r/interesting • u/freudian_nipps • 16d ago

NATURE Death of a single-celled organism

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

22.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

18

u/Opposite-Funny-9669 16d ago

that is, shockingly difficult to watch. what happened to it? did they put it in acid or does it just, i don't know what to call that other than disintegrate when it died? while it still moved? this is a disturbing video. poor little thing.

22

u/GuardianViolet 16d ago

It was a microorganism called Blepharisma musculus, which have a pink pigment that oxidizes quickly in light. The light from the microscope caused the pigment to oxidize, and it essentially melted to death from the heat of the chemical reaction

9

u/Opposite-Funny-9669 16d ago

well.. i wish i hadn't read that. thanks for the explanation though, i feel worse for it now knowing that is exactly what it did