I think the draw for me is the cadence of her videos. There’s an overarching story that’s being told, but Sage throws in these quick edits and asides, brief pauses where she has this quasi-whispered conversation with the viewer. It’s done to great comedic effect, and quite entertaining.
“Physically, the 500-year experiment consists of 800 simple glass vials containing either Chroococcidiopsis or another bacterium, Bacillus subtilis. The glass vials have been hermetically sealed with a flame. […] Every other year for the first 24 years, and then every quarter century for the next 475, scientists are supposed to come test the dried bacteria for viability and DNA damage.”
“That’s because the Principle of Priority binds all taxonomists into a complicated network of interdependence; just because a species description is wrong, poorly conceived, or otherwise inadequate, doesn’t mean that it isn’t a recognized part of taxonomic history. Whereas in physics, say, “unified theories” scrawled on napkins and mailed in unmarked envelopes end up in trashcans, biologists, regardless of their own opinions, are bound to reckon with the legacy of anyone publishing a new name.”
“When the next full-margin rupture happens, that region will suffer the worst natural disaster in the history of North America. Roughly three thousand people died in San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake. Almost two thousand died in Hurricane Katrina. Almost three hundred died in Hurricane Sandy. FEMA projects that nearly thirteen thousand people will die in the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami.”
“Sugar Beet Based Anti-icing Deicer Fluid”
Has this happened to anyone else before? Does anyone know why or how something like this happens? There are a lot of complicated things in this world that I don’t understand, but up until fairly recently, I kind of thought I had ice cubes (water and a low temperature) pretty much figured out. Turns out, not so much.
The thing with dry ice is that, through a process known as sublimation, it shifts from a solid to a gas without an intermediate liquid stage.
If you’ve seen it done in science classes, you know the cool “fog effect” that happens when you mix dry ice and water. The present we got Cameron was basically this experiment, but with a slight twist. Luckily for us, Cameron had never experienced dry ice before… so it got to be a cool thing on multiple counts for him.
A few days ago, Liz and I were sitting in the living room watching Netflix. We had just seen the Dumb Ways to Die video earlier in the day, but still had the song stuck in our head. So we fired up YouTube on the PS3 to watch it… and this is what I happened to see:
Moran Cerf is a neuroscientist that was involved with a study that enabled researchers to project an image of what a person was thinking about. When his paper was published in Nature, the media quickly misconstrued his work and talk of a “dream encoder” began to take over.
Great animation explaining how we go about measuring incredibly large distances. Created by Royal Observatory Greenwich, it takes some pretty big/complex concepts and distills them down in a really cool/fun way (I love the little 40W lightbulb guys).
I fell in love with one the first tracks from Boswell – We Are All Connected. If you haven’t heard this, I strongly urge you to click the link and check it out – it’s a fantastic example of a autotune and mashup combining and becoming something great.
Before we get started with the giggles, let’s take a moment to talk about the McGurk effect: an interesting audio illusion that comes from our eyes seeing one thing, and our ears hearing another. Specifically, when different video is shown with the exact same audio… viewers will alter what they hear to fit what they see.
For over 15 years, scientists have been trying to figure out the molecular structure of a protein that causes AIDS in rhesus monkeys. Gamers did it in 10 days.
Artist and Maker Reuben Margolin has an uncanny ability to create sculptures that capture the feel of natural movements. Looking at his work, it’s hard not to be mesmerized both by the water-like motion of his pieces… but also by the incredibly complex mechanical components that make the motion possible. It’s fascinating to get a tour of his workshop, and…
Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry is sponsoring a contest where one lucky winner will get unprecedented (unlimited?) access to the entire museum. The only catch? You have to agree to spend 30 days inside the museum, without leaving. We’re looking for someone to take on a once-in-a-lifetime assignment: spend a Month at the Museum, to live and breathe science…