Russian YouTubers call out Daily Mail in ‘Liquid Nitrogen Challenge’ copyright spat

Someone finally took the ‘meanwhile in Russia’ trope too far. The Daily Mail is being charged with misrepresenting a scientific YouTube video… and now also has to dump liquid nitrogen over itself in -15-degree Siberian cold.

The British newspaper now faces a legal challenge for copyright infringement (it stuck its own logo on the video). The Russian scientists are also upset that the UK paper presented their fun video by a Russian YouTuber as a play on the worldwide Ice Bucket Challenge craze.

But the fact that will undoubtedly provide better comedy value for anyone tiring of attempts to ridicule Russians at every turn is this: Dmitry Shilov – the channel’s owner, has partnered up with a much more burly-looking Russian than the one from the original video, and the two upped the ante: this time in -15 degree-cold.

“We throw LIQUID NITROGEN BUCKET CHALLENGE to the DAILYMAIL that stole our video and laughed at by the Russian people. DAILYMAIL, you have one day to repeat LIQUID NITROGEN BUCKET CHALLENGE!

This LIQUID NITROGEN BUCKET CHALLENGE was performed when the temperature outside was -15C”

Among other things, The Daily Mail also confused the identity of Shilov’s friend, who appears in the original video – an error it now rectified.

“If they’re fun people with charisma, they’ll accept this challenge for a laugh,” Shilov told RT, as he explained the original aim of the video, which was to demonstrate the effects of -195-degree liquid nitrogen on human skin.

The video shows Dmitry Shilov in the blistering cold of the eastern city of Krasnoyarsk, next to the science museum and physics institute where his friend, Anton Sharypov – a physicist – works. To show the viewers that liquid nitrogen is no joke, Sharypov soaks a leaf from a nearby tree in the smoking bucket, where it promptly turns solid.

Then, “in the name of science”, he proceeds to douse himself in the -195-degree chemical, making it look like the ritual is barely different from your average outdoor shower on a warm Siberian October day.

Because reality does not resemble Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sharypov shows that human skin reacts to liquid nitrogen much in the same way a hot frying pan reacts to a drop of water: it repels it.

The Daily Mail, months later, presented this as the Russian’s answer to the Ice Bucket Challenge, apparently wanting to make another spin on what 'those crazy Russians' do, as Shilov sees it. In fact, the video was intended for the 'What Happens If…' section on his YouTube channel, he explained to RT. He also added that the video was about maintaining people’s interest in physics and chemistry.

Now the Israeli company, who is Shilov’s partner on the Internet video portal, is filing charges for copyright infringement.

There’s a bunch of other science stuff on Shilov’s channel he thinks you should watch – including what happens if you heat up magnesium.