Video
cagapakis | January 21, 2010Oscillators are huge in synthetic biology. They're an exciting challenge, very hard to make in a controlled, robust way, they have the potential to be useful in many applications, like well-timed drug delivery, and they can tell us a lot about how natural circadian rhythms work. A new paper in this week's issue of Nature from Jeff Hasty's group at UCSD presents a new synthetic biological oscillator in bacteria. While there have been a lot of oscillators designed in the past few years, this one is special because it couples oscillations in fluorescence to bacterial quorum sensing, allowing the…
grrlscientist | January 21, 2010tags: synthetic biology, molecular biology, genetics,Bacteria make Mexican Waves, A synchronized quorum of genetic clocks, bacteria, fluorescence,biological clock, NPG, peer-reviewed research, NATURE, 10.1038/nature08753, streaming video
By synchronizing our clocks, we can coordinate our activities with people around the world. Now, scientists have genetically engineered bacteria to synchronize their molecular timekeepers, creating the stunning fluorescent waves that you see in this video (this video shows new research published today in NATURE).
Read the original research here: http://dx.…
grrlscientist | January 20, 2010tags: Metaphorically Speaking, language, pattern recognition,conceptual synesthesia, cognitive dissonance, James Geary, TEDTalks, streaming video
Aphorism enthusiast and author James Geary waxes on a fascinating fixture of human language: the metaphor. Friend of scribes from Aristotle to Elvis, metaphor can subtly influence the decisions we make, Geary says. This talk is interesting for many reasons, not the least of which is because the speaker uses an extended metaphor to describe metaphors.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference,…
grrlscientist | January 20, 2010tags: The Downfall, Hitler, funny, weird, parody, scientific research paper, peer-review process, scientific publishing, streaming video
OMG, this is the most hilarious scientific research video parody I've seen. It is a fly-on-the-wall view of what happens when a research paper is sent out for peer-review and the mysterious reviewer #3 demands more experiments before the paper is accepted for publication. Unfortunately, it is closer to the truth than the public (and even some scientists) realizes ...
"Or I could write it up for Scientific American."
Hahahaha!
grrlscientist | January 19, 2010tags: neurobiology, The Neurons that Shaped Civilization, mirror neurons, Ghandi neurons, social behavior, Lamarkian evolution, Darwinian evolution, VS Ramachandran, TEDTalks, streaming video
Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of…
grrlscientist | January 19, 2010tags: How It's Made: French Fries, food science, engineering, technology, streaming video
Long, skinny French fries .. are NOT EXTRUDED! Toldyaso! Don't believe me? Watch this video! Yes, I win this argument! Muahahahaha!
Vinegar on fries? Ew! But that's how those wacky Brits eat "chips", I guess.
grrlscientist | January 18, 2010tags: Guide to Asian Emoticons, online life, cute, Japan, culture, silly, big boobs, streaming video
This is a rather silly guide to Asian emoticons .. except the emoticons I am seeing in this video are Japanese .. is Japan the emoticon capital of the Asian world? Hrm. Anyway, the straight boyz in the audience will especially like this video -- need I say more? =^.^=
grrlscientist | January 17, 2010tags: Dragons Den, Bruce's Juice, television, snake oil, cure-all, WTF, broken dreams, streaming video
Ultra-pure water with silver in it is a cure-all? Um, I've never watched Dragons Den and if this is an example of the sleaze they feature on it, then I never want to. How cruel is it to raise someone's hopes and dreams only to have her lose everything, including her life?
"Bruce, I don't think you're crazy, but you disgust me" Robert opines.
H/T: more friend and colleague, Cath Ennis.
grrlscientist | January 17, 2010tags: I Have a Dream, Martin Luther King, Jr., MLK, politics, civil rights, history, United States, streaming video
If you live in the USA, then you should know that today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This is my favorite holiday in the States because it celebrates values instead of gross consumerism. It celebrates America's core values of human/civil rights as well as freedom for all (not just for the rich, as is the case now).
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I Have a Dream
August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.
[Transcribed from the video]
I am happy to join with you today in…
grrlscientist | January 17, 2010tags: religion, school, religion, catholicism, comedy, humor, fucking hilarious, Dave Allen, streaming video
Irish Comedian Dave Allen (1936-2005) remembers his introduction to religion -- his first day of school.
David Tynan O'Mahoney (Dave Allen) was popular in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada in the 1960s, 1970s and also in the 1990s; he became known in America through reruns of his shows on public television.
Allen's act was typified by a very relaxed, intimate style -- he would sit on a chair, smoking and holding a glass of whiskey. An atheist[1] (according to Allen himself, "…
grrlscientist | January 16, 2010tags: religion, IDiots, satire, parody, comedy, humor, fucking hilarious, Hitler, DOWNFALL, streaming video
The so-called Discovery Institute is a pretentious über-Christian disguise for creationism and an ultra-Conservative social agenda called The Wedge Strategy. So-called Intelligent Design theory is plagiarized from William Paley's long-refuted Blind Watchmaker argument, and is merely creationism in a not-so-cunning disguise.
Having neither facts nor logic at their disposal, the polemicists of the so-called Discovery Institute have been forced to resort to lies and subterfuge. One of…
grrlscientist | January 16, 2010tags: Kitten Mittens, funny, weird, silly, cats, pets, streaming video
Does your cat make too much noise? Try Kitten Mittens!
Interessante Showeinlage eines verrückten Katzenbesitzers.
grrlscientist | January 15, 2010tags: The Downfall, Hitler, funny, weird, silly, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, streaming video
It's a bad day for everyone! In this parody, Hitler finds out the devastating news just before a planned vacation to Southern California: Leno Is Moving Back To Late Night. The film used to parody the NBC Late Night situation is DOWNFALL starring Bruno Ganz. Essay below the jump is a brief blow-by-blow synopsis of Leno-O'Brien opinions on the matter.
A brief blow-by-blow synopsis of Leno-O'Brien opinions on the matter:
MONDAY
Jay Leno, monologue from "The Jay Leno Show" : "I take pride in one thing. I…
grrlscientist | January 15, 2010tags: art, wildlife art, stop-motion painting, Riparian Rashomon, Agami Heron, Agamia agami, Brilliant Forest Frog, Lithobates warszewitschii, entertainment, Carel Brest van Kempen, streaming video
This is a fascinating stop-motion video of the creation of artist Carel Brest van Kempen's painting, Riparian Rashomon. This is a diptych (two-panel) piece, vertically oriented. The upper panel is painted first, then the lower one, and finally the two are brought together as intended. Each panel depicts a different viewpoint of the same event: a Brilliant Forest Frog evading an Agami Heron in a…
grrlscientist | January 14, 2010tags: How it's Made: Aluminum Foil, aluminum, material science, chemistry, technology, streaming video
The video shows the process of producing everyday use aluminum foil from huge, raw aluminum ingots.
rallain | January 14, 2010If you know me, you know I love Tracker Video Analysis. Basically, it is a free-java program that allows you to get position-time data of a moving object from a video. In Tracker version 3.10, there is now the autotracker feature. This will automagically mark the location of an object moving in a video. How do you use it?
First, the video. This is a video I made of a plane landing at an airport. Not much exciting going on, but that never stopped me before. I put this video on vimeo instead of youtube because vimeo allows you to download the original video.
Landing Airliner from Rhett…
grrlscientist | January 14, 2010tags: art, wildlife art, stop-motion painting, Eastern Painted Turtle, Chrysemu picta, entertainment, Carel Brest van Kempen, streaming video
This is a fascinating stop-motion video of artist Carel Brest van Kempen's painting of an Eastern Painted Turtle, Chrysemu picta, a common and widespread American reptile. In my opinion, Carel Brest van Kempen is the finest wildlife artist alive today.
The original painting has been sold. Carel Brest van Kempen published a stunning book, Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding [my review] and writes the art blog that goes by the same name, that might be of…
grrlscientist | January 13, 2010tags: conservation, reptiles, King Cobra, Ophiophagus hannah, Gharial, Gavialis gangeticus, water pollution, Romulus+Whitaker, TEDTalks, streaming video
The gharial, Gavialis gangeticus, and king cobra, Ophiophagus hannah, are two of India's most iconic reptiles, and they're endangered because of polluted waterways. Conservationist Romulus Whitaker shows rare footage of these magnificent animals and urges us to save the rivers that sustain their lives and our own.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers…
cagapakis | January 13, 2010There have been a lot of great Darwin themed things popping up in the past few months in celebration of the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, but none as avant garde and awesome as "Tomorrow, in a year", an electro-opera based on the life and work of Charles Darwin by The Knife, a Swedish electronic music duo (and one of my favorite bands). From the website of the company performing the opera, Danish theater group Hotel Pro Forma:
An opera singer, a pop singer and an actor perform The Knife's music and represent Darwin, time and nature on stage. Six dancers form the raw material…
rallain | January 13, 2010Check out this picture.
These camera flashes are just awesome (well, they look awesome). They are not a very useful thing for pictures in this case. Here is the problem. Well, first here is what the flash on a camera is supposed to do. Suppose there is a camera and a ball in a dark room. In order to get light to reflect off the ball and be detected by the camera, you need light. The flash is that light. You can think of it like a flashlight that is only on for a moment. It doesn't need to be on for long since it doesn't take very much time to get an image.
Notice that I drew red…