Capitalizing on the successful genre of Epic Rap Battles of History, Life Technologies has created a video highlighting two of their products.

I asked Andrew Green (@andrewjgreen on twitter), the leader for the video channel for the Molecular and Cellular Biology portion of Life Technologies, from his office in Oslo, Norway about the project and how he came up with the idea:

I got the idea for this video while on a teleconference (in a grocery store) with Jeremy Schoales, the digital marketing manager for qPCR at Life Technologies and asked him to watch one of the Epic Rap Battles while I checked out. When we spoke a few minutes later, I explained how using the dual role of a Rap Battle and music would be perfect to deliver the features of two products that are equally liked but for different reasons.
 
Yes, the Lab Rap Battle is a piece of marketing but our inspiration for creating it was the anticipation of genuine comments that make us believe we are doing marketing that is memorable and that has meaning.”
 
People have posted comments under the video such as,“My science teacher showed this in class today. This video is awesome because I can learn it with rhyme.”, “This video makes me want to work for Life Technologies”

…and seeing people tweet the lyrics like ‏@laCooie “Five prime chemistry works best to validate, you’re just green with envy, why you haters gotta hate?”  This kind of customer interaction is the source of our inspiration.

I imagine these videos must create such a buzz around the company, knowing that anyone could possibly be chosen to star in them. In this case, Sybr is played by Jeremy Schoales, and TaqMan by Chris Leyerle, both Marketing Managers for Genetic Analysis at Life Technologies. Jeremy also managed the project from Life’s side vis a vis Wooshii who was responsible for the production. All the “extras” were also Life Technologies employees, nabbed from neighboring cubes and walked the 100 feet to the warehouse where it was shot!

The lyrics are created by the Life Technologies team, which includes Andrew and music by Jonny Bull, who has also collaborated on the PhDiddy series!

So, all of you cell and molecular biologists out there, who do you think won this Lab Rap Battle?

He has been a great inspiration for space travel via every type of social media (with the assistance of his son, Evan), giving those of us down on Earth some of the best peeks at what it is like to live and work in space, plus has entertained us with his guitar playing as well! He tweets constantly, sharing photos of his view from above and has made nearly 70 informative videos to quench our curiosity about day to day space living. He has captured our imagination for space travel again!

In honor of his return to Earth due on Monday, May 13, I’ve compiled his top 10 videos from his time on the ISS, as determined by views as posted on youtube by the Canadian Space Agency.

Update!! In the time since posting this video on the evening of May 12, coinciding with the publication of this blog post, Commander Hadfield’s inspirational music video has reached over 10 million views (as of May 15), making it the most viewed video he has produced, securing it a place and number one on this Top 10 (+1) list! Bonus: Released today was a revised version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station. Not enough views at this posting to make the Top 10, but so well done that it certainly belongs here!

Now the Top 10!

10. How Astronauts Shave in Space. If I were in space, I might take a break from shaving my legs, but, for men, I don’t think it would be fitting in NASA protocol to let a beard grow for the duration. How do you shave in space, with no running water and trying to avoid hairs floating around and clogging up the equipment? Let’s see what Cmdr. Hadfield has to say:

9. How do Astronauts Wash Their Hands in Space? Again, with no running water, this is tricky. That big ball of water floating around in his hands is just mesmerizing!

8. How is Eyesight Affected in Space? Space travel worsens your vision, and the astronauts and specialists are monitoring various aspects of eye physiology and anatomy to learn why this is. My vision is bad enough already, I’ll skip space travel!

7. Commander Hadfield’s Space Kitchen. Peanut butter plus honey on a (nearly) everlasting tortilla = space sandwich! Tortillas replace bread which can leave crumbs everywhere!

6. Commander Hadfield Brushes His Teeth in Space. Again, no running water means no rinsing your mouth, so you swallow your toothpaste instead. As Hadfield says, “It’s edible, it won’t kill you.”

5. Nail Clipping in Space. It is important to have short fingernails for playing guitar! And since nail clippings would float around, getting in equipment and could accidentally be breathed in by the crew (ewww), clippings are instead pulled into a vent that is drawing in air.

4. Sleeping In Space. How do you keep from floating around while in dreamland? You will be glad to learn you don’t need a pillow or mattress for a good night’s sleep in zero gravity!

3. Tears in Space (Don’t Fall). Not an actor by his own admission, Cmdr. Hadfield can’t cry on demand, but comes up with a way to show us how tears act in space.

2. Mixed Nuts in Space. No explanation needed, just enjoy the sight of nuts floating in their can. I hope they are deliciously salted!

1. By far the most popular video was Wringing out Water on the ISS-For Science!. Without gravity, surface tension wins!

Thank you, Commander Hadfield, for using social media to its fullest to share with all of us the wonders of working in space. I will miss your tweets and videos!

Gavin Heffernan with Sunchaser Pictures shared this about filming this follow-up video:

“This time our timelapse adventure took place at the infamous sliding stones of Racetrack Playa Lakebed in Death Valley, where we got lots of cool shots of the stones themselves, as well as some epic starscape stuff — including a desert aurora, crazy star trails, and an awesome milky way pass. The initial intention was for this all to be done in one shoot with the Dunes of Part 1 — but time restrictions and work, etc. caused us to split up the shoots — and so we visited the Racetrack on March 17-19th 2013 to film this second installment.

As you can see, it’s a crazy place to shoot at, as the horizon is so strangely uneven/malleable. I don’t know if the valley was cut by water or underground magma, but it’s almost impossible to find a straight horizon. In many cases it took me 5 to 10 times as long as usual to try and “straighten” the camera.”

It was a Vimeo Staff Pick this week, so you know it’s a visual stunner. Learn more about details within the video and how it was shot at Gavin’s Vimeo Page and watch this video for some behind the scenes footage.

This month, the Scientific American network became a lot larger with the addition of the Scientific American MIND blogs. In this episode of ‘Best of the Blogs’ we meet a few of our new MIND bloggers (including Julie Hecht at Dog Spies), and also hear about the ‘Squamozoic’ era and the number of lives saved by switching to nuclear energy.

Enjoy!

How important is the scanning tunneling microscope in science? Half of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer “for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope”.” Learn more about STM at the NobelPrize.org page.

From IBM’s description on their youtube channel:

“You’re about to see the movie that holds the Guinness World Records™ record for the World’s Smallest Stop-Motion Film. The ability to move single atoms — the smallest particles of any element in the universe — is crucial to IBM’s research in the field of atomic memory. But even nanophysicists need to have a little fun. In that spirit, IBM researchers used a scanning tunneling microscope to move thousands of carbon monoxide molecules (two atoms stacked on top of each other), all in pursuit of making a movie so small it can be seen only when you magnify it 100 million times. A movie made with atoms.

Watch it now!

You might be wondering how they did that! IBM thought it was important to explain this and to introduce us to the scientists who work on this and created a short behind the scenes documentary.

“This is a very challenging task because nobody, as far as we know, including ourselves, has moved 5,000 atoms.” says Andreas Heinrich, Principal Investigator, IBM Research

I’ve found more explanatory videos on their website.
Why are their ripples in the video? They are electrons!

How do you move an atom?

What is up with the sound of atoms? It is the sound of molecules following the STM tip along the surface.

I think this answered most of my questions. What are some of yours?

I have talked to many many people who have experienced India, I’ve read numerous books (fiction and non-fiction), and watched many documentaries, TV shows, and fictional movies about India, but knew that the experience of visiting would be something valuable. I was warned of the approximately “five people per square foot” population density in Mumbai, of the smell–a persistent sewer/trash odor, the pollution, the noise, the dogs, cattle, and goats, and the widespread extreme poverty. I discovered that the southern port city of India in Maharashtra State where we first landed, formerly known as Bombay, to be all that and even more. It was humid and warm during our visit, but actually in a relatively cool and dry streak, at least for India. The city, as I was exaggeratively informed by John Schidlovsky, founder and director of the IRP, “was built on mold” and with my allergy to mold so severe that I carry an epipen, I found myself taking more than the recommended dose of allergy meds just to breathe, each day grateful it wasn’t the rainy season. Thankfully, we traveled north to cooler, drier, and less moldy climes to a rural area outside Nagpur and later to New Delhi. I will discuss more of those destinations in future posts.

Throughout most of India, I found myself delighted at the fact that women still wear colorful sarees on a daily basis, not yet succumbing to western trends, and impressed that men and boys generally wear button-down shirts, slacks, and nice shoes everyday, no matter their income level or age (try convincing a young boy to do that in America day to day–no way!)

Niramaya Health Foundation

If you have seen the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”, it begins in Mumbai, in one of the largest slums located near the airport and situated right at the largest dumping ground in India. This area was our first stop in order to visit the Niramaya project drop-in health center. We toured the slums and received an overview of healthcare and educational awareness work Niramaya does in the community.

A scene in a Mumbai slum. While many journalists took photos of people, I was uncomfortable invading their space

Many sights, sounds, and smells impacted, and even impressed me, but nothing I encountered really surprised me as I realized that poverty is poverty everywhere and people in India are just trying to live their lives as they go about their day, as anywhere else. Despite this acceptance of the state of living of slum dwellers, as someone who has an immense appreciation for modern plumbing, and armed with a good working knowledge about micro-organisms, I found myself uneasy at the thought of open defecation as practiced so widely in India.

An entire nation drowning in its own excreta is an unpleasant thought, but this is what is happening, at least according to Sunita Narain, Indian environmentalist and Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment, author of “Excreta Matters“, “India’s first and most comprehensive survey …on the state of its water and its management”, in a comment piece published on June 14 in Nature.

Open defecation is practiced by more than 600 million Indians, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO calls open defecation the riskiest sanitation practice of all due to the ease of disease spread. More often than not, water is contaminated by the same people who drink it. Open defecation is rampant in slums and rural areas because alternatives simply don’t exist as pit toilets and flush or pour toilets are found primarily in urban areas. In the slums and rural areas, there might be public toilet areas, however, due to long lines and privacy concerns, many residents still wait until nightfall to go –increasing the risk of related violence, especially against women and girls. Open defecation and ill-maintained sewage and septic systems leak pathogen-laden contaminates into surrounding rivers and lakes, leading to disease outbreaks of waterborne pathogens and contributing to early mortality and is a major contributor to malnutrition due to chronic diarrhea and possibly improper absorption of nutrients due to an imbalance of intestinal microflora from consuming pathogen-laden water and food in a condition/syndrome called “environmental enteropathy“. Infants and children under five years old are particularly susceptible to diarrheal diseases.

Al Jazeera reported on India’s “Sanitation Emergency” last summer. This video highlights the pertinent numbers and issues surrounding this crisis and includes the stunning statistic that more Indians have access to mobile phones than to toilets.

Three puppies resting in the shade cast by 50 gallon water drums, oblivious to the overwhelming odor of the chlorine tablets used for disinfection. These drums are filled with clean water shipped in by tanker trucks since no running water is available in this Mumbai slum

Before I left for India, I researched the issues that plague India’s children. Diarrhea and malnutrition are the largest killers of children under the age of five worldwide and is particularly pronounced in certain areas of India. Around 1,000 children below the age of five die every day in India from diarrhea, hepatitis-causing pathogens, and other sanitation-related diseases, according to the report of United Nations Children’s Fund. Microbial sources of these diseases can be protozoan (amoebosis), parasitic (schistosomiasis) viral (hepatits A) or bacterial (typhoid, dysentery, cholera).

In my quest to learn more about the role of sanitation in disease control, I contacted Scott Huler, author of “On the Grid: A Plot of Land, an Average Neighborhood, and the Systems that Make our World Work” , a book about modern necessities such as clean water, toilets and sewer systems we take for granted through most of the western world. He reminded me of an interesting bit of information, quoted here from a recent blog post of his:

… in 2007 the British Medical Journal asked its readers to name the most important medical milestone since 1840, they chose modern sanitation — which defeated things like, say, antibiotics or anesthesia or vaccines. And yet 2.5 billion people still don’t have it.

This is pretty incredible. Our knowledge of how drinking water must remain separate from wastewater has improved our health by leaps and bounds as a species/society. Understanding that waterborne micro-organisms cause disease and that hygienic measures can prevent illness is undoubtedly critical. In addition to that important BMJ survey, Scott pointed me to a book about toilets and sanitation worldwide by Rose George called “The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste“.

Slate published excerpts back in 2008 which you can reference for a preview. Relevant to the topic of this article, I recommend this particular excerpt, Latrine Rights in India.

If you prefer your information in video form, Rose George gave a succinct and enlightening talk about the world of “crap” for TED in February and it was released last week. She highlights the issues facing girls and women in particular in India, fearing for their safety in public latrines and at schools.

So then, what is to be done, from a science and engineering perspective? Sunita Narain explains from her article in Nature:

The challenge for science is to look beyond the modern engineering mindset. We know that current technologies, which use large amounts of clean water to transport small amounts of excreta through expensive pipes to costly treatment plants, are unworkable and unaffordable in much of the world. Yet toilets and sewage disposal are among the least researched technologies.

New technologies and new thinking are urgently needed for use across diverse ecosystems. Open drains might become planted waterways, with the vegetation cleansing the water. Or microbes might be used to decompose and de-pathogenize effluent. Sewage must be treated as a resource — turned into water for drinking, irrigation or industry.

I’ll add to this broad thought that the agencies that are educating the people of India (most importantly the women) must continue to spread the word on how important good hygiene is to preventing deadly and debilitating diseases. I saw many examples of this while there through NGOs, physicians and other advocacy groups. So many people lack the understanding about the spread of disease and how simple it is to create a healthier community and nation.

images from India are Joanne’s

CB: What inspires you to make these videos?

JH: My inspirations for the videos come from all over the place. It might be an article or blog post I read, or a random picture or video I come across, or something I’ve written on my blog that I want to explore in more depth, and even questions that people send in to me. My only rules are that it has to make me say “wow” while researching it. I also really love to tie science to other parts of our culture, like music or art or creative works. But my number 1 inspiration is being curious myself, and then I just try to share that curiosity with others.

CB: What is your academic background?

JH: I am a biologist by training. I have my undergrad degree in biochemistry and just defended my PhD in cell and molecular biology. I’ve done research in everything from cancer biology to drug design to genetic engineering along the way. My PhD research studied mobile elements of bacterial genomes, the ancestors of our introns, and how they jump around genomes like primitive retroviruses (plus how we can use them for genetic engineering).

CB: What are your aspirations for science communication?

JH: About halfway through grad school, I got hooked on communicating science. I started a blog on Tumblr which has become more successful than I ever imagined, and that led to my YouTube show with PBS Digital Studios (which began in Jan 2013). People aren’t dumb, and people do care about science. Many of them just haven’t been able to connect with it or they’ve got a bad taste in their mouth from a boring class or a bad teacher. I know that people are thirsty for awesome knowledge, and they want to understand where we came from and how we tick. I think of myself as a teacher, just like if I was in front of one of my biology classes here at my university. Only my class is thousands and thousands of people. Now that I have my PhD, I am going to continue teaching as many people as I can, through writing and videos and who knows what else? For the time being, at least, I’m not pursuing more research. Instead, I’m going to help communicate science to the world.

JH: This summer I’ll be working as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at Wired in San Francisco, continuing to write my blog and make my YouTube show, and beyond that? The sky’s the limit. The world is ready for a new generation of science communication ninjas like Carl Sagan and Neil Tyson. I’m going to strive to get there.

All the best Joe, I’m a huge fan!

Joey Shanks from Joey Shanks FX in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios has made a great piece of creative film using the putty, magnets and other additives and objects to fabulous effect.

Superb lighting and camera angles, seamless timelapse and editing, along with appropriate mood music make this wonder even more engaging to watch!

And really, nothing says uber-trippy like removing the tiny mirrors from the disco ball keychain in the swag bag for SXSW and mixing with the putty for stunning effect.

I suggest you check out his YouTube channel to watch more of his video effects–all done sans CGI, including creating alien atmospheres in a fish tank and planets with dry ice bubbles!

Enjoy this introductory video to his SCI-FLY series. I love that he gives a peek into how he creates the effects so perhaps aspiring FX videographers could test them out as well!

I look forward to seeing more from Joey and PBS Digital Studios in the future.

image: screenshot from youtube video

She has come out with her new book, one to please any biologist, as well as all the rest of us humans, about the digestive system. It is called “Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal“. I am nearly finished with it, and I assure you that you will all be pleased with it! It’s funny and smart, as we have come to expect from Mary!

Here is the latest book trailer:

I would usually be right on top of things creating a book review, but I think I have something even better. In collaboration with Jeff Shaumeyer of Scienticity.net, my co-host for our Kids Read Science contest, we will be beginning a regular series of Google Plus Hangouts on Air called “Read Science!” where we will feature upcoming and recently published popular science books (head’s up publishers and authors! Send me your books so they can have a chance to be featured–address will be at the bottom of this post).

I am so pleased to say that Mary Roach will be hanging out with us on April 17th at 4pm CST (check my social media sites for information on how to watch)! I am excited to start this hangout series with one of my favorite science authors/people! I hope you will join us!

(I’ve also lined up Daniel Loxton and Brian Switek for a great discussion of dinosaur books! It should be fantastic! More details soon, but we are looking at April 27)

Also, for those of you in the Chicago area, be ready to attend a great FREE event at the Harold Washington Public Library, as sponsored by the Illinois Science Council on April 29th where both Mary Roach and Rebecca Skloot will be taking the stage to talk about “Gulp” and about science writing in general. I will be there!

I look forward to seeing you at the hangout with Mary, up in Chicago with Mary at the Chicago Public Library event, or let me know on twitter or G+ how you have enjoyed her latest book, “Gulp”!

If you are a popular science book author or publisher, books you’d like to be featured on the “Read Science!” Hangouts may be sent to:

Joanne Manaster
c/o School of Integrative Biology UIUC
286 Morrill Hall
505 S. Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801

Enjoy!

Here are the lyrics:

Lyrics:
[Hook]
I’m gonna pop some carbs
Only got a lil’ glucose in my pathway
I – I – I’m lazy, lookin’ for some CoA
This is frigging awesome

[Verse 1]
Now I got some glucose; hell yeah, I’m in that prep phase
I’m so pumped; doin’ work with hexokinase
Glucose to the glucose with a number six phosphate
PGI to that fructose 6-phosphate (dayum)
ATP, ADP, phosphofructokinase E,
1,6-bis, FBP, adolase, two GAP;
GAPDH with some PGK & PGM,
3-P to the 2-Phosphoglycerate, and then
(Enolaaaaaaaassseeee)
PEP to Pyruvate! (glycolysis)

[Verse 2]
FAD, NAD bout to go and grab some hydroG
Pumpin’ out all those substrates for some work yeah that’s that energy
shuttlin’ through that mito-C like nobody’s business
what you know about oxidation? biz-NITCH
I’mma do it TCA, I’mma do it TCA
No for real – movin’ on – can I have some A-CoA? (thank-you)
Citrate synthase from that CoA to that citrate
Aconitase, step two; isocitrate
I had some NAD+ (plus), I used some NAD+ (plus)
I made some NADH (Hhhhhhhh), and alpha-ketogluterate (oh snap)
dehydrogenase complex, plus some CoA
CO2, NADH out; succinyl CoA
then I take that GDP, add a P (GTP), hold on wait
CoAs gone, people be like “Aw, he got the succinate”

[Hook x2]

[Verse 3]
What you know about intermediary metabolism? (not much)
What you knowin’ about what’s goin’ on in your skin? (uhhhhh)
I’m diggin, I’m diggin, I’m lookin’ for some FAD
Step 6, succinate dehydrogenase, that’s the key (zing)
Movin’ on, reducin’ that FAD up to FADH2
fumarate, fumarase that’s the enzyme now go shift your gaze
to malate (okay); step 8, malate dehydrogenase
finish off; NADH, oxaloacetate (ahhhhh)

[Hook x2]

[Bridge x2]
That’s how Kreb’s cycle goes
If you didn’t doze now you know
This is how TCA flows
BCH actually doesn’t blow

[Hook]

(alpha-ketogluteraaaaaaaaaate)

Take a look at this beautiful segment from the documentary, Hummingbirds-Jewelled Messengers:

This film won the Buffon award (who’s Comte de Buffon?) at the 2012 Pariscience International Film Festival. This prize rewards the best film about Biodiversity. There are several other categories, which you can read about here.
.
The full program for the 2013 festival is not available as they are currently accepting submissions. If you have created a film and would like to send it along, now is your chance!

From the Pariscience website:

The next deadline is April 30th, 2013 (submission fees : 30 Euros). After this day, the fees will be 40 Euros.

The 9th edition of Pariscience will be held from October 3rd to October 8th 2013 at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, in Paris. The festival is looking for films (documentaries, fictions, short-subject and animated films) produced in 2012 or 2013 in screening format Beta Digital, HD or Blu Ray. We accept various scientific subjects (environmental themes, architecture, health issues, astronomy, biology…).

To submit a film, please start by filling in the online form. Afterwards, you will have to send us the submission sheet of your film and the regulations, along with 3 DVD copies of the film.

Good luck to all entrants! I will keep you posted once the program is available and certainly once winners have been chosen. Now to find a way to get there myself!!

The video is directed and animated by Elaine Seward, and it’s well worth a watch if you are at all curious about the science behind the Easter Egg!

Here is one I found quite amusing. It’s been around since the summer of 2011, but if you’d never seen it before, it is fresh and fun, especially if you are a fan of the original Star Trek Series:

Bones and Kirk Play Head Tennis

There is some psychology here that makes me want to watch to see who finally wins, even though I know it is merely a continuous loop!

The other day, during a break at a special gathering of some of the top thinkers in education and education technology the internet has to offer, hosted by Discovery Education (the education arm of the Discovery Channel) at their campus in Silver Spring, MD, I came across a fascinating gif on Google Plus, originally posted by Panah Rad, which was created from this original video and shared it with my audience.

This gif shows a rare earth neodymium magnet being consumed by a putty full of iron particles (a thick ferrofluid of sorts) and is a bit deceptive in that the time it takes for consumption, which looks rapid here, is actually a timelapse of a process that took nearly 90 minutes! This image quickly went to the What’s Hot list and as of yesterday, had over 2500 +1s and over 1200 shares.

I’ve been asked “Where can I get this stuff?!” many times. It can be found at Amazon and also at Vat19. Vat19 have created a great video of what these objects can do together!

Follow me on Google Plus if you enjoy these sorts of gifs and, once there, feel free to ask me about great circles to share to satisfy your need for science!

Hurry! The deadline is midnight on April 7th, 2013.

From the contest website:

“What will life be like in 10, 25 or 50 years if we continue to explore the unknown and push the boundaries of space travel? Consider the inevitable migration of humans to other worlds and the limitless applications of space technology that are waiting to be developed.
Here’s your chance to share how space exploration will benefit generations to come and let your voice inspire others.
Prize Details
The winner will receive a VIP trip to one of three NASAvisitor centers: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Space Center Houston or the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. Prize includes travel and accommodations.
Contest Instructions
Enter the Why Space Matters to the Future video contest!
It’s easy!
Step 1: Tell us why you think space matters to the future. 
- How has space affected, influenced or inspired you?
- What are the values and benefits of space exploration?
- Why should we continue to explore space?
Step 2: Capture your vision in a short 1-2 minute video and upload it here.
Step 3: Share your video with family and friends and ask them to vote. (Number of public votes will be one criterion used in selecting the winners)
Step 4: Compete for your chance to win a VIP trip for four to one of NASA’s premier visitor centers

Prize Eligibility
Only persons residing in United States who are at least 13 years of age can enter.
Contest Ends
April 07, 2013 @ 11:59 pm (CDT)

Good luck!

Image Copyright: The John Innes Center

Professor Enrico Coen from the John Innes Centre (an independent research facility specializing in plant science and microbiology) has been awarded €2.5M EU funding to explore the growth and evolution of carnivorous plants. In speaking with research assistant Karen Lee, I am excited to learn more about both the scientific endeavors of the group, but also their plans for communicating about it. In addition to their main website, the ‘Inner Worlds’ project has a YouTube Channel, a Facebook page and a Twitter account to present their science to a wider audience.

One of their first communication projects is a short film that was created using ‘optical projection tomography’, a microscopic technique that allows the viewer to ‘dive’ into the cavities of a carnivorous plant. The technology is among the latest developed to reveal the inner structure of organisms. According to Lee, the 3D views provided using this technique are vital to capturing the plants’ developmental process. The video provides a look at the inner workings of four different, vessel-shaped carnivorous plants that have evolved independently. If you view it while trying to channel your inner insect victim, you will see them as formidable death traps!

It’s always encouraging to see such a commitment to both research and communication in a major research center. Kudos to the entire Coen lab!

Tiger Vs. Sloth Bear from "Dicky" Singh

What an education for the then four year old as she did not see a single tiger OR bear on TV that day and instead saw men in padded uniforms playing football!

Now, Katie is an Assistant Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. She studies how mother’s milk influences infant development in rhesus monkeys. She also maintains a blog called Mammals Suck…Milk! She has come up with a fantastic way to combine America’s excitement over the upcoming March Madness for college basketball with real life mammalian competition to use it as an access point or talking about mammalian species by creating a virtual competition that pits carnivores against primates against a “hodge podge” and grazers and browsers against each other! (All of you herpetologists, entomologists, ornithologists, ichthyologists, etc. will have to make your own bracket, sorry). Please note that this is a make-believe competition and there will be no real animal-animal fights carried out to determine the winner of the Mammal March Madness! It is merely an opportunity for all of use to think about how animals live and survive in their environment!

What do you have to do to play? First, print yourself a copy of the bracket form:

Fill it out (and for fun, post a photo of you and your filled out form on twitter so Katie can find it (#2013MMM) or mail it to her at katiehinde@gmail.com) based on your knowledge of relative animal size/mass, the offensive weapons they have at their disposal (antlers, horns, canine teeth, claws), defensive mechanisms (running, camouflage, etc), their basic temperaments (aggressive or not?) and take a guess who would win. I have my beloved sloths and otters doing pretty well, but never meeting in the final round. I think realistically, tigers will do them in.

THEN, tune in to twitter everyday (starting TODAY!) to follow the live tweets from @Mammals Suck of the bouts at 3pm Eastern Monday thru Thursday (the remaining times will be announced later). Hashtag is #2013MMM.

March 11 Mon Wild Card Match-Up Titi Monkeys vs. Naked Mole Rats showdown to see who will take on Gorilla First Round!
March 12 Tue First Round! Carnivores, Primates,
March 13 Wed First Round! Grazers & Browsers, Hodge Podge
March 14 Thu Second Round! Carnivores, Primates, Grazers & Browsers, Hodge Podge
March 16 Sat Clade & Grade Semi-Finals
March 17 Sun Clade and Grade Finals
March 18 Mon Clade and Grade Mammalia Semi Finals
March 19 Tue Mammalia FINAL GAME!!! WHO WILL IT BE!?!?!

Match commentary and outcome will be “live-tweeted” ~3:00 PM Eastern Time via Twitter (follow @Mammals_Suck) with full results posted on her blog shortly thereafter.

If you don’t know how brackets work, Katie provides a FAQ section that clarifies a lot of things, so check it out!

I hope you will join in. Get your kids involved. Tell teachers, too! I can see very excited classrooms full of kids who would love to guess which animal will “win”!

You can imagine my delight in being asked to create another music video for the conference this year. I was thrilled to do it, and I proudly present it to you today. A parody of ‘Gangham Style’, affectionately called ‘Online Science Style’. In my humble opinion it speaks to our craziness, our passion, and our love for our work.

Thank you all, for participating, and for loving science communication as much as I do.

PBS just posted a video that encapsulates some of the potential of 3D printing. It is well produced and worth a few minutes of your time to watch.

They show that there is hope that new organs (including blood vessels) can be printed using cells identical to those in your body. Guiding the 3D assembly of cells in culture to form complex tissues and organs has always been a challenge and this is one way to possibly overcome this, and some strides are being made in this area. I do wonder, of course, about the functionality and strength of the organs that required movement such as the heart, and ability to resist pressure as in blood vessels, if the cells have been passively laid out like this without development in an environment that present the cells with stress and strain to test them.

I’ve been following the work of a company in Belgium called Materialise. They are one of the leaders in 3D printing and have their hands in many projects including the first 3D printed race car as well as assisting with surgeries such as orthopedic and face transplants, to replicating the skeleton of Richard III and luggage innovation. They’ve also paired with multiple fashion designers on their projects and have really helped the world of fashion open up to the potential of 3D printing in creating new wearable items!

This video is the fashion show featuring several objects created by multiple designers from 2012:

I enjoy the work of Dutch designer Iris Herpen who really is quite futuristic in her thinking. Her latest fashion show featured 2 of her 11 pieces as printed in collaboration with Materialise. This work uses a very flexible material, thermoplastic polyurethane, so there is more movement than most 3D printed materials.

You can view her entire collection here.

This was the very first thing I thought about as I ran across the following series of videos called “Math Warriors”, which has everything one could ever want in a mini-series; a plot, great dialog, characters you can get to know, a love triangle (ooooh!) and of course, MATH!

Here is the Season 3 Trailer

and the second episode of season 3 adds a bit of beauty pageant fun mixed in with mathematics competition:

(and many of you probably remember the spoof on the evolution question asked of Miss America pageant contestants called Should Math Be Taught In Schools)

The internet is an incredible place. Mini-series that may never find a home on a television network can reach a particular niche audience quite successfully! And here we see a group of students aiming high in college mathematics competitions!

I ran across the Math Warriors Kickstarter project in January. Math Warriors is the brainchild and labor of love of Kristina Harris. Her Kickstarter Project, which exceeeded its goal, was to help her and her team continue to produce this series. You can learn a lot more about Kristina and her project at the Kickstarter blog!

Kristina Harris has a background in film but received her PhD in Biochemistry, giving her a unique perspective from which to create her video series. The actors in the series are not mathematicians, but legitimate actors. They have to learn the jargon and terminology and all of the problems are checked through by Kristina’s mathematician husband, and sometimes eminent math professors make cameos in the series!

If you want to learn and watch more, check out Kristina’s youtube page to watch the entire series and, of course you can also follow them on twitter and like them on Facebook!

Watch a few episodes and let us know what you think!

Did you know India has a National Science Day? National Science Day is celebrated in India on February 28 each year to mark the discovery of the Raman effect (the scattering of photons from an atom or molecule) by Indian physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman on February 28, 1928. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in 1930.

I am completely charmed by this kid demonstrating the Raman Effect for his science fair project in India. The audio is terrible, but the light scattering effect is one we all know! And it seems this kid has a bright future following in the footsteps of Sir Raman!

India is a land of disparity both in monetary terms and intellectual pursuits. Many people are illiterate, but, as shown by the number or medical schools, and science, technology and engineering schools I saw in my travels, as well as the number of Indian professionals I know in academia, there are many highly trained intellectuals as well.

India’s love of science has a long history, but it was Prime Minister Nehru, in his message on the occasion of the silver jubilee of the Indian Science Congress (1937), who proclaimed ,

“Congress represents science, and science is the spirit of the age and the dominating factor of the modern world. Even more than the present, the future belongs to science and to those who make friends with science and seek its help for the advancement of humanity.”

He was of the opinion that science was capable of bringing far reaching changes. Many science themed museums and planetariums are named in his honor. The largest science museum in India in his name is in Mumbai (unfortunately, I did not make it out for a visit). One of the Nehru Planetariums is just a stone’s throw from where I am sitting in New Delhi, but my schedule has not allowed me a visit there, either. (I did visit Jantar Mantar, as you will see further in this post).

The eminent physicist and philosopher VV Raman indicates that science is a very important part of modern Indian culture:

“Fortunately for India, thanks largely to her early leaders like Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru and Meghnad Saha, modern science was given tremendous moral, financial, and governmental boost in independent India. As a result, science education has made significant strides here.

Countless scientists have been groomed in Indian universities and national laboratories. It is a great blessing that modern sciences flourish in India. Thanks to modern universities, India is producing large numbers of engineers and doctors, technologists and mathematicians, many of whom have moved into the world arena where they make their mark in industries, places of learning and laboratories. Some day, perhaps, every town and village in India will have not only a library, but a mini-science center with a small telescope and microscopes, star charts and pictures of galaxies to initiate the common people into the worldviews of modern science, along with large size pictures of eminent Indian scientists to inspire the people. The establishment of such centres could well be a project for the Indian Academy of Sciences which, with proper funding from the government as well as prospering Indian industrialists all over the world, could also employ science graduates to man them.” (source)

If you want to learn more about this phenomenon, definitely check out Angela Saini’s book, Geek Nation, which attempts to explain the full spectrum of the enthusiasm the Indian people have for science, from space travel (they plan to go to Mars this year), to genomics (Hyderabad is home to a place called “Genome Valley“), to technology, (witness Bangalore) and so much more!

In New Delhi, I made it a point to stop by one of the Jantar Mantar astronomical observatories of Jai Sing II in India (there used to be five, but now only three remain). Check out the virtual tour of the structures and 3D Models at this website.

If you care for quick overview, enjoy this brief video about Jantar Mantar in this video.

by Alexis Gambis
(writer-director of The Fly Room Project, founder of Imagine Science Films)

The Fly Room Project is the latest Imagine Science Films initiative. It will be an ambitious Summer 2013 interactive lab and exhibit about genetics which will include film, microscopy, and video installations. It comes to life 100 years after the original Fly Room that existed in the Zoology Department at Columbia University. The early 20th century Fly Room is considered to be the birthplace of modern genetics where the basic laws that govern heritability and the passing of traits were discovered. No one ever imagined that this claustrophobic space, overflowing with mutant red-eyed fruit flies would gain so much fame.

As you enter in new Fly Room Summer 2013, you will travel back in time to Summer 1927. On the wooden tables, hundreds of milk bottles filled with “real” fruit flies and brass-knobbed microscopes will sit next to glass jars of ether and banana mush. Science/AAAS, the world’s largest scientific society and magazine, is our Presenting Sponsor for this project and will provide original research articles documenting the early discoveries in the emerging field of Genetics.

The goal of The Fly Room Project is to raise awareness about the early history of genetics, especially in an era where we are confronted with the excitement and scares of the Genomic Age. With our fruit flies in the spotlight, we will place emphasis on the importance of model research, notably fruit fly research, in our scientific advancement and the current research in understanding evolution, development and disease. The space will also have a treasure hunt twist where kids, a la Goonies, will embark on wild aventures to uncover clues. They will peer through milk bottles searching for answers from their fellow insects.

The Fly Room Project will bring back the philosophy of the original Fly Room which was to foster a democratic atmosphere open to new ideas and unconventional thinking. The exhibit will also paint a portrait of the work and the minds that gave significance to this room. We will show exclusive on-camera testimonials from the daughters of the Fly Room residents. 95-year old Betsey shares her stories about an unconventional father Calvin Bridges and her visit to the Fly Room in 1927 when she was 10 years old. Other stories and fly-charged anecdotes will be told by the daughters of Alfred Sturtevant and Hermann Muller.

The Fly Room will be recreated by a dynamite duo of Production Designers Ika Avaliani and Anna Yates. Artist and Photographer Catherine Chalmers will cover the walls with larger-than-life imagery of insect development. ‘Art Perversionist’ and Filmmaker Luis Nieto will create a Fly Circus with mutant flies. The space will be sonically charged with the old-new electroacoustic score of Daniel Wohl.

And yet, what is most unusual about The Fly Room Project is that it will also be a film set for a feature production. The film is focused on the story of 10-year old Betsey visiting her father Calvin Bridges in the Fly Room lab in 1927. Actors will enter into the skins of the Drosophila scientists and bring to life the important discoveries of the lab. 10-year old Betsey will be played by first-time actress Zoe Brooks. The film is primarily told from the perspective of little Betsey and yet flies will will occasionally have their moments to dissect human behavior.

The more that Betsey understands the world of flies and genetics, the more she enters a magical yet haunting world where flies and humans mix together. The insect world also foreshadows the evolution of Betsey’s relationship with her father Calvin Bridges and further deconstruct their interactions.

Dates of Fly Room Exhibit and Film to be announced soon.

For more information, visit:

http://www.theflyroom.com

I started doing videos as an experiment. I’m really visual and love the awesome image and video collection NASA has and I really wanted to find a way to incorporate more of that into my work (since it’s so wonderfully royalty free!). Short videos seemed like an ideal way to mix great visuals with my research, and also a great way to present a short piece of information that I don’t know what else to do with. Like it I find some fun little fact that I just don’t have time to write a whole article about, videos are a way to just tell a quick story. I’m currently associated with Discovery News, Motherboard, DVICE, Scientific American, and my own blog Vintage Space.

Here are a few more of my favorites:

Check back to the Vintage Space Blog for weekly posts on the history of space, and most certainly keep your eye on the It Happened In Space series at Scientific American.