What a wonderful world

Gives me goosebumps.

Science isn't personal: Evolution

I just watched this 10 min video from Qualia Soup about what evolution is, phrased particularly as an argument against people who don't accept it. It has good narration and clear animations to explain important mechanisms of evolution and misconceptions people have about them.

It reminded me that Qualia Soup also has some other good things to say that relate to perception and science:

• open-mindedness
• skewed views of science - how personal bias can get in the way of understanding

Bird brains - song, speech, and genes

Bird brains (Nova Science)
We can learn to talk - how? Studying bird brains can help us find out. This video covers the following.

• How complex is bird song?
  Recordings slowed down sound more musical than you think, and have inspired at least one famous composer.
• What parts of the brain do birds use when singing and listening to song?
  The same parts as we use to speak and listen to speech, as revealed by functional MRI.
• Do birds stutter?
  Yes, some do! And the difference in brain function (from normal singing birds) is similar to the differences human stutterers show.
• Finding a mutant FOXP2 gene (the language gene) involved in an inherited speech disorder by studying an affected family, and then finding FOXP2 in birds and how it relates to song learning.
• The search for other genes that might explan why we can speak, and birds can sing, but other species (e.g. chimps) can't.

The science of decay

AFTERLIFE: THE STRANGE SCIENCE OF DECAY
"Decay: it happens to everything and everyone..."

In this documentary, a biologist sets up a glass box within Edinburgh Zoo and puts lots of stuff in it to see it decay: cooked rice, chilli, cups of tea, a fish, cheese, a fruit bowl, a vegetable box, a raw chicken, sausages, hamburgers, a whole pig on a spit, a compost heap, a wood pile...even a dead rat!

The process of decomposition is observed over a period of 8 weeks using time-lapse cameras and specialist photography to capture the extraordinary way in which moulds, microbes and insects are able to break down everyday things and allow new life to emerge from old.

Highlights:

• Bacteria decomposing a chicken, including how they sense and communicate with each other, and coordinate. (2 minutes)
• How the US Army stops its food going off - extreme preservation! (6 minutes)
• Why we have coal  - plants evolved wood strengthened with lignin well before fungi evolved the ability to digest it and break it down. This meant dead trees ened up lying all over the place, not decaying, and instead vulnerable to burning (especially with all the extra atmospheric oxygen from photosynthesis outpacing respiration). Masses of undecomposed / burnt wood helped to form great deposits of coal. The high oxygen levels also assisted the evolution of large insects, which otherwise have too inefficient gas exchange systems to be able to survive today, and dinosaurs! The end of the age of dinosaurs coincided with a firestorm that probably burned about 25% of the world's forests, leaving less food, less oxygen in the air, and a cooler earth thanks to ash clouds.

Too many highlights! Just watch the whole thing!

The Poetry of Reality

Another song from Symphony of Science - about how useful science is as a tool of thought and investigation.

It features 12 scientists and science enthusiasts, including Michael Shermer, Jacob Bronowski, Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Jill Tarter, Lawrence Krauss, Richard Feynman, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, Carolyn Porco, and PZ Myers, promoting science through words of wisdom.

The Unbroken Thread

Here is a song produced by Symphony of Science. They take footage of and quotes from prominent scientists and set them to music  using autotune. This video about cells and evolution is called The Unbroken Thread, and features Carl Sagan, David Attenborough and Jane Goodall.

Prejudice - Tim Minchin

A poignant (?) song that refers to how some words have significant power to express hate and to discriminate.

It's also catchy and has some fantastic rhymes, as well as a twist I won't spoil for you...

(This has absolutely nothing to do with Biology, but saves me from taking valuable class time away by playing things like this that are possibly not so appropriate. Contains swears.)

Storm - Tim Minchin

I'm not a religious person at all - I'm not even what I'd call spiritual - but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot to marvel at. As long as you're doing it with a critical mind.

You know I like to rant about various things, well, so does Tim Minchin. In this, a beat poem, he has a go at new age-y crap.

Sorry about the swears.

Fighting racism...with music!

So some chick posts a fairly racist rant, this guys sees it, and write a song to reply to her post.

It's a really nice song for starters, but even funnier when you have seen the original rant that inspired it (linked to in the video) in full .


Also, if you think the style seems familiar, but can't quite pick it, read the description below the vid. Yes, of course!

Brinicles

You learn something new every day. Yesterday, I learned about brinicles. Ooer!

Click the pic to watch the video clip from BBC Nature News which shows a brinicle forming, and time lapse footage of starfish moving about before the icy finger of death causes freezing of the ocean floor, trapping the poor stars. The footage is taken under the sea ice near the foothills of Mt Erebus, Antarctica.

Murmuration

Well, here's a cool thing to add to Things I Wish I Could See In Real Life.
A flock of starlings flying in formation around two girls in a canoe.

Welcome

Hello. I made this blog so I could share links, videos and articles with my students, and then comment on them.

To start with, my current favourite as to why knowing a bit about science is important. I bring you someone who doesn't understand rainbows and refraction.