I've been looking forward to They Might Be Giant's new album, "Here Comes Science" because I'm always on the lookout for songs about biology. Well my wait is over, below is a very cute video for their song "Meet the Elements" and if that isn't enough, you can listen/watch another video for the song "Science is real" on Amazon.
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
08 September 2009
Meet the Elements
18 March 2009
Growing Better - Serotiny
I previously posted the first episode of Growing Better staring Dr. Chris Martine. He's made a new episode about serotiny in jack pines. If you don't know what serotiny is, the video will teach you all about it. Keep 'em coming Martine!
15 October 2008
Well educated supervillains
I was watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory today ("The Codpiece Topology") and one of the characters raises an interesting point about super villains. He was listing evil villains in comic books like Dr. Doom and Dr. Octopus, when he went on to say:
"It's amazing how many supervillains have advanced degrees. Graduate school should do a better job of weeding those out."I guess I had never thought about super heros and super villains in that context before, but people over on Everything2 did about 8 years ago. They compiled an even larger list of supervillains with advanced degrees:
One commenter made a very interesting point:
"The phenomenon of over-educated supervillains, equally prevalent in horror fiction and comic books, goes back at least as far as the Victorian archetype of the Mad Scientist - people who worshipped the false god of the intellect, often violating taboos in their ungodly pursuit of knowledge. Usually these villains were doomed to be destroyed by their own creations, but often would instead be slain or overthrown by courageous heroes of no exceptional intellect, but stout Christian hearts. The triumph of Good over Evil was therefore also a triumph of the spirit over the intellect."It is unfortunate that scientists are often shown as morally corrupt and used to demonstrate the potential perils of putting all your faith in the power of technology and pursuit of scientific knowledge. But in the end, it's not their science educations that make them evil, it's their actions. Luckily, scientists don't always get a bad rap, well educated superheros exist too, Iron Man and Professor X for example.
The roll of "evil scientist" can also be pretty funny. Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog is a great modern example of the well educated supervillain. Or, want-to-be supervillain in this case.
If you know of other supervillains with advanced degrees, post them in the comments below.
13 October 2008
There will be oil
I saw an episode of Good Eats this weekend ('There will be oil') with cooking oil as the topic. Alton Brown explains the chemical structure of oils, including what is meant by saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated, by making them out of balloons!
Definitely worth a watch, the balloon action begins at minute 2 in the video below. The black balloons represent carbon atoms, and the hydrogen atoms are the yellow balloons.
28 August 2008
Why Study Plants?
I previously linked to an old educational video about why we should study science. For your viewing pleasure, here's a much more modern video about why we should study plants, or at least why plants are so important. I especially liked the part about how plants are portrayed in film.
(via the Botanical Society of America)
26 August 2008
Growing Better
I had to share this video as it stars a former grad student in my department, Chris Martine, who's now a professor at SUNY Plattsburgh. I thought this was a great introduction to oak identification with humor that reminds me of Alton Brown. Give it a watch.
(Martine, if you're reading this I want more of these!)
19 July 2008
Captain Planet
My post about the platypus t-shirt reminded me of the cartoon "Captain Planet and the Planeteers", as 5 kids from around the world would combine their powers to summon Captain Planet (with an awesome green mullet). Throughout the series they mainly fight villains that pollute the earth and give tips on how you can save the planet at the end of episodes.
I found the first Captain Planet episode over on Youtube and in it the villain starts drilling for oil in a wildlife sanctuary which looks to be in Alaska, given the wildlife. Despite being made in 1990, this sounds a lot like President Bush's desire to look for oil in Alaska. I'm sure most of the environmental issues dealt with in Captain Planet are still issues today, 10 years later.
(This is part 1/3, the other parts can be found here)
I remember watching episodes in school for teaching purposes, I hope they're still being used in some aspect today. Internet searches seem to indicate that Boomerang still airs episodes, but I don't get fancy cable channels like that, so here's hoping for a DVD box set. Although for younger kids, I still think Its a Big Big World is a wonderful introduction to science and exploration.
03 June 2008
Why Study Science?
This article and accompanying video (the film is worth watching just to see a very neat "juggling fly") about early science films made when film technology had just been invented (via Boing Boing) reminded me of the Prelinger Archives, a collection of old instructional and classroom films in the public domain.
I love the films you can watch in this archive, especially films about social etiquette told from a 1950s perspective. So I headed over today to see if they have any interesting films about biology and science.
I found this film, entitled "Why Study Science?" made in 1955 (you can either download or stream the film from their site, its 11 minutes long). In it, a father tells his son and daughter (children of the "atomic age") how they might use science in their everyday lives, even Betty the future homemaker. While this film is obviously dated, the father does have one monologue that I think is especially relevant to today, with the upcoming elections. When his son asks why he should study science even if he isn't going to become an astronaut, the dad responds with:
"You're still a citizen with the power to vote. Living in a scientific age we need citizens who know enough about science to make intelligent decisions about what they do. We use science to prolong life, to increase security and happiness. But it can also be used for destruction. Are we going to use it constructively to promote peace and give the world freedom from want? It will be up to you, and you too."
07 February 2008
Green Porno
I was watching Sundance tonight, and between programs they had an interview with Isabella Rossellini and her new short films called Green Porno. She basically dresses up like insects and also uses paper mache to show how these insects copulate. The first 3 episodes are premiering at the 2008 Sundance Festival. I'm waiting for these to make it to the internet. Meanwhile, you can watch the video below for the interview and some sneak peaks.
01 February 2008
Airborne Liverwort Sperm
Here I go again, stealing parts of others' blog entries. I just saw a very impresive video that shows airborne sperm dispersal in a liverwort, Conocephalum conicum. For why this is important ecologically, I will direct you over to the blog Moss Plants and More.
So, our video of the week, which was submitted as part of paper:
Shimamura, M., Yamaguchi, T. & Deguchi, H. 2008. Airborne sperm of Conocephalum conicum (Conocephalaceae). J. Plant Res. 121: 69-71.
05 December 2007
All I Need are Microcosmos
I've been playing the new Radiohead album In Rainbows obsessively since October. So, when I saw this video (first over at Bug Girl's Blog) that takes the song "All I Need" and adds some beautiful video clips from the film Microcosmos I had to post it here. I also have to watch that movie.
27 November 2007
All hail the banana
So, I've been getting the most visits to my blog via people searching for Alton Brown and Good Eats. So, it seems only fair to my "fans" to talk about an episode I saw recently - Top Banana.
One thing I love about Good Eats is that they always tell you about the history of food - in this case did you know slipping on banana peels isn't just a cartoon standby?:
"About a decade after they [bananas] came into this country, they became very popular street foods. Since there were very few trash cans in urban areas, most people just gave them a fling. [flings skin off camera, we hear a man slip, yell, and fall] So many city dwellers were either injured or killed in banana related accidents that the peel became the poster child for the growing litter problem in America. Ironic, don't you think?"(Transcript courtesy of the Good Eats Fan Page)
And unlike avocados that I blogged about previously, I also learned that bananas are one of the few fruits always picked green and allowed to ripen off of the "tree" (banana plants might look like trees but have no woody tissue and are therefore just large herbs). They actually taste best that way.
For more history of the banana, you can watch the first 10 minutes of the episode below - if you don't mind that the sound is slightly out of sync that is.
08 November 2007
Bring out your inner squirrel
Have you ever wanted to fly (well, glide) like a flying squirrel or a sugar glider? Then, this week's video demonstrates wingsuits in action.
(pictures taken from here, here, and here, respectively.)
A great example of a product inspired by animal adaptations.
29 October 2007
The future of human evolution, in the media
I've been seeing this topic come up over and over again lately in various places. The idea that humans are "de-evolving" or that:
"The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist."(from the Daily Mail)
This "top scientist" is actually evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics. Yes, Economics!
Both Boing Boing and Bad Science mention this story. Follow the link to Bad Science if you want to read the press release and see the predictions for humans 1,000, 10,000, and 100,000 years from now.
(If all of that weren't sensational enough, this was a commissioned report for a TV station.)
Well, that's the latest incarnation of this idea, but I've seen it lots of other places recently, see them below the fold...
Right now I'm reading "The Gum Thief" the latest novel by Douglas Coupland (author of Generation X). In it, one of the characters mentions this as well:
"I read in a newspaper last week about this scientist who claims that the human race will, over the upcoming millennia, split into two distinct species. One will be a superhuman race, the other, Gollum-like hunch-backed retards."
The "de-evolution" of the human race is the whole premise to an actually really funny movie, Idiocracy.
And finally, Korn, an American metal band, of all people have a song about this as well.
I worry about so called "science" stories like this, but at the same time, it does get people talking about evolution which is a start. But if Dr. Curry thinks that humans will still be around and kicking on Earth in 100,000 years, he should probably spend more time thinking about global warming and the impending oil apocalypse.
19 October 2007
TV versions of evolution (and creationism)
Here is this week's video:
Someone out there also seems to be paying attention when animated sitcoms mention evolution and creationism, and spliced together this video comparing them. The Simpson's version of evolution is pretty awesome, and fairly comprehensive.
12 October 2007
Purple loosestrife
It's the (youtube) video of the week:
Okay, really this is a pretty bad song, and I wish who ever edited this included actual pictures of purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), but I see this as a great karaoke song at a meeting of botanists.
Purple loosestrife is a very aggressive introduced plant invading wetlands all over the U.S. (and elsewhere).
(insert bad segue here)
Speaking of songs botanists would enjoy however, check out my link for Songs about Plants (over there in my links bar), and send me suggestions of popular songs that include references to plants (although please, not songs about roses).
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