Evolution! Beautiful! Engrossing! ... and gross.

Nothing makes science more fun than a catchy song.

You might recognize this tune.

A University Education

Father Guido Sarducci was a famous character from ... like ... the 70s.  Here's a great analysis of what a student gets out of a traditional University Education.

Creature Comforts

Nick Park is famous for his Wallace and Gromit claymation movies.  He also did Chicken Run.  There's a series called "Creature Comforts" which uses the voices of people on the street around which claymation characters are set.

Here's one that includes evolution.

The uncanny valley

For human simulations - especially androids - there's a term that's used to describe the creepiness in seeing a mannequin that's recognizably human but falls short:  The Uncanny Valley.  Usually the term describes situations where the automaton is really, really close to being a human and is "wrong" in subtle ways (kind of like that old motion-capture movie, The Polar Express).

This video features original music and the simulation mannequins for medical science students.  I would say they're identifiably "human" and not very close.  But the Uncanny Valley here is going strong.  Suuuuuuper creeeeeepy.

Ask Dr. Science

I wonder why scientists are treated with such disdain?

B. R. A. D.

That stands for "Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dormroom" by Derek Low.  He even elected to go with that strange Google Glasses soundtrack.

Horrible Histories - Natural Selection

I got my first "Horrible Histories" book when I was in London for a conference.  I loved the authors' instincts about how to make corny - but not too corny - jokes about history and provide a lot of facts of daily life that aren't captured in traditional history materials.  They use alliterative titles like "Rotten Romans" or "The Terrible Tudors" (the latter is the book I bought).

Well, they have a TV show that is based on snippets taken from the various books.  The TV show bounces through the time periods more than I'd like, but they caught the irreverence and wit of the books.

Here's Charles Darwin.  Singing.

Pythagasaurus rex

I know, I know.  You want more math.  The Lehrer bit wasn't enough.

Okay, here you go!

Ads with animals

Okay, so this totally ain't science.  But they use animals!  Good HD action in them, too!

More physics

If you liked the sublimation of hot oil shown by William Shatner in my other posted video, you might be a physics nerd. Here's a video (in real time!!) of what happens if a railroad sealed container isn't vented properly.  It was emptied out and the hot gas remained inside, displacing volume.  The gas cooled, reducing the volume inside.

Safety dictates that the workers would have to keep a vent open after emptying it to avoid this problem.  This was a safety demonstration to show the public the power of our atmospheric pressure!

Note that air pressure works differently from gravity.  If you forgot in what ways, you can watch this.  Note that not everyone has a great control over gravity.

Five Minute University

Oh, I can't believe I left this out!

Father Guido Sarducci was a hit on Saturday Night Live.  I don't know what other classic bits he's put together, but I must say this is my favourite by far!

The cyber-conductor

My kids are playing at the Jubilee Auditorium tonight for the Kiwanis festival.  It'll be a long night:  they start at 4 pm and go to 9:30.  Penny's out of town tonight, so it's just us three... I'll take the kids out for a treat afterwards.  I know Tim's a bit under the weather - had a sleepover on the weekend (therefore no sleep) and then went skiing with his class yesterday.  A total phlegmball today.

So I was happy to see this cute piece to show them when we get home!  Thanks to Rob Willard, a friend from Stampede band a few decades back, who put this on his Facebook page!

Julie Child: cook, spy, and biologist

No joke:  you might have heard of this famous chef through the 2009 movie Julie and Julia and so you might be familiar with her expertise in French cuisine.  She also served during World War II dealing with sensitive documents and even helped with research into shark repellant.

This video once was used in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's "Life in The Universe" gallery (it's since been closed and the video is no longer available there).  Some clever soul saw a great opportunity to make a joke regarding "primordial soup" by having it explained by a world-famous chef!

Physics!

No, not really.  In fact, this video is completely anti-science.  But it makes me feel good after watching it!  I'm a big fan of Christopher Walken, and don't mind Fatboy Slim.  In the interest of the theme, though, note how Christopher defies gravity.

Don't try this at home!

Old but still magnificent

Tom Lehrer is a comic musician and has had a few great pieces. This is the classic: The element song. 

   

And if you've seen that already, how about THIS educational ditty?

Brinicle of Death

This isn't really humour - especially not for the starfish it affects!  But it certainly is "science".

The temperature of the briny water is below freezing - of normal water - so it remains fluid.  It also becomes dense enough to sink.  It causes the less salty water outside to freeze solid to form the "brinicle".  Coooooool.

Old but always relevant: The Medieval Help Desk

Introducing ... "The Book".

I'm getting an iPad and was thinking about whether my mother, an avid reader, would do well with something like that.  Or a Kobo or Kindle.  Then I remember what it's like when the scrabble game on her computer isn't loading fast enough.  I get a call:  "I don't want to be a bother, but..." and, after I explain that I can get over there after picking up my kids from band practice and get some water boiling for supper, and also get the grades in for class, she'll prod "Well, yes, those are all important things, but if you were just to pop over for a minute, you can do all those things afterwards".

And then when I realize she's off to Arizona tomorrow, I imagine myself trying to talk her through technical assistance on one of those toys.  Then I want to cut my wrists.  I'll let her stick with the bound book.  We'll both be happier.

Art!!!!!

I love cleverness. I don't understand art, but I know what I like.

This is clever use of shadows.  The first panel is the day view.   You can see the statue clearly in this park in Kaunas, Lithuania during the daytime.  Dots on the wall behind seem out of place.  At night the carefully-place street light adds context by putting the statue's shadow in position by the dots on the wall!

"The Sliver of Perception"

This cartoon from the Abstruse Goose very cleverly points out why science is so important.

(Via Pharyngula)

Arachnogiggles

When I was growing up, I loved the "Hinterland Who's Who" spots that came on during commercial breaks.  It's got a very distinctive flute solo that announced when it was to begin, then the announcer would go into some detail about the habitat of the featured creature.  We'd get some interesting facts and after about a minute of education, back to animated mind-candy.

It was so Canadian.  It was just like a film loop - sometimes the sound wouldn't quite synch, there were lines scratched into the celluloid, and the picture jumped a bit.  I can imagine some grant of $50 being handed to a graduate student in ecology to put these together with the available equipment of the time.

This is a great sendup of the old HWW set.  In the originals, there was no experimentation being done on the creatures, but you'll see why that's important here: