Science is just better with video. And often that video makes it easier to believe the new discoveries and inventions coming out of labs. Here are our top videos making science tangible in 2024.
First, look on in horror as a leech leaps! Scientists used the video to settle a centuries-old debate on leech locomotion.
This video taken in Madagascar in 2017 shows a Chtonobdella leech taking a small jump followed by a big leap to the ground. Credit: © Mai Fahmy
Can elephants use tools to make mischief? It’s open to interpretation but at 2 minutes and 30 seconds in, Anchali (right) appears to figure out a way to prank Mary (left). Get the full scoop from our sister publication, Double Helix.
Anchali makes a kink in the hose and interrupts Mary’s shower! Credit: Urban et al./Current Biology
This video took a special x-ray setup and some very lucky eels… watch as they literally escape from the stomach of their fish predator (through its gills!).
An X-ray image and schematic showing an eel exiting tail-first from the predator’s gill. Credit: Current Biology, Hasegawa et al.
Speaking of death-defying feats, this beautiful timelapse captures a comb jelly reverse-aging back to its larval form. Just like a real-life Benjamin Button.
Under stressful conditions, the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi can revert from a lobate adult stage to a cyddipid larva, depicted here. Credit: Joan J. Soto-Angel
In this longer video, meet Professor Naomi McClure-Griffiths and follow along as she discovers an entire new arm of the Milky Way!
Professor Naomi McClure-Griffiths is trying to understand the atmosphere that is in our galaxy and how the gas within it moves around. Credit: Cosmos Magazine Science News
And for our last video, we have to celebrate this epic piece of science communication created by an Australian scientist about his PhD discoveries.
Who knew drag queens were a perfect metaphor for kangaroo (and human) behaviour?
Dr Weliton ‘Weli’ Menário Costa grooved his way into winning the international science competition, Dance your PhD in 2024. The competition is put on by the journal Science.
