Paper puppets and atmospheric sounds manage to make a rotting corpse touching and informative.
Crafted by Sweet Fern Productions for Radiolab’s website, the video tells a fascinating tale of what actually happens when a whale dies. As you may know, a whale is a huge creature, so when the animal passes away, its corpse becomes an entirely new ecosystem, with other animals feeding on and living in its various body parts.
Yes, the quick and dirty version of the story is sorta icky, but please watch the video. Its creators manage to take a story about a rotting corpse and somehow make it adorable and educational. Plus, the cello-heavy background music gives the whole thing a haunting, somber, yet hopeful air.
Normally, this is where I’d say something cynical to bring down the mood of the whole piece, but in this case, I’ve got nothing but love for this clip. Science should be more like this; informative yet reflecting the complex beauty of the natural world it seeks to describe.
Also, that squat lobster seems like a pretty solid dude. If it weren’t for the crushing pressure differential at the bottom of the ocean, I would totally hang out with him.
Source: BoingBoing
