Passing the light from the fire through a prism is a great example in that video. Auguste Comte told us that we would never know what the stars were made of, and he died in 1857. In 1868 we discovered Helium in the sun through precisely the prismatic technique demonstrated in the video.
I enjoy the work that the Symphony of Science people do, but one thing always strikes me. Sagans voice is so melodic, so naturally lent to music. Most of the other scientists in these videos sound so much less musical.
I don't mean that as a criticism, but as a question. Is Sagans melodic voice one of the reasons he was such a wonderful communicator? Ive seen auto-tune used on politicians and news broadcasters with the same effect. That would make an interesting research project. How much does the melodic component of a speaker influence their persuasiveness?
The song makes me sad. I was too lazy to push my potential down that path. Now that I'm older, I realize it's the only thing that really matters.
You're never too old. It sounds cliché, but it's true. Even if you're not a scientist in the professional sense, there's no reason you can't still learn and contribute to things (like volunteering in organizations that support science, and so forth). My B.A. is in English literature, and now I'm working on a doctoral degree in educational psychology after many years spent in the marketing division of a retail catalog company. My mother got her M.A. at age 68. People change careers and continue education for all kinds of reasons throughout life. My father has been watching recorded courses on geology and calculus on his DVD player at home, and he's 78 years old, still hungry to learn. My maternal grandfather never advanced past the 9th grade in school, but poured over books, newspapers, and National Geographic Magazine whenever he could, always wanting to know more. When I worked in marketing in Chicago, I'd still head out to Fermi Lab or the U of Chicago campus for a public lecture series or presentation.
It's why I sign with "Still learning." Since there's no evidence for anything after this life, then it seems to me we'd best spend what time we have doing good, and that includes education, no matter how old, no matter what previous career choices.
Yes, it's very nice. Yay for us. But there has to be a better way to do it. Autotune is EVIL. Please save us from this tripe. What these scientists have to say is great stuff, but the music is putrid and boring and cheesy and autotune makes me want to stick an icepick in my ears.
The song makes me sad. I was too lazy to push my potential down that path. Now that I'm older, I realize it's the only thing that really matters.
To add to what Robert said, be a public advocate for science. Does your state have a citizens for science group? Join it. Start one if it doesn't. Support pro-science political candidates. Run for the local school board. Without scientifically savvy citizens, science can't function properly.
Furthermore, be careful of what you wish for. Science as a career can be brutal and miserable, where only the apparently anointed succeed. Speaking from experience, I think that one must be a little crazy to work as a scientist.
Oh god, would somebody PLEASE stop with the autotune!
Autotune is EVIL. Please save us from this tripe.
Yes, please. Please stop chaining these people down and forcing them to watch or listen to these Autotuned videos! How I long for a world in which people are freedom from - not just freedome of - Autotune!
bart - interesting idea. I still like the first of the videos made best, and think it seems more musical and with an actual tune rather than something more like random jazz riffs. I wondered if that was just because it was the first one I saw and then the newness wore off, but now I wonder if it isn't that Sagan has a more melodic voice to start with.
Yes Professor Myers, I'd say you are in VERY select company at this point in your outstanding career.
Who knew it would be due not to your extraordinary literary fecundity, nor your speed-freak-after-a-bowl-of-Captain-Crunch-style blogging talents, or your encyclopaedic knowledge of evolution and all things slimy and cephalopodic...
... but your rather gravelly-half-pack-a-day-autotuned-soprano singing voice?
This is the kind of thing we need more of to "sell" science to the public. No, it's not rational, but neither is the public. I wonder how much it would cost to get one of the best of these on TV at Super Bowl half time...
And how well might a similar approach to "selling" atheism work?
Don't knock it out of hand.
Kudos PZ Meyers! I find the Symphony of Science series beautiful and inspiring. I teared up a bit when I first heard A Glorious Dawn. I think it’s a great tool for evangelical atheists. I send them to all of my christian fundamentalist friends hoping the music will touch that part of them usually reserved for the Sunday service.
Furthermore, be careful of what you wish for. Science as a career can be brutal and miserable, where only the apparently anointed succeed. Speaking from experience, I think that one must be a little crazy to work as a scientist.
Any way self-educated outsiders can help make it less miserable?
Citizen Science is a great idea, but it recruits essentially unskilled highschoolers. Surely all those lecture series on the net and books can be more than entertainment or skeptic debate training to folks who don't make science their primary source of income/torment.
There are a lot of whims that get set aside because of budget or thesis-relevance. Is there anything to organize a demand for knowledgable volunteers to help with those to some small degree? A wishlist of simple things grads are too busy to work on?
-Signed, long-time software engineer who enjoys watching/reading about biology
PZ, since it's been hours, maybe minutes(or minutes, maybe seconds, pico-seconds) since anyone has gratuitously stroked you, here goes:
I think its very cool to have PZ included with all those great and famous scientists. PZ, you are therefore, by definition, a great and famous scientist! One with a nice auto-tunes voice.
I think I read an article way back in the good old days of New Scientist about female voices containing harmonics similar to the more concordant tones in music. But that these voices have a tendency to be too melodic and harder to discern information from in comparison to more discordant or sharper tones.
My guess is that maybe Carl Sagan's voice sat in something of a middle ground between melodic and authoratative. I've dabbled a little in sound engineering and it sounds like the symphony of science guys are using rather dodgy autotune software. None of it is perfect yet, the nasty sound you hear is when the harmonics are pitched up uniformly when they should move relative to each other to make it sound natural, in sound engineering we call it 'munchkinisation', not kidding!
Over the holidays I went to the planetarium in Perth (West Australia), and there the dude about to run the show had the Symphony of Science "A Glorious Dawn" track playing in the background as we found our seats. Made the whole experience even better in a comfortable "I am among my kind here" kind of way :))
That was delightful. Just when I despair about modern music, something like this comes along - and causes goosebumps. As I review the thread, I find this is called 'autotune'. Where would there be more of it?
PS: I am a classical music nut, widowed from a choir geek.
PSS: For those of you who don't like it, there is a stop button, you know.
Dear Canuck, agree about the goosebumps - like when someone grates a schoolboard with his or her fingernails.
Beauty is a difficult and debatable issue, but just as important as scientific truth. It´s not a question of pressing the stop button, which of course I did after about 30 seconds. That´s just like the argument "stupid atheists, nobody´s forcing to go to church, stop bitching about religion"
I´m don´t think I need to be sorry or apologize for feeling strongly about ugliness
Really liked it. Sorry for the autotune haters, but I think this kind of thing is essential for reaching beyond the crowd of rationalists and into the larger community where words of wisdom and a picture inside a large black border (aka "inspirational posters") have sold MILLIONS of copies. Reach people where they are.
Add me to the "No to kitschy, gimmicky, techno-tarded, culture-debasing, gorge-inducing, lamest-excuse-for-music-since-christian-rock horror" contingent.
How can you not appreciate what John (melodysheep) is doing to bring the teachings of these great men to a broader audience?
His videos are full of comments from people who had no idea who Sagan was and have discovered Cosmos thanks to him.
If it's not your cup of tea, then fine, but there's no need to be an a$$hole and call what he's doing "kitschy, gimmicky, techno-tarded, culture-debasing, gorge-inducing, lamest-excuse-for-music-since-christian-rock horror".
With that out of the way I'll say that it's awesome that at least some of the scientists in these videos are aware of them.
Oh, and do you want to guess how i found this blog? Yup, it was after watching the latest video and googling the different people in it.
Beauty is a difficult and debatable issue, but just as important as scientific truth. It´s not a question of pressing the stop button, which of course I did after about 30 seconds. That´s just like the argument "stupid atheists, nobody´s forcing to go to church, stop bitching about religion"
I´m don´t think I need to be sorry or apologize for feeling strongly about ugliness
I really don't get the comparison. You're on the Internet and you really do have the ability to press the stop button, just read the comments or go to something else that is more to your liking. If religion was like that it would be stupid for atheists to argue about it.
If religion wasn't forced upon society through laws and tradition, it would be a live and let live situation, where we could shut up and let the deluded have their delusions - and I think that this is what we do, most of the time.
We don't go to every Christian-themed website and say "Hey, I'm so tired of your damn Jesus-character, just stop it already!!" - what we do do is fight the influence that Christianity and other major religions has on our collective society. When creationists want laws to have creation taught in science classes we oppose that, when religious groups have campaigns against gender-neutral marriage we argue against them, and so on, because that affects more than just their group.
Auto-tuned songs aren't forced upon you in any such way. And I won't apologize for feeling strongly about "Oh god, would somebody PLEASE stop with the autotune!" and "Autotune is EVIL. Please save us from this tripe"-type comments. You don't need saving - you have the power to save yourselves. And you have the ability to let other people enjoy what they enjoy.
(Ok, so I don't feel that strongly about comments like that. It just kind of grates me that you can't view any sort of entertainment on the Internet without comments on the pattern of "I don't like this so nobody should do this" when the Internet is such a vast place, filled with so much entertainment of every imaginable kind, and you always have the ability to find what you want instead of complaining about what other people like.)
Touchy aren't you, Androly? I don't think calling someone a rude name because they have better taste than you is called for, ever. I was at least trying to be creative in my expression of dislike for this schlock.
You might be right that it does get people interested in science, and that's a good thing - but if I start hearing this in elevators it will be a bad omen for the same culture that is responsible for both disco and rap!
You don't have "better taste". Your tastes are different, but not in any way can they be called objectively "better". That's kind of the whole point of taste. You could try not being such an ass just because not everyone shares your interests.
Your tongue-in-cheek comment is not appreciated when directed at someone who is putting time and effort into popularizing science. We've got enough work trying to convince the lunatics that Sagan wasn't Satan's spawn and melodysheep his apprentice. Now we have to come to science blogs and try to convince those that should appreciate this kind of stuff that his efforts are deserving of some recognition, even if it doesn't please your advanced tastes.
Anyway dude, get back to me when you create something that generates 1/10th the interest that John's videos do. Til' then, happy hating.
You've joined a pretty excellent crew in these songs, nice!
I do hope you sang out of tune in the choir (on purpose or otherwise).
You looked (and sounded) great! In such good company, too.
I personally find these videos really good. And with the kind of people I would trust rather than just having "faith".
Passing the light from the fire through a prism is a great example in that video. Auguste Comte told us that we would never know what the stars were made of, and he died in 1857. In 1868 we discovered Helium in the sun through precisely the prismatic technique demonstrated in the video.
"Science is the poetry of reality"
I am stealing that.
I've really enjoyed these little music/science videos. They're fun, pleasing, and I think they're a credit to the Symphony of Science folks.
Welcome, my son. Welcome to the machine.
Still learning,
Robert
The song makes me sad. I was too lazy to push my potential down that path. Now that I'm older, I realize it's the only thing that really matters.
I enjoy the work that the Symphony of Science people do, but one thing always strikes me. Sagans voice is so melodic, so naturally lent to music. Most of the other scientists in these videos sound so much less musical.
I don't mean that as a criticism, but as a question. Is Sagans melodic voice one of the reasons he was such a wonderful communicator? Ive seen auto-tune used on politicians and news broadcasters with the same effect. That would make an interesting research project. How much does the melodic component of a speaker influence their persuasiveness?
Poopyhead's name is mis-spelled at the YouTube link:
Oh god, would somebody PLEASE stop with the autotune!
You're never too old. It sounds cliché, but it's true. Even if you're not a scientist in the professional sense, there's no reason you can't still learn and contribute to things (like volunteering in organizations that support science, and so forth). My B.A. is in English literature, and now I'm working on a doctoral degree in educational psychology after many years spent in the marketing division of a retail catalog company. My mother got her M.A. at age 68. People change careers and continue education for all kinds of reasons throughout life. My father has been watching recorded courses on geology and calculus on his DVD player at home, and he's 78 years old, still hungry to learn. My maternal grandfather never advanced past the 9th grade in school, but poured over books, newspapers, and National Geographic Magazine whenever he could, always wanting to know more. When I worked in marketing in Chicago, I'd still head out to Fermi Lab or the U of Chicago campus for a public lecture series or presentation.
It's why I sign with "Still learning." Since there's no evidence for anything after this life, then it seems to me we'd best spend what time we have doing good, and that includes education, no matter how old, no matter what previous career choices.
Still learning,
Robert
Yes, it's very nice. Yay for us. But there has to be a better way to do it. Autotune is EVIL. Please save us from this tripe. What these scientists have to say is great stuff, but the music is putrid and boring and cheesy and autotune makes me want to stick an icepick in my ears.
Please make it stop.
heironymous #8 wrote:
To add to what Robert said, be a public advocate for science. Does your state have a citizens for science group? Join it. Start one if it doesn't. Support pro-science political candidates. Run for the local school board. Without scientifically savvy citizens, science can't function properly.
Furthermore, be careful of what you wish for. Science as a career can be brutal and miserable, where only the apparently anointed succeed. Speaking from experience, I think that one must be a little crazy to work as a scientist.
I've always loved that line from Dawkins; it's nice to see it used as the song's chorus.
PZ is there a GRAMMY in your future
Best Artificial vocals by a male Atheist Science Blogger
Maybe a gig on Idol...you could replace that simon guy
My favorite is still "The Unbroken Thread," but I liked it. Cool PZ cameo.
To those who don't like Auto-tune, I say, "You shall build a turtle fence!"
Now I Really Hate™ Auto-Tune.
Am I the only on to think Brian Greene looks like a Python? Terry Jones, possibly.
Cool on being featured.
And the day that something Auto-tuned wins a Grammy, I'm burning my guitars.
Yes, please. Please stop chaining these people down and forcing them to watch or listen to these Autotuned videos! How I long for a world in which people are freedom from - not just freedome of - Autotune!
bart - interesting idea. I still like the first of the videos made best, and think it seems more musical and with an actual tune rather than something more like random jazz riffs. I wondered if that was just because it was the first one I saw and then the newness wore off, but now I wonder if it isn't that Sagan has a more melodic voice to start with.
Yes Professor Myers, I'd say you are in VERY select company at this point in your outstanding career.
Who knew it would be due not to your extraordinary literary fecundity, nor your speed-freak-after-a-bowl-of-Captain-Crunch-style blogging talents, or your encyclopaedic knowledge of evolution and all things slimy and cephalopodic...
... but your rather gravelly-half-pack-a-day-autotuned-soprano singing voice?
Talk about a modern Renaissance man! Encore!
This is the kind of thing we need more of to "sell" science to the public. No, it's not rational, but neither is the public. I wonder how much it would cost to get one of the best of these on TV at Super Bowl half time...
And how well might a similar approach to "selling" atheism work?
Don't knock it out of hand.
-fyreflye
You were a choirboy? Interesting!
You think there is a single song that is published and marketed by a major music company now that isn't autotuned?
Kudos PZ Meyers! I find the Symphony of Science series beautiful and inspiring. I teared up a bit when I first heard A Glorious Dawn. I think it’s a great tool for evangelical atheists. I send them to all of my christian fundamentalist friends hoping the music will touch that part of them usually reserved for the Sunday service.
Any way self-educated outsiders can help make it less miserable?
Citizen Science is a great idea, but it recruits essentially unskilled highschoolers. Surely all those lecture series on the net and books can be more than entertainment or skeptic debate training to folks who don't make science their primary source of income/torment.
There are a lot of whims that get set aside because of budget or thesis-relevance. Is there anything to organize a demand for knowledgable volunteers to help with those to some small degree? A wishlist of simple things grads are too busy to work on?
-Signed, long-time software engineer who enjoys watching/reading about biology
I love these videos. They just make my heart happy.
Esthetics is also a scientific discipline.
I must agree with every previous comment politely puking with regard to autotune horror.
Will have this garbage peer reviewed by fellow scientists of beauty.
Please don´t think this kind of crap will make science or atheism "popular".
PZ, since it's been hours, maybe minutes(or minutes, maybe seconds, pico-seconds) since anyone has gratuitously stroked you, here goes:
I think its very cool to have PZ included with all those great and famous scientists. PZ, you are therefore, by definition, a great and famous scientist! One with a nice auto-tunes voice.
"You think there is a single song that is published and marketed by a major music company now that isn't autotuned?"
Absolutely. Yes. There are. Not EVERYTHING these days is autotuned...
I think I read an article way back in the good old days of New Scientist about female voices containing harmonics similar to the more concordant tones in music. But that these voices have a tendency to be too melodic and harder to discern information from in comparison to more discordant or sharper tones.
My guess is that maybe Carl Sagan's voice sat in something of a middle ground between melodic and authoratative. I've dabbled a little in sound engineering and it sounds like the symphony of science guys are using rather dodgy autotune software. None of it is perfect yet, the nasty sound you hear is when the harmonics are pitched up uniformly when they should move relative to each other to make it sound natural, in sound engineering we call it 'munchkinisation', not kidding!
B
Over the holidays I went to the planetarium in Perth (West Australia), and there the dude about to run the show had the Symphony of Science "A Glorious Dawn" track playing in the background as we found our seats. Made the whole experience even better in a comfortable "I am among my kind here" kind of way :))
I'm with No. 12. I'm a still learning and loving it senior.
Nice video, PZ
I knew it was just a matter of time until Melodysheep put PZ in one of his Symphony of Science videos! haha
I always thought Dawkins sounded the most musical in these. Sagan was nice, but he sounds a bit muppety (like Ernie or Kermit) when autotuned.
That was delightful. Just when I despair about modern music, something like this comes along - and causes goosebumps. As I review the thread, I find this is called 'autotune'. Where would there be more of it?
PS: I am a classical music nut, widowed from a choir geek.
PSS: For those of you who don't like it, there is a stop button, you know.
Dear Canuck, agree about the goosebumps - like when someone grates a schoolboard with his or her fingernails.
Beauty is a difficult and debatable issue, but just as important as scientific truth. It´s not a question of pressing the stop button, which of course I did after about 30 seconds. That´s just like the argument "stupid atheists, nobody´s forcing to go to church, stop bitching about religion"
I´m don´t think I need to be sorry or apologize for feeling strongly about ugliness
Really liked it. Sorry for the autotune haters, but I think this kind of thing is essential for reaching beyond the crowd of rationalists and into the larger community where words of wisdom and a picture inside a large black border (aka "inspirational posters") have sold MILLIONS of copies. Reach people where they are.
Add me to the "No to kitschy, gimmicky, techno-tarded, culture-debasing, gorge-inducing, lamest-excuse-for-music-since-christian-rock horror" contingent.
Fortunately there are still some talented folks in this world... Not necessarily talking top-40 fodder though!
How can you not appreciate what John (melodysheep) is doing to bring the teachings of these great men to a broader audience?
His videos are full of comments from people who had no idea who Sagan was and have discovered Cosmos thanks to him.
If it's not your cup of tea, then fine, but there's no need to be an a$$hole and call what he's doing "kitschy, gimmicky, techno-tarded, culture-debasing, gorge-inducing, lamest-excuse-for-music-since-christian-rock horror".
With that out of the way I'll say that it's awesome that at least some of the scientists in these videos are aware of them.
Oh, and do you want to guess how i found this blog? Yup, it was after watching the latest video and googling the different people in it.
That actually moved me almost to tears. I'm so glad I chose to be a scientist.
@jan #39:
I really don't get the comparison. You're on the Internet and you really do have the ability to press the stop button, just read the comments or go to something else that is more to your liking. If religion was like that it would be stupid for atheists to argue about it.
If religion wasn't forced upon society through laws and tradition, it would be a live and let live situation, where we could shut up and let the deluded have their delusions - and I think that this is what we do, most of the time.
We don't go to every Christian-themed website and say "Hey, I'm so tired of your damn Jesus-character, just stop it already!!" - what we do do is fight the influence that Christianity and other major religions has on our collective society. When creationists want laws to have creation taught in science classes we oppose that, when religious groups have campaigns against gender-neutral marriage we argue against them, and so on, because that affects more than just their group.
Auto-tuned songs aren't forced upon you in any such way. And I won't apologize for feeling strongly about "Oh god, would somebody PLEASE stop with the autotune!" and "Autotune is EVIL. Please save us from this tripe"-type comments. You don't need saving - you have the power to save yourselves. And you have the ability to let other people enjoy what they enjoy.
(Ok, so I don't feel that strongly about comments like that. It just kind of grates me that you can't view any sort of entertainment on the Internet without comments on the pattern of "I don't like this so nobody should do this" when the Internet is such a vast place, filled with so much entertainment of every imaginable kind, and you always have the ability to find what you want instead of complaining about what other people like.)
Touchy aren't you, Androly? I don't think calling someone a rude name because they have better taste than you is called for, ever. I was at least trying to be creative in my expression of dislike for this schlock.
You might be right that it does get people interested in science, and that's a good thing - but if I start hearing this in elevators it will be a bad omen for the same culture that is responsible for both disco and rap!
You don't have "better taste". Your tastes are different, but not in any way can they be called objectively "better". That's kind of the whole point of taste. You could try not being such an ass just because not everyone shares your interests.
No, my tastes are better by light years. Now wash your mouth out with soap and try to be a little less sensitive to a tongue-in-cheek comment!
Your tongue-in-cheek comment is not appreciated when directed at someone who is putting time and effort into popularizing science. We've got enough work trying to convince the lunatics that Sagan wasn't Satan's spawn and melodysheep his apprentice. Now we have to come to science blogs and try to convince those that should appreciate this kind of stuff that his efforts are deserving of some recognition, even if it doesn't please your advanced tastes.
Anyway dude, get back to me when you create something that generates 1/10th the interest that John's videos do. Til' then, happy hating.
Ref "Posted by: Matt Cooper Author Profile Page | February 26, 2010 3:36 PM"
I'm with you, it did move me to tears, used up all my wet-wipes.