Penaeid Shrimp in OK Go! video tribute

Taking inspiration from the award winning OK Go! music video, “shrimp on a treadmill” is a research video that’s proved to be a big hit on YouTube and other video forums. When I first watched this, I assumed the scientists involved were studying locomotion in marine arthropods - I remember a university lecture about gluing sea monkeys to Petri dishes and flowing water over them to try and simulate the currents they set up. As usual, I was wrong.

The true origin of the video is the lab of David Scholnick at Pacific University, Oregon, where he is studying how disease and adverse conditions affect the performance of panaeid shrimp. The shrimp were made to run on the treadmill in a variety of oxygen levels and temperatures for several hours and their performance was recorded. Then, presumably because scientists have a sick sense of humour, the team stuck wads of gaffa tape to the shrimp and made them run some more.

Future research plans to shed light on the performance of shrimp in temperatures of around 100 degrees C, whilst coated in lemon, garlic and breadcrumbs.

Add comment October 29th, 2006