It’s 2025, we’re neck deep in the social media age, and intimately, painfully connected to countless random strangers we’ll never actually meet. We’re subjected, somewhat against our will, to what feels like every piece of horrific news available worldwide at any and every given moment. (We could just log off, but give up the endless doomscrolling, the high that comes from staring directly into the abyss, for what? Mental health? Get real, pal.)
In all seriousness, there is no realistic way to “log off.” Shutting yourself off from reality isn’t the “adult” thing to do, even if staying connected means death and destruction beamed into your eyeballs at a rate that is almost certainly inflicting long-term psychic damage.
Since disconnecting isn’t an option, we give ourselves the occasional little treat. You know, to distract from the relentless horrors. For many, that means participating in the ritualistic public shaming of Twitter’s “main character” of the day. My personal distraction of choice is cryptids. Mothman is real. The Loch Ness Monster? Yeah, sure. Bigfoot? Absolutely. And he believes in you.
So, when videos began circulating of a tentacled alien growing from a meteorite inside a locked safe in some guy’s house in Panama, it’s not surprising people took a TikTok as gospel. Why not? It could be a thing. Aliens are real (not just a distraction, but also a statistical probability); they could totally grow from meteorites.
But is this particular alien real? Well, no. Probably not. Let’s get into it.
It all started when a man from Panama named Kin posted footage of what he claimed to be a meteorite hatching a patch of greenish algae. And because it’s TikTok and we’re going for shock value and maximum virality, it didn’t stop there. The little organism soon sprouted a mass of inky black tentacles. Like Venom in a bowl.
Look, did this guy paint a potato silver and call it a meteorite? From the looks of it, yeah, but internet stardom has been found with less, and Kin saw so much success that his “Venomkin” series spans 26 posts as of this writing, each with millions of views. Clearly, the world needed a little potato alien amusement.
But how did he do it? Painting a potato (just a theory) is easy enough, but how did he make the bowl of sludge writhe and pulsate, seemingly of its own accord?
As with all internet hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and paranoia, we turn our weary eyes to Reddit, where anonymous strangers await to give us the truth.
According to aptly self-dubbed user HighStrangeness, the “breathing” black sludge isn’t an alien life form at all. Instead, it’s a silicone-based polymer called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), widely used in practical special effects, combined with a dash of hexane, an organic solvent.
As HighStrangeness puts it: “The ‘alien wiggling movement’ is caused by something called swelling induced snapping motion, which happens when PDMS absorbs the hexane and swells.”
This reaction is what causes the gelatinous little “alien” to breathe and reach out with its grimy tentacles. “PDMS has a flesh-like texture and appearance and the swelling/contracting mimics muscle movement and the black color adds to the ‘alien’ aesthetic,” HighStrangeness says.
But, uh, don’t try this at home, kids. Hexane inhalation causes things like numbness in the extremities, muscular weakness, and blurred vision. Those sweet internet points aren’t worth developing “degenerative lesions” in your nose.
