This is the natural disaster to worry about

Veritasium August 22, 2025
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Veritasium

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An element of truth - videos about science, education, and anything else we find interesting.

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The strange natural material that reshaped the world. Sponsored by Ground News - Go to https://groundnews.com/Ve to see through media misconceptions and get all sides of every story. Subscribe to save 40% off the unlimited Vantage Plan through our link. If you’re looking for a molecular modelling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV ▀▀▀ A huge thanks to Professor James Busfield, Dr. Katrina Cornish, and Dr. Judit Puskas We’re incredibly grateful to Toby Samples and the team at ARDL for their time and expertise. Thanks also to Joe Jackson, Dr. Kevin Krause, Dr. Peter Polyak, Donald Shultz, Professor Robert Weiss for all their help on the project. ▀▀▀ 0:00 Where does rubber come from? 2:59 What is rubber? 5:10 Why is rubber so stretchy? 6:29 The problem with natural rubber 9:02 Cured Rubber 15:23 Vulcanisation 18:41 What rubber is used in tires? 22:54 How fungi could destroy the world economy 29:17 Synthetic rubber vs natural rubber 38:20 Why are some people allergic to latex? ▀▀▀ References: https://ve42.co/RubberRefs Images & Video: https://ve42.co/RubberImgRefs ▀▀▀ Special thanks to our Patreon supporters: Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alex Porter, Alexander Tamas, Anton Ragin, armedtoe, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Blake Byers, Bruce, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, David Tseng, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, Ibby Hadeed, Jeromy Johnson, Jon Jamison, JT, Juan Benet, Keith England, KeyWestr, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Matthias Wrobel, Meekay, meg noah, Michael Bush, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Robert Oliveira, Sam Lutfi, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, Walter Flinn, and wolfee. ▀▀▀ Writers - Sulli Yost & Casper Mebius Producer & Director - Sulli Yost Editors - Jack Saxon & Peter Nelson Camera Operators - Adam Bonomo, Jacob Ruocchio-Cole, Henry van Dyck, Thomas Matheis, Derek Muller & Sulli Yost Animators - Allama Nandi, Andrew Neet, Emma Wright, Ivy Tello, Fabio Albertelli & Rokas Viksraitis Illustrators - Jakub Misiek & Maria Gusakovich Assistant Editor - James Stuart Researchers - HyoJeong Choi, Callum Cuttle & Gabe Strong Thumbnail Designers - Ren Hurley, Ben Powell & Abdallah Rabah Production Team - Zoe Heron, Casper Mebius, Josh Pitt, Rob Beasley Spence, Henry van Dyck & Sulli Yost Executive Producers - Casper Mebius & Derek Muller Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images, Pond5 Music from Epidemic Sound

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