The Inertia for Good Editor
Staff

The Inertia

Scientists aren’t exactly on a tight leash with the general public. They tell us something, use a few big words and the rest of us Average Joes tend to blindly nod in approval. There’s just something comforting in putting the responsibility of “knowing stuff” onto the shoulders of another, all so we can go about our lives without needing to understand why or how the world is constantly a centimeter, a degree or a day away from total destruction.

The same process applies to new discoveries. “WTF is this and will it kill me?” is the most relevant question when an unknown first pops into our consciousness. So putting a bunch of scientists together in a room and listening to them all say “I have no idea” is worth a share or two.

Such is the case with a mysterious purple blob found off the coast of Southern California. The E/V Nautilus is an exploration vessel operated by the Ocean Exploration Trust, launched on July 24th simply probing the Pacific until August 12th. The above video is a live recording of a group of researchers when they noticed a bright purple thing in the waters outside Los Angeles. It was hiding under a protective overhang with a curious crab poking and inspecting at the same time. Everything from “maybe it’s an egg sac” to “we need to put it in a box” flies out of the peanut gallery. But the general consensus here is nobody knows what the h they’re looking at. Sure enough, after collecting the little bulb and bringing it back for inspection the purple sample separated to show two lobes, which bodes well for any sci-fi thriller movies that might be in the works now.

Fingers crossed this is an alien.

 
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