Scientific Investigations into Absurd Hypotheticals: Powering Tokyo with Jellyfish and the Catastrophe of Banana Rain

Kurzgesagt scientifically and seriously answers viewer-submitted questions, applying rigorous analysis to seemingly absurd scenarios. This exploration delves into the feasibility of powering Tokyo using jellyfish and the catastrophic consequences of a global banana rain.

Key Points Summary

• Kurzgesagt's Approach to Questions

  Kurzgesagt tackles viewer questions with scientific and serious analysis, frequently addressing hundreds of inquiries daily.

• Tokyo's Energy Demand

  Tokyo consumes approximately 280 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, exceeding the combined energy usage of twenty countries or all of Australia.

• Powering Tokyo with Glowing Jellyfish (Aequorea victoria)

  Some jellyfish species, like Aequorea victoria, contain fluorescent proteins and glow in the dark, generating about a microwatt-hour of energy when placed before a tiny solar panel. To meet Tokyo’s energy demands with these, approximately 1.3 quintillion glowing jellies would be required.

• Nomura Jellyfish Characteristics

  Nomura jellyfish (Nemopilema nomurai) are large, weighing about as much as a piano and growing up to 2 meters wide with thousands of four-meter-long tentacles, and their exploding numbers disrupt local ecosystems.

• Jellyfish and Electricity (Dispelling a Myth)

  Jellyfish stings, though feeling like an electric jolt, are caused by hundreds of venom-filled nematocysts within their tentacles, not actual electricity generated by the jellyfish itself.

• Piezoelectricity Explained

  Piezoelectricity is an electric charge that accumulates in specific solid materials, such as crystals or bone, when subjected to stress and squeezing, causing positive and negatively charged atoms to shift and create a charge across the material, similar to a battery. It powers devices like sonar and quartz watches.

• Proposed Jellyfish Power Generation Plan

  A plan involves creating a massive jellyfish battery by wrapping Nomura jellyfish tentacles in nylon-11,11, a piezoelectric material optimized for power production. The tentacles' movements would bend the nylon nanofibers, converting motion into electricity.

• Power Output and Quantity Needed

  A single Nomura jellyfish, even with its thousands of tentacles wrapped in energy-generating nylon, would only produce about 1 Watt or 10 kWh per year, enough to power a laptop for twenty days. Powering Tokyo would require approximately 29 billion Nomura jellyfish.

• Jellyfish Breeding and Space Requirements

  Nomura jellyfish can produce millions of offspring monthly and grow rapidly if abundant plankton is available, necessitating the depletion of vast ocean resources like the Pacific's plankton supply. Storing 29 billion Nomura jellyfish, each in a 5-meter cube of space, would require a tank seven times the total volume of Mt. Fuji.

• Logistical Challenges and Feasibility

  Major logistical challenges for a jellyfish power station include insulating 29 billion cables to prevent short circuits and maintaining a steady power supply given constant jellyfish mortality and replacement needs. The environmental cost of breeding such numbers and the financial cost of construction would be economically absurd.

• Banana Rain Initial Calculation

  An initial calculation of every raindrop becoming a banana during a storm revealed a catastrophic scenario equivalent to a banana asteroid strike, obliterating all life due to the immense volume of bananas.

• Revised Banana Rain Scenario and Quantity

  Considering the average daily global rainfall volume of 1.33 trillion tons of water replaced by bananas, approximately 11.1 quadrillion bananas, weighing the same 1.33 trillion tons, would fall daily. Even the Sahara Desert would receive around 15 trillion bananas under average global rainfall patterns.

• Caloric Potential of Banana Rain

  The 15 trillion bananas falling on the Sahara alone could feed the world's population for over two months, and the total global banana rain of 1.2 quintillion calories could sustain everyone on Earth for more than a hundred years.

• Catastrophic Impact of Falling Bananas

  A banana falling from a mid-altitude rain cloud (3000 meters) would reach a velocity of 240 meters per second, striking the ground with the kinetic energy of a bowling ball dropped from a 50-meter building. Trillions of these impacts would decimate infrastructure, break roofs, shatter windows, and destroy national monuments.

• Environmental Aftermath of Banana Rain

  Cities, infrastructure, rivers, and rainforests would be severely damaged and clotted with a rotting layer of banana smoothie, with trillions of mashed bananas clogging coastlines and oceans. This scenario would be worse and more widespread than combined oil spills and superstorms.

• Global Warming and Mass Extinction from Banana Rain

  The rotting banana mush would release 160 billion tons of methane, which is 280 times the current annual global emissions and traps 28 times more heat than CO2. This rapid increase in greenhouse gas would cause a catastrophic and sudden spike in global temperatures, leading to a devastating mass extinction event as most ecosystems would fail to adapt.

• Conclusion on Banana Rain

  Banana rain represents an apocalypse-level catastrophe for the planet.

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