It’s… crazy. I’ve never understood that some people think
that science is as boring as watching paint dry. Even if scientists literally watched paint
dry, it would probably be part of some fascinating experiment, aimed at the betterment of all
humanity, or at least the betterment of some paint. There are a lot of scientific endeavors that
take an immense amount of time, but produce the most amazing results! And here are some of the oddest among them. 1) Sunspot Observation
Yeah, this is the kind of long-winded science that won’t ever be replaced, because we
will be observing and studying our Sun for as long as it’s here with us. And it’s been captivating curious minds
for as long as it’s been here. One of the most remarkable features of the
Sun is the appearance of huge, dark, and extremely magnetic spots on its surface – they can
even be larger than the entire Earth. While Western observers believed the idea
of ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle that the Sun is perfect, their Chinese colleagues
were not so sure about that. Their first note about sunspots was quite
poetic. It reads: “the sun was yellow at its rising
and a black vapor as large as a coin was observed at its center.” and dates to 28 B.C.E. Since that ancient time, astronomers have
discovered that sunspots have a direct impact on the Earth’s climate. For example, there was a period called Medieval
Maximum, from 1100 to 1250, when a lot of sunspots were observed, and which coincides
with a period of warmer climate called the Medieval Warm Period. Later, the period from 1645 to 1715, known
as Little Ice Age for obvious reasons, corresponded with the Maunder Minimum period on the Sun,
in which almost no sunspots were observed. 2) Alarm Bell That Just Won’t Stop
Let’s depart from abstract and distant things and talk about something we all know well…
probably too well. Alarms. Those things that startle us in the morning,
tearing us away from sweet dreams. And it seems like scientists like their humor
dry and bitter, because the only thing that has kept its charge for 179 years now is not
my phone. It’s an electric bell like those on an alarm
clock. It’s been ringing since 1840 – someone’s
going to be late. And it’s placed right in the foyer of Clarendon
Laboratory at the University of Oxford. You may think “How do scientists even work
there if it’s always ringing?” but the bell is closed behind two layers of soundproof
glass. What keeps it ringing is a clapper between
two bells that still moves from one to another. Those bells are attached to batteries called
dry piles. The exact composition of these batteries is
unknown to this day but the fact remains: the bell still rings. 3) Almost Perpetual Clock
If someone decides one day to attach the endless bell to these clocks, that would be the cruelest
invention in the history of cruelty! But fortunately, this clock device stands
in the University of Otago, in New Zealand. It hasn’t been wound since it was made in
1864 by Arthur Beverly and has almost never stopped to this day. Occasionally, the mechanism of Beverly Clock
needs cleaning and repair, but it works perfectly without being wound. This is achieved through the clever usage
of an air-tight box that’s highly sensitive to shifts in temperature and atmospheric pressure. Depending on the daily temperature variation,
this air-tight box expands and shrinks. When it expands, it pushes with enough force
to lift the weight that keeps the clock mechanism running. Does that mean that Beverly Clock is a perpetual
motion device that will run forever? Not really, because it still needs external
influence in the form of temperature shifts, but it doesn’t need any human involvement
except occasional maintenance. 4) Elusive Pitch Drops What the heck is that,
you ask? This scientific study is the winner of the
prize for most laughable scientific achievements and the holder of the world record as the
longest continuously running laboratory experiment. It took 3 years to even prepare for this experiment,
but, its appearance seems kind of underwhelming at first. It’s just a funnel that was filled in 1927
with a highly dense pitch known to us as tar or asphalt. When the pitch settled down in 1930, its bottom
was opened by Professor Thomas Parnell. This experiment shows that pitch is not a
solid material but a very thick fluid. The idea is that pitch, like any fluid, will
form drops over time, and those drops will eventually fall. But no one saw it happening! The reason is not scientific inaccuracy of
course – the pitch is a liquid material, but it flows 30 billion times slower than
water for example. It took, on average, 8 years for the first
7 drops to fall. Thanks to the conditioning system cooling
down the air, the next two drops almost doubled on that time. No matter how long it takes, they always seem
to fall in the exact moment when no one is around, like science itself is laughing at
this experiment. Even when it was first monitored with a video
camera, something went wrong with it and the moment of the drop’s separation from the
funnel was erased. Now is the first time capturing the fall of
a drop is almost completely inevitable – the funnel is streamed via webcam 24 hours a day
7 days a week. How exciting, hmm? People around the internet furiously argue
about when the next drop will fall down, which proves that even the most boring thing ever
can be made fascinating with science! 5) 500 Years For One Experiment
Oh boy. Some experiments are imagined with the mindset
that human life is just too short to answer some of the questions people might ask today. One such question appeared in the bright mind
of Charles Cockell from the University of Edinburgh. Once, he forgot about a petri dish with lots
of bacteria in it. Forgot for 10 years. More than enough time for the bacteria to
dry up. I would just pretend it’s not mine and throw
it away in shame, but that’s probably why I’m not a scientist. Charles acted much differently: he tried to
revive the bacteria after all this time and succeeded. Since then he’s been wondering: how long
can dried bacteria survive? In 2014 his ambitious experiment began. All he needed was two wooden boxes with sealed
glass vials that contain bacteria inside. And most importantly, instruction for future
scientists, because in 2514 Charles probably won’t be around to open the last vials and
revive the bacteria himself. Probably. Once in every 25 years, scientists must open
some of the vials, pour water on the bacteria and try to make them reproduce. Oh, and copy the instructions on whatever
format will be used in the future. 500 years from now people may not even know
what a USB drive is. 6) More Than 66,000 Generations in Petri Dishes
Another example of microbiologists’ impressive patience, perseverance and persistence is
an experiment that’s been run by an American evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski since
1988. It may seem like it’s not that long, but
only in human years. In 2016, 12 populations of bacteria named
E. coli reached the point of 66,000 generations. For human species that would be a timespan
of a bit under 2 million years. All these generations of E. coli are needed
to track little evolutionary changes in them and to watch the evolution itself in miniature. The most interesting part of this ongoing
observation is the failure of the prediction that species must reach their peak fitness
for maximum adaptation to the environment. According to common knowledge in biology,
that would’ve already happened with the bacteria used in the experiment, but they
keep changing more and more. That means that evolution never stops and
mother nature always has room for improvement. For example, somewhere between 31,000 and
31,500 E. coli developed an ability to feed on two food sources besides the one that was
already digestible for them. The best part about this experiment is that
it’s not going to end anytime soon, and we can learn so much from it. This is how even simple and boring beginnings
can lead to great discoveries or inventions. Have you ever felt like science wakes up your
imagination and makes your mind rush forward to something you really want to know? Tell your story in the comment section! And don’t forget to leave this video a like,
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