The Truth About Lemmings: Debunking the Myth of Mass Suicide
TLDR Contrary to popular belief, lemmings do not engage in mass suicide. Their population cycles of boom and bust are driven by favorable conditions and climate change is now threatening their numbers.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
An 88-year-old man was found dead with a genital wound and part of his penis missing, leading to speculation that his pet dog may have been responsible.
05:45
A genetic test revealed that the DNA of the dog's tissue and the dead man did not match, leading to speculation about foul play or a sexual incident gone wrong.
11:27
A man's body is made up of cells that are genetically different, which is known as being a chimera, and this can happen when two fertilized eggs grow and divide too close to each other in the uterus, allowing for the swapping of cells and different DNA in different parts of the body.
16:18
Chimeras can often go undetected because DNA tests typically only test one bit of tissue, but there have been cases of people discovering they are chimeras later in life, sometimes when they need an organ donation, and there are various ways that someone can be a chimera, such as having male DNA in their brain or carrying a baby and having the DNA of the child get into their body.
21:20
Kids all over the world have been experiencing a bizarre condition called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, where they see things either bigger or smaller than they are, and pediatric neurologist Osman Farouk realizes that he had experienced these symptoms as a child.
26:04
Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, which causes distorted perception and sensations, is often triggered by illnesses with fevers and can affect different areas of the brain, but the exact cause and why some kids get it while most don't is still unknown.
30:35
The host realizes that he himself experienced Alice in Wonderland Syndrome as a child, and after researching it, he confirms that it is a real condition.
36:38
Lemmings, particularly the Norwegian lemmings, have a reputation for mindlessly following each other to their death, but the truth is that their population explodes every four years, providing a feast for Arctic predators, and then quickly drops to the point of being practically absent.
41:57
The famous footage of lemmings jumping off cliffs in the documentary "White Wilderness" was actually staged and faked by the Disney film crew, and lemmings do not actually engage in mass suicide.
47:59
Lemmings populations experience cycles of boom and bust due to favorable conditions leading to population explosions followed by stress, territorial behavior, and a decline in breeding, and climate change is now threatening their numbers due to the melting and refreezing of snow, making it difficult for them to access food.