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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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« I was wondering about that | Main | Warming up for the big meeting »

Boys and toys

Category: Genetics • Molecular Biology • Science
Posted on: July 1, 2009 8:53 PM, by PZ Myers

This is a wonderful video: it's Richard Dawkins interviewing Craig Venter and getting a tour of his amazing sequencing facility. It also reveals how much the technology is changing.

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Comments

Posted by: JD | July 1, 2009 9:27 PM

It's the Hadron Collider for molecular biologists. Lots of machines repeating the mantra that Ray Comnfort is a binary tard.

Posted by: Tom | July 1, 2009 9:27 PM

I've had the opportunity on numerous occasions to view the facilities at Washington University in St. Louis. It's an incredibly experience to see the genomes being sequenced before your eyes.

Posted by: Mark | July 1, 2009 9:30 PM

Yeah, I caught this last night. Simply wonderful! The material near the end about making synthetic life makes the imagination go wild - I relish the idea. When we finally get around to doing it, it will hopefully be the nail in the coffin that clearly demonstrates that life, at its core, is chemical - that there is no magic required for the animation of matter. Way to go Dawkins and Venter!

Posted by: Kel | July 1, 2009 9:38 PM

Loaded this video up last night with the intention of watching it tonight when I get home from work. Really looking forward to this ones, all these uncut interviews have been better than the shows themselves!

Posted by: Kel | July 1, 2009 10:05 PM

Don't you have anything better to do with your life Dennis?

Posted by: Aaberg | July 1, 2009 10:12 PM

@Nastra

You really are fucked in the head, aren't you?

Posted by: HP | July 1, 2009 10:16 PM

I am suddenly struck by the fact that Richard Dawkins is clean-shaven. Where the hell is his beard?

Posted by: Kseniya | July 1, 2009 10:35 PM

do you think I want to spend all my time pissing and shiting over atheists?

Apparently, you do, because you've already done it six times over the course of the past 20 minutes.

Posted by: Paul Johnson | July 1, 2009 10:42 PM

My friend worked for Venter. Apparently he is a arrogant asshole. Ah well

#10

Posted by: Kobra | July 1, 2009 10:54 PM

When I saw the title, I was expecting a reference to sex toys. I'm a tad bit disappointed.

#11

Posted by: articulett | July 1, 2009 10:55 PM

On the bright side (inre: nastra), I suppose it's better when the mentally have access to the internet rather than guns...

I'm looking forward to the Venter clip... (could it hold the clue as to what pushed one commenter over the edge? Or is this just a drive-by non sequitur? Does this method ever change minds? Inquiring minds want to know!)

#12

Posted by: ERV | July 1, 2009 11:00 PM

At first I was mad at PZ for posting this before me (Craig Venter: DO WANT).

But now I feel good cause hes getting spammed by a TARD.

Thanks, nastra!!! **THUMBS-UP**

#13

Posted by: Britomart | July 1, 2009 11:00 PM

is nastra capable of having a conversation?

perhaps with evidence?

#14

Posted by: articulett | July 1, 2009 11:01 PM

If you are looking to wipe out atheism, might I suggest evidence for whatever god(s) you believe in. I think that might do better than guns, since the longer humans go without evidence, the more atheists there are going to be.

Atheism draws deconverters from all faiths, you know... not just your brand. And even you are an atheist regarding someone's magical friend.

#15

Posted by: Kobra | July 1, 2009 11:01 PM

@20: Oh, wow. Implied death threats. Nice.

Guess what? Many atheists also have guns. Your point is null.

#16

Posted by: Nicolas Keller | July 1, 2009 11:06 PM

nice video indeed :D

#17

Posted by: chuckgoecke | July 1, 2009 11:10 PM

I think this was filmed about a year ago, and its probably already out of date, in so far as the rate of change of the technology. There are companies that now will give one a partial genome(mostly the interesting parts) for a few hundred bucks. The rate of change of the rate of change is changing faster than anyone can predict. Stunning!

#18

Posted by: Dexter M. | July 1, 2009 11:11 PM

Great video! But I think the camera guy might have been high. Whats with walking down a different isle and recording them through gaps in the machines?! Otherwise, very interesting. Reminds me to read the book Craig Venter wrote, which I had been ignoring.

#19

Posted by: gillt | July 1, 2009 11:14 PM

Ah Ventner. How the NHGRI loves to hate you. Now that Collins is gone, hopefully that will change...until he comes back as director of everything.

#20

Posted by: Janine, OMnivore | July 1, 2009 11:21 PM

Nastra, you annoying little twit. You claim that you are here to destroy and crush us yet you want us to see some website. This is hardly the way to convince any of us to check it out.

Fuck you and your gun.

#21

Posted by: Kobra | July 1, 2009 11:24 PM

Oh wow, I feel so totally crushed. Please stop, Nastra. You're killing me. Oh, there it goes. I see the light and can no longer be an atheist.

NOT!

The only way you could be crushing us atheists is through the gravitational pull caused by your massive girth. Get off your ass and go do something productive with your life.

#22

Posted by: Kseniya | July 1, 2009 11:25 PM

to see how we annihilated the entire atheist movement...

Apparently "nastra" doesn't understand verb tenses.

#23

Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM | July 1, 2009 11:25 PM

Yawn, boring troll. We never click or cut/paste boring trolls links.

#24

Posted by: Dexter M. | July 1, 2009 11:26 PM

Nastra, stop begging people to visit your crappy website.

#25

Posted by: chuckgoecke | July 1, 2009 11:28 PM

Plz don't feed the trolls

#26

Posted by: Stygian | July 1, 2009 11:28 PM

hmmm... atheism needs to be wiped out because "you annoy us"? Even the leaders of some of the worst genocides have managed to invent better reasons than that.

I followed the link that nastra has so kindly given us repetedly and am not very impressed. (okay, the music at least was far better than the rest.) Although I do have to admit that I found it amusing that one of the articles pointed out in the link is a story that PZ has already trashed.

Normally I don't mind listening to the crazies and at least considering how they could have arrived at their viewpoint. However, it is increasingly clear that nastra has already constructed his atheist strawman and now all he wants to do is burn.

#27

Posted by: articulett | July 1, 2009 11:33 PM

If only the believers would TRUST their god to fight his own battles and do his own smiting...

Why in the world do they imagine that he needs mortals involved in the process?

#28

Posted by: Phantom Hugger | July 1, 2009 11:33 PM

Jeepers, that was quite awesome.

kind of reminded me of this scene from one of my favorite films...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUWe3YGVH58

#29

Posted by: chuckgoecke | July 1, 2009 11:35 PM

Dexter, I think the camera guy was probably Josh Timonen. High, I don't know, but I liked the filming. I wonder what kind of steadi-cam like device he uses. here's a little vidinfo: http://www.vimeo.com/1394069?pg=embed&sec=1394069

#30

Posted by: Britomart | July 1, 2009 11:37 PM

Plz don't feed the trolls

yea, the class of troll has been slipping lately,

Didn't we put in an order for some new ones after last weeks disappointments?

Would be nice if they could put together a coherent sentence. maybe have a complete idea? a bit of evidence?

What time does pz check the blog in the morning ?

its been a while since i have seen a disemvoweling, pz can you pretty please? just in honor of the holidays?

thank you kindly

#31

Posted by: Kel | July 1, 2009 11:43 PM

PZ goes away and someone lets out the insane David Mabus. Mabus, seek professional help. You're in Canada so what I've heard it's a decent place.

I mean, what kind of person when it's be told to him repeatedly that he's unwelcome would continuously violate the wishes of others? You've been told to "fuck off", go drop your shit somewhere else.

#32

Posted by: catskill | July 1, 2009 11:46 PM

Yeah some of the filming was distracting but hey the facility is amazing.

Oh and yeah I can skip the trolls posts easily enough but not the replies please ignore spam posts... isnt that a rule already?

#33

Posted by: Malachi Constant | July 2, 2009 12:05 AM

About the strange way it was shot:

I'm a videographer and this is exactly what raw footage looks like from a skilled camera man. This looks like footage that was expected to be cut up a lot and his weird movements are meant to give the editor lots of good choices for cutting the final segment together.

I'm sure there's also lots of b-roll of the camera man just wandering around getting interesting shots of the facility, too, so if a shot doesn't work you just cut to the b-roll.

They also sometimes shoot reactions shots, so there's probably video of Richard nodding, looking quizzical and smiling in response to nothing, just to give the editor something to cut to to cover up an edit.

videographer nerd rant /end.

#34

Posted by: beeg | July 2, 2009 12:05 AM

The above death threats & links to sites of questionable content have been reported to CSIS. Phone calls have been made, friends inside have been contacted.

Enjoy the Canadian Arctic gulags, comrade Mabus!

#35

Posted by: rachel Wells | July 2, 2009 12:07 AM

i would lovvve to see craig venters place. nothing like that here in Perth :(

#36

Posted by: Dexter M. | July 2, 2009 12:26 AM

Apologies to both, I'm a bit new here and didn't know the rules regarding trolls. Also I didn't even think about b-roll shots and other bits that would be used during editing. I didn't see the full title, so it seemed a bit strange to have those shots in.

#37

Posted by: hibob | July 2, 2009 12:34 AM

"But only Nastra have no one to talk to. No one manages poor Nastra, you see. So Nastra talks to dirt. Sometimes talks to walls, or talks to ceilings. But dirt is closer. Dirt is used, through everyone walking on it. Just like Nastra, but we've come to like it. It is our role. It is our destiny in the universe. So, you see, sometimes dirt has insects in it. And Nastra likes insects. Not so good for conversation, but much protein for diet"
oops, no that was Zathras from Babylon 5, not Nastra. You can tell because Zathras makes sense.
My mistake.

I think it's time for Scienceblogs to embrace disemvoweling:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disemvoweling

#38

Posted by: Andrew | July 2, 2009 12:55 AM

I wish Venter hadn't said that bit about "Evolution is proven, it shouldn't be a theory!" Or something like that. I raged a little...what's next? Is music theory going to become music LAW? Sigh...

#39

Posted by: RedTerrier | July 2, 2009 1:02 AM

Nastra,
Do us all a favour and get some professional help, and learn what a reasoned argument is while your at it.
Otherwise, Go Away!

#40

Posted by: Ford Prefect | July 2, 2009 1:08 AM

I couldn't help but noticed Dawkins blushing after trying to open a locked door somewhere around 52:45. Not as if that's significant or anything, but I laughed.

#41

Posted by: Malachi Constant | July 2, 2009 1:16 AM

Ha, after watching the full video I'm delighted as a videographer/editor.

Putting aside the actual content (which was wonderfully educational to me, I wasn't aware of the sort of progress they showed), this is what 60 Minutes, or The Daily Show, or Nova or whoever end up with at the end of a shoot.

Artsy shots that don't work, sound guys getting on camera, producers prompting the talent to move around for a more interesting shot, annoying background sound that will make editing one quote with another annoying...

And I especially hope it's enlightening for folks who don't know what a shoot for these shows is like.

These are two guys who have done hundreds of these shoots. They have to be aware of what the camera man is looking for so the shot is interesting, know that they should keep talking when the camera man disappears behind a row of machines, know not to look at the camera, but be aware of it, ignore the three people who are following them around and pretend to have a casual conversation, say "So, ..." whenever starting a new point to make editing easier ... all the while avoiding making statements that can be easily taken out of context and not making any factual errors in their arguments.

I hope this lets folks see how Dawkins could end up in a creationist movie seen getting makeup applied or how easy it would be to make Venter out to be an idiot if you emphasized his stumbles in speech and cut what he said to make him into a non sequiter-spewing mad man.

I LOVE to see this kind of raw footage made available.

This is a look into the sausage factory.

Okay, editor rant /end.

#42

Posted by: John Morales | July 2, 2009 1:26 AM

Malachi, I wasn't gonna bother, but thanks to you I'm now going to download and watch the whole thing.

So... Thanks! :)

#43

Posted by: JohnnieCanuck | July 2, 2009 1:32 AM

Likewise, thankyou Malachi. You just made this into two behind the scenes tours, not just the advertised one.

#44

Posted by: Jason | July 2, 2009 1:46 AM

http://theselfish-meme.blogspot.com/

#45

Posted by: Britomart | July 2, 2009 3:36 AM

ooh, some housecleaning was done, no disemvowelment this time.

#46

Posted by: Shirakawasuna | July 2, 2009 4:06 AM

This was awesome, thanks for the link!

#47

Posted by: Marc Abian | July 3, 2009 5:42 AM

How come Dawkins doesn't know what an EST is?

#48

Posted by: Meat Robot | July 5, 2009 2:26 AM

Way cool!

The thought of *us* being the panspermists was one of those moments where you're suddenly looking through the other end of the telescope: whoa!

It reminds me of Martin Seligman's idea that there is no evidence that we came from an omnipotent, omniscient being, but is it possible that we're heading in that direction?

Thanks to the video producers who piped in. Seeing raw footage definitely helps hicks like me see how embarrassing shots can be set up and how quote mining can become "video mining."

One poster mentioned that even the stuff in this video is getting a bit long in the tooth. Is that really true?? When will I be able to sequence my genome on a one-dollar watch from Hong Kong?