ! :D
Ok so let’s take some trees to titan 😂
4:10 I laughed aloud. YOU GOT ME.
Great vid ....and very interesting
Some of this information is vital for ultra-cold survival. If you hear trees exploding in the distance, then one of two things is going on - a very cold front coming in which will result in a rapid drop in temperature (even at -30C) or if it's already colder than that then the temperature is getting close to the "death threshold". The death threshold is where people start dying from lungs freezing as the body cannot warm the air up enough to stop it. -55C for an average adult male -50C for an average woman and about -42C for a smaller child. The other test is the "crackle test". IE spit and if it crackles before hitting the ground you need to find shelter and/or heat fast before your lungs freeze. Unfortunately this happens at about -55C to -60C so not good enough for women or kids.
As a scientist in a lab who has dunked several, several, personal items in liquid nitrogen... I would say that experiment and Michael's reaction to it make absolute sense. It may seem like he's laughing at the absurdity of the idea, but it's a facetious laugh because he obviously would have done the same thing had he been a botanist with access to liquid helium.
Awesome!
I'm REALLY interested to know how the researchers explained wanting to dunk living trees in liquid helium. It sounds like a drunken dare, but liquid helium being no joke and not quickly obtained...
For those who might not be aware, liquid helium is about 4 degrees above absolute zero. That’s really frickin’ cold!
How do seeds survive extreme cold (the same way as trees?) and some survive forest fires. Are seeds alive? or are they in some state of suspended animation?
(There's a date palm tree in Israel that was grown from a seed (unearthed in a vase) that was centuries old and is the first time in centuries that that variety of date palm tree is growing.)
I know that of you disturb supercooled water it can just spontaneously freeze. So,
if there's a supercolled tree, if i just hit it hard enough, or if there's a sonic boom, or an earthquake, will that freeze all of its cells and kill it?
Lookin like you were a guest star on Wild Krats
Wait, so the maple trees sap is sweeter because they are adapted to live in the cold?
best one of your vids bro
This video was really *"COOL"*
Man, I would REALLY like to hear how a Subaru deals with cold weather. I feel like this episode was missing something.
So there could be sleeping crystal forests out there somewhere!? Sweet
trees are crazy bro
I'm living in 30 c but u r talking about -60c. I wish I have to born in 25 c temp places. Which is really great for humanity
Last time I checked, glass is molten silica. Not sugar and protein mixture.
Trees and liquid helium... you cracked me up!
Very intersting topic! I just wish the video had also explained what happens when the trees thaw. That must be a complicated process too, with a lot that could go wrong? Turning the inside of cells to glass...might that be a way to send humans into cryosleep? I guess this would require genetic modification first, to make those same compounds the trees make. But same question: will they survive being reheated.
@@dr.blockcraft6633 Oh, yeah, you're right! I didn't think of the cell walls vs. membranes thing. But concerning brain activity: maybe is used the term "cryosleep" inaccurately. I was referring to freezing dead humans to preserve them and reanimate them in the future. So in that case brain activity would already have stopped.
So japanese white birch are literally invincible against cold, since there is basically nowhere in the universe outside of a lab that gets that cold (ignoring lasers and the event horizons of black holes)
great video
when I use to live in Vermont years ago when the temp went to to minus 35 below zero . the trees burst and cracked in half.
They are strong!
4:19 So, if the wood's been vitrified, can you make a knife out of it, and how well will it hold an edge?
Was that in reference to the Japanese asmr knife dude with the cucumbers?
Mary Sue: No, it's an actual, serious, sincere question. I've seen people attempt to make glass knives before (including forging an obsidian knife), so I was wondering about woodglass.
@@sdfkjgh Oh, in this case I have absolutely no idea. But since this phenomenon occurs only at low temperatures it would be difficult to really do something with it. It would probably feel like working with a mixture of wood and ice, I imagine not that special since the general structure of the wood stays the same.
This is the first Scishow episode that I didn't understand. Granted I'm not a native english speaker, but up until this point this hasn't been a problem.
Can someone explain what "Glass" means in this context? I only know that word as ... well: Glass. (Transparent. Made from sand, I think? Used for all kinds of things like windows and picture frames and such?) How is it possible for a tree to turn into glass and reverse that after it gets warm again? I simply do not understand. :(
That's potentially promising for food preservation technology.
Ordinary freezing retains most of the nutrients, but messes with the structure and texture of foods.
Vitrifying wouldn't.