Periodic Table of Videos viewers may have noticed our new video this week about element 65 - Terbium.
It contains footage shot in Yttertby, Sweden, where the element was discovered.
I travelled to Ytterby with Pete Licence in November 2008 (was it really that long ago!?)
Some photos from the trip are here.
We made a series of films, the main one being this.
However while we were in the snow-filled quarry, we filmed little updates for the four main elements named after the village (Ytterbium, Yttrium, Terbium and Erbium).
With the publication of this week's Terbium video, I've now used all four of those extra snippets.
Friday, 30 April 2010
Bibledex nears completion
Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write: I've devoted most of this week to the Bible!
That's because I'm trying to finish a major video project I've been working on called Bibledex, making videos about every book of the Bible (well, the 66 most Bibles contain).
They aren't religious films, they're just supposed to be an academic yet curious look at what be the world's most famous collection of texts.
I still have four videos to go, but this week I finished all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
Here's the last one I edited (which ironically was probably the first one written - Mark).
The thing I found most interesting in this video is that the supposed last words of Jesus ("My God, My God, why have you forsaken me") may have a totally different meaning to what most people think... I love finding out stuff like that!
As someone who does so much work on science films, some people thought it strange I'd tackle a project about the Bible.
But I hope anyone who watches will realise this is not about God or religion... It is about curiosity and sharing knowledge.
I also like to think I ask some challenging questions of the theologians.
Check out the videos at www.bibledex.com or youtube.com/bibledex
Many of them include some great footage we filmed in Israel.
By the way, all this work does not mean I've neglected my science duties... This week's science videos have included videos on Benzene, Terbium and Electrical Conductivity. Check them out too!
That's because I'm trying to finish a major video project I've been working on called Bibledex, making videos about every book of the Bible (well, the 66 most Bibles contain).
They aren't religious films, they're just supposed to be an academic yet curious look at what be the world's most famous collection of texts.
I still have four videos to go, but this week I finished all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
Here's the last one I edited (which ironically was probably the first one written - Mark).
The thing I found most interesting in this video is that the supposed last words of Jesus ("My God, My God, why have you forsaken me") may have a totally different meaning to what most people think... I love finding out stuff like that!
As someone who does so much work on science films, some people thought it strange I'd tackle a project about the Bible.
But I hope anyone who watches will realise this is not about God or religion... It is about curiosity and sharing knowledge.
I also like to think I ask some challenging questions of the theologians.
Check out the videos at www.bibledex.com or youtube.com/bibledex
Many of them include some great footage we filmed in Israel.
By the way, all this work does not mean I've neglected my science duties... This week's science videos have included videos on Benzene, Terbium and Electrical Conductivity. Check them out too!
Monday, 26 April 2010
What did you eat for breakfast?
When recording interviews, I need to check the audio levels being produced by microphones.
To do this, I usually ask the interviewee a banal question - typically "what did you have for breakfast?"
This has resulted in me (accidentally) collecting a lot of answers to this question, which I recently put together into two compilations.
First, here are the answers given by theologians from the Bibledex project.
And here are the responses from a selection of scientists, mainly from the Test Tube project.
To do this, I usually ask the interviewee a banal question - typically "what did you have for breakfast?"
This has resulted in me (accidentally) collecting a lot of answers to this question, which I recently put together into two compilations.
First, here are the answers given by theologians from the Bibledex project.
And here are the responses from a selection of scientists, mainly from the Test Tube project.
Friday, 23 April 2010
Immortal Worms make a splash
Aziz Aboobaker was one of the first scientists I started following for the Test Tube project back in 2007.
His explanation of "Immortal Worm" research remains the most watched video in Test Tube's short history.
So it was great to see him and a colleague publish a notable paper this week, which has attracted the attention of scientists and mainstream media alike.
Here's the short video I did with Aziz to explain the latest news.
My only disappointment as an outsider is that the gene has such a boring name - Smed-prep.
For the sake of YouTube, I've been trying to convince Aziz to let me give it a better nickname, like "The Immortality Gene" or "Hydra Gene" (because of the head whole re-growth thing).
Aren't I just a typical sensationalist journalist!? But as a typical scientist, Aziz is happiest when it's just called Smed-prep!
Either way, it's still pretty fascinating stuff.
Here is Aziz's appearance on the BBC World Service.
And the paper itself can be found here.
His explanation of "Immortal Worm" research remains the most watched video in Test Tube's short history.
So it was great to see him and a colleague publish a notable paper this week, which has attracted the attention of scientists and mainstream media alike.
Here's the short video I did with Aziz to explain the latest news.
My only disappointment as an outsider is that the gene has such a boring name - Smed-prep.
For the sake of YouTube, I've been trying to convince Aziz to let me give it a better nickname, like "The Immortality Gene" or "Hydra Gene" (because of the head whole re-growth thing).
Aren't I just a typical sensationalist journalist!? But as a typical scientist, Aziz is happiest when it's just called Smed-prep!
Either way, it's still pretty fascinating stuff.
Here is Aziz's appearance on the BBC World Service.
And the paper itself can be found here.
Sixty Symbols Word Clouds
In my last post I looked at comments made on our chemistry videos.
Today I'm doing the same thing, but with physics and astronomy videos from the Sixty Symbols project.
YouTube users have made thousands of comments on the videos, totaling 151,000 words.
Here's a graphic representation of the 50 most common words, made with the Tag Crowd website.
A better graphic showing more words (with some occurrence numbers) can be found on the Sixty Symbols Flickr page.
And here is a Wordle graphic of the most used words in Sixty Symbols comments (using the same data).
Again, a better quality version can be found on Flickr for a closer look.
(Note: I have used comments from the start of the project up to 23 April 2010)
Today I'm doing the same thing, but with physics and astronomy videos from the Sixty Symbols project.
YouTube users have made thousands of comments on the videos, totaling 151,000 words.
Here's a graphic representation of the 50 most common words, made with the Tag Crowd website.
A better graphic showing more words (with some occurrence numbers) can be found on the Sixty Symbols Flickr page.
And here is a Wordle graphic of the most used words in Sixty Symbols comments (using the same data).
Again, a better quality version can be found on Flickr for a closer look.
(Note: I have used comments from the start of the project up to 23 April 2010)
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Popular Words on YouTube
I've pulled together all user comments from the Periodic Table of Videos YouTube channel.
It totaled more than 450,000 words.
And with the wonders of modern technology (and a handy website called Tag Crowd) here are the 50 most popular.
A bigger graphic showing the top 100 and the number of occurences can be found on our Flickr page (click on "all sizes" when you get there for a better look).
And here's what ever-popular Worldle spat out... Looks a bit different!
Bigger version found here (again click "all sizes" for a better look).
Little surprise the most common words included "video" and "element".
But some other interesting inclusions were "hair" thanks to Professor Poliakoff, "awesome" and "thanks".
We're hoping to have some university experts have a closer look for any interesting trends, but the word clouds are just fun to look at.
(Note this was for video and channel comments made on our videos to 21 April, 2010)
It totaled more than 450,000 words.
And with the wonders of modern technology (and a handy website called Tag Crowd) here are the 50 most popular.
A bigger graphic showing the top 100 and the number of occurences can be found on our Flickr page (click on "all sizes" when you get there for a better look).
And here's what ever-popular Worldle spat out... Looks a bit different!
Bigger version found here (again click "all sizes" for a better look).
Little surprise the most common words included "video" and "element".
But some other interesting inclusions were "hair" thanks to Professor Poliakoff, "awesome" and "thanks".
We're hoping to have some university experts have a closer look for any interesting trends, but the word clouds are just fun to look at.
(Note this was for video and channel comments made on our videos to 21 April, 2010)
Monday, 19 April 2010
Gigayear: 1,000,000,000 years
How do we decide what films to make for the Sixty Symbols project?
Sometimes the answer's right in front of our faces.
This is part of an email exchange between myself and astronomer Chris Conselice, who kindly agreed to help make a video.
CHRIS: Sure (I will help), on what topic?
BRADY: You tell me! You're the astronomer! What do you tell people that makes them go "wow, that's cool!"
CHRIS: The problem is that astronomy doesn't have too many 'symbols' - at least in what I do, which is galaxy evolution/formation. I suppose what interests people the most is the study of the earliest galaxies back to when the universe was less than 1 Gyr old, and how galaxies got to be the way they are today through star formation and merging, etc.
BRADY: What is a Gyr?
CHRIS: Haha, right, already I'm too technical! It is 10^9 years, or a billion years.
BRADY: That's your symbol!!!!! To people like me that is amazing... That you work in a world where you have a shorthand symbol for A BILLION YEARS that you use so casually!
CHRIS: Interesting, yes, that could work.
And here is the video we made.
Plus there is some extra interview footage here.
The inspiration between every video is different, but I thought this was a nice example of a good idea coming from left field (to borrow an Americanism, in honour of Chris's heritage!)
(PS: I looked up the origin of the saying "out of left field" and, as bit of a baseball fan, found it fascinating.)
Sometimes the answer's right in front of our faces.
This is part of an email exchange between myself and astronomer Chris Conselice, who kindly agreed to help make a video.
CHRIS: Sure (I will help), on what topic?
BRADY: You tell me! You're the astronomer! What do you tell people that makes them go "wow, that's cool!"
CHRIS: The problem is that astronomy doesn't have too many 'symbols' - at least in what I do, which is galaxy evolution/formation. I suppose what interests people the most is the study of the earliest galaxies back to when the universe was less than 1 Gyr old, and how galaxies got to be the way they are today through star formation and merging, etc.
BRADY: What is a Gyr?
CHRIS: Haha, right, already I'm too technical! It is 10^9 years, or a billion years.
BRADY: That's your symbol!!!!! To people like me that is amazing... That you work in a world where you have a shorthand symbol for A BILLION YEARS that you use so casually!
CHRIS: Interesting, yes, that could work.
And here is the video we made.
Plus there is some extra interview footage here.
The inspiration between every video is different, but I thought this was a nice example of a good idea coming from left field (to borrow an Americanism, in honour of Chris's heritage!)
(PS: I looked up the origin of the saying "out of left field" and, as bit of a baseball fan, found it fascinating.)
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