…and this is a 
Perhaps you remember the PCR song from Bio-Rad…or perhaps you tried hard to purge that from your memory. Then Eppendorf upped the ante with a pipettor love song. Now Greg Laden finds another pop tribute to PCR from Bio-Rad. The genre? Disco. By all that's good and rational, not disco.
Two can fight this war against good taste. How about a big hair rock ballad to a tissue culture cell monitoring system?
That one needs an encore.
Little known fact: most molecular biologists dress exactly like that in the lab.
Comments
Posted by: Newfie
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April 18, 2009 4:19 PM
Hair Metal is where it was, and will always be. \m/
Posted by: ElectricBarbarella
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April 18, 2009 4:29 PM
While I may be a grown up head banger, the DNA video did it for me. I love The Village People...that just rocked...
But taking White Lion's song and making it about cells? Coupled with almost extreme look-alikes? Gold.
Pure Gold.
toni
Posted by: LisaJ | April 18, 2009 4:32 PM
I say Roche for the win.
Seriously though, I heard whispers in my lab yesterday of a possible recreation of that new BioRad tune by a couple of our post-docs. Some of us just eat this stuff right up. I may have to suggest a full on lab-wide talent show by forming my own team to cover the xCELLigence lineup. Can't wait!
Posted by: Non Compost Mentis
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April 18, 2009 4:32 PM
Every once in a while I wonder if not being able to watch videos at work might not in fact be a good thing...
Posted by: Josh
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April 18, 2009 4:34 PM
And that explains why everyone so quickly turns toward the geologists that walk into the room.
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM
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April 18, 2009 4:39 PM
ahaha, now I will be humming GTCA all day long! And I don't even have anyone with whome I could share this nerdiness :-/
I shall inflict this upon the boyfriend when he gets home... but he won't get it, I'm afraid
Posted by: Sili
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April 18, 2009 4:43 PM
Don't the safety people get into a fit with them then?
Posted by: Bubalus | April 18, 2009 4:53 PM
Perhaps Country & Western would reach the audience that don't understand :)
Posted by: Tmax01
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April 18, 2009 4:59 PM
OT Poll Party News:
I just got this news through a comment on HuffPo (http://tinyurl.com/dl73yw) about an MSNBC poll the right wing is crashing. Seems to me that most people would probably give Obama more than an 'F'. Wouldn't you?
Here's the Poll:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29493093/
Posted by: Colin J | April 18, 2009 4:59 PM
White Lion meets Def Leppard with a Warrant chaser. Toss in a biochemist on the tour bus and thats it.
Awesome.
Posted by: Interrobang | April 18, 2009 5:00 PM
If commercials aimed at general audiences were that clever, I might be more inclined to watch television. 'Course, that wouldn't do anything about the quality of the shows, come to think of it, but it would alleviate the distinct feeling that the pitchfolk are really selling cars, vacation destinations, and feminine hygiene products to a vast, secret audience of preschoolers.
Posted by: LRA
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April 18, 2009 5:09 PM
I loved it all, but the GTCA one was especially geeky-licious!!! Thanks, Dr. M.
;)
Posted by: Bride of Shrek OM
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April 18, 2009 5:45 PM
Ah, takes me back to my youth, a time spent heavily invested in worshipping Bon Jovi, White Snake, Europe etc. Tragically I also wore legwarmers and had streaked fluffy hair but thats another story.
Posted by: The Science Pundit
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April 18, 2009 5:52 PM
ACK!!!!
They're mixing up the melody of YMCA with the video of In The Navy!!! Maybe I'm alone here (and I suspect that I am), but that's just wrong!
Acoustic heavy metal??? What is this? The love scene from a cheesey 80's teen flick?
OK, now we're talkin'! The third video is the winner in my book.
Posted by: Ichthyic
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April 18, 2009 5:58 PM
@tmax:
one, we already covered that poll a while back.
two, always examine the number of respondents to see if it's worth even bothering.
2231577 responses
uh, yeah.
Posted by: khan
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April 18, 2009 5:59 PM
OT: poll to crash
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29493093/
--------------------------------------
This was passed along to me by my Liberal friend who is getting it from a few of her (ugh!) conservative friends.
OK all you good conservatives, time for action. MSNBC the most liberal of networks has an online poll to grade Obama. They know we don't watch their network, and the votes will pile up from misguided liberals with high grades.
EVERYONE, click on the link below and give him the "F" he deserves. As of now he has 50% "A" grade from the liberals. We can drive this down.
Posted by: Newfie
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April 18, 2009 6:04 PM
The third one starts with some Bon Jovi/Def Leppard.. then it's a Warrant and Guns and Roses mashup.
/ played in a few big haired 80s bar bands back in the day
Posted by: fsmdude
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April 18, 2009 6:04 PM
Hahaha, that's good timing. I'm doing some PCR in my training period that started last week (in a research lab). Next monday, my first DGGE ever! Yeah!
Posted by: fatherdaddy
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April 18, 2009 6:04 PM
That's funny. My '80's hair band used to wear lab coats.
Posted by: gr8googlymoogly | April 18, 2009 6:08 PM
fatherdaddy "That's funny. My '80's hair band used to wear lab coats.". Even funnier - my '80's lab band used to wear hair coats!!
Posted by: gr8googlymoogly | April 18, 2009 6:10 PM
The Roche exCELLigence clips had be looking for my Bic lighter!! Funny stuff!
Posted by: Kitty'sBitch
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April 18, 2009 6:10 PM
Is there a word more awesomer than awesome?
Scrumtrilecent?
Posted by: Newfie
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April 18, 2009 6:16 PM
...so, like Devo... with more distortion?
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM
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April 18, 2009 6:19 PM
Hair? What's hair?
Posted by: Sili
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April 18, 2009 6:27 PM
The stuff that makes it hard to dry your back after a shower.
Posted by: Brian | April 18, 2009 6:43 PM
The title of this post is quite accurate. I watched all those videos for the first time and I'm pretty sure that I didn't survive the experience.
Posted by: NewEnglandBob
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April 18, 2009 6:49 PM
Geee Tee Cee Aaaa - Enzymes!
Want to fry your mind?
Play all three videos at the same time - WOW!!!
Posted by: Dr P | April 18, 2009 6:57 PM
No wonder it always took so long to get them to fix our equipment - they're busy making music videos!
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage
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April 18, 2009 7:56 PM
I am rinsing my mind. The High Kings singing "Marie's Wedding followed by Joe Hill's "The Preacher and the Slave" should be a good start.
Posted by: Pareidolius
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April 18, 2009 8:18 PM
What the hell happened over at Bio-Rad? I used to work for a small ad agency in the 80s and we had to do the dullest, most uninspired graphics for them. I remember one meeting in particular where I was actually told, "don't use those colors, colors scare the scientists". I gotta pitch them for some business.
Posted by: Newfie
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April 18, 2009 8:23 PM
Thanks yourself, never heard of the High Kings... I intend to check out some more.
If you haven't heard it, I recommend Evan and Doherty's - Road Not Taken album.
Posted by: The Biologista
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April 18, 2009 8:58 PM
Love it. Hopefully a taste of things to come. Be interesting to see what would happen if the likes of monolithic omnicorp Sigma-Aldrich weighed in on this.
Posted by: Newfie
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April 18, 2009 9:11 PM
@'Tis Himself
Tommy Makem was to our house for Sunday dinner back when I was 11 or 12... right after mass, of course. Seen him and the Clancy's a few times over the years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44RDtfX_mvk
Nice to see his lads at it.
Posted by: anthonzi
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April 18, 2009 11:31 PM
I wish they would find a better way to use their talent rather than just wasting it on PCR machines...
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage
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April 19, 2009 6:39 AM
Newfie,
I heard Tommy Makem and one of his sons at tbe Mystic Sea Music Festival a couple of years before he died. Of course I've been hearing Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem songs for years.
Someone I wish I could have heard in person was Stan Rogers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJvz5W32bYg
Posted by: «bønez_brigade»
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April 19, 2009 6:48 AM
Those videos (especially the Poisonesque ones) are much easier to watch than the previous attempts by others.
Posted by: «bønez_brigade»
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April 19, 2009 6:51 AM
*previous attempts by others to make a song about science, that is*
Posted by: JimmyHaulinHogs
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April 19, 2009 9:11 AM
There's a great song called "Dissect" by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion that's always gotten a lot of airplay on my pod, but the lyrics were difficult to figure out and very hard to find anywhere. I finally found them recently and it made my day. It seems that the song was actually about everyone's favourite biology class. [Dissect lyrics] Either that, or it's about something way too sadistic.
Posted by: jufulu, FCD | April 19, 2009 11:14 AM
For some reason, Spinal Tap came to mind.
Posted by: Newfie
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April 19, 2009 12:02 PM
Same, though I was in high school when he died, and didn't get to appreciate his music til a few years later. Still, I have everything he recorded.
Posted by: BlueIndependent
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April 19, 2009 1:08 PM
They're all good, but the hair band ones are so astoundingly complete in their mockery of glam rock. HAH!
Posted by: Diego
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April 19, 2009 1:14 PM
The problem with these "biology bands" is that they are ads for biotech companies. There's nothing wrong with biotech companies, but these ads have a parallel with studio-made bands like the teen sensations that Disney is always manufacturing. I prefer more "poacean rhizomes", if you catch my genetic drift. I know there are some talented bands within academia. I'd like to see more of them posting their work on the web.
And yeah, Newfie and TIs Himself, I am a big Stan Rogers fan too. It was a tragedy losing him, though I am kind of glad that he went so heroically. It's not the way we normally lose talented musicians at a young age.
Posted by: Masks of Eris | April 19, 2009 1:19 PM
Wait, biologists rock?
I thought geologists rock.
And mathematicians function.
Posted by: Daniel Valentine
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April 19, 2009 2:00 PM
Personally, I find my tastes in the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWm5rx7nHcg]biology in music itself[/url].
Posted by: Kahrnij | April 19, 2009 2:10 PM
Roche-xCELLigence just made this the greatest blog in the history of internet blogging. I don't know where or how you find this stuff PZ but either way, we all love you for it.
Posted by: Daniel Valentine
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April 19, 2009 2:31 PM
Apologies for my broken link in #44 — this should be it, hopefully unbroken.
Posted by: Newfie
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April 19, 2009 2:34 PM
I think we'll file this one under "random biological ejaculations".
Posted by: Chemgirl
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April 19, 2009 9:39 PM
I dunno what you're talking about, those hair guys were sexy. I need to land me a molecular biologist, it seems.
Posted by: J. D. Mack | April 19, 2009 9:58 PM
For those who live in the Washington, DC area, all I have to say is - JAXX!
J. D.