The Story of You

Here's a nice new animation from Nature and narrated by the excellent Tim Minchin looking at the history of genetics, the human genome and the ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) project - a project designed to identify and characterise 'functional elements' in the human genome. It's obviously very much oversimplified but is clever and charming nonetheless.

How not to encourage girls to study science

What were they thinking? It really beggars belief that a whole host of people in the EU Commission got it so wrong.

Of course, I'm talking about THAT video. If you haven't seen it, check it out below.




As part of an entirely laudable campaign  (complete with #sciencegirlthing hashtag)to encourage girls to study science and think about careers in science, the European Commission released a launch video which was so far wide of the mark that they had to confirm that it wasn't some sort of joke. As one spokesperson for the Commission put it on twitter: "(the) Commission doesn't really do irony".

The video seems to have been removed from the campaign's Youtube account but not before some kind soul copied it and reposted the offending clip.

To be fair, I'm sure no harm was meant. The campaign website itself seems fine, but perhaps a little light on detail. The Commission moved to deflect some of the online criticism late on Friday evening by encouraging their Twitter followers to help them build a list of #realwomeninscience.

The swift and overwhelming online reaction seems to have ensured that the video will live long online as an example of how not to promote science (on anything for that matter).

At least they got one bit right. Male scientists are all tall, clean shaven and handsome in their glasses and white coat......ahem. ‪

On a lighter note...

Singing vegetables? Well, surely with current advances in GM crops, it can only be a matter of time! :) Via (broadsheet.ie)

The Vegetable Song (tweet @totallyeustus) from Si Bennett on Vimeo.

Fish Using Tools - Caught on Camera

The use of tools had long been considered a uniquely human trait until Jane Goodall's reports of tool use in chimpanzees in the 1960s. Now many other primates, some birds, dolphins, elephants and other animals have been observed using tools. Although there have been some reports of fish doing the same, we now have conclusive evidence, with stunning video footage of an orange-dotted tuskfish using a rock to open a clam.

The video has been published in the journal Coral Reefs by Giacomo Bernardi, an ecologist at the University of California. While diving in four feet of water, the scientist watched the fish carry out the elaborate procedure twice before switching on his camera and recording the event.

Shot in Palau in July 2009, the video shows the fish digging a clam out of the sand, carrying it to a rock and throwing it repeatedly against the rock to crush it.

"What the movie shows is very interesting. The animal excavates sand to get the shell out, then swims for a long time to find an appropriate area where it can crack the shell," Bernardi said. "It requires a lot of forward thinking, because there are a number of steps involved. For a fish, it's a pretty big deal."

The actions recorded in the video are remarkably similar to previous reports of tool use by fish. Every case has involved a species of wrasse using a rock as an anvil to crush shellfish.

"Wrasses are very inquisitive animals," Bernardi said. "They are all carnivorous, and they are very sensitive to smell and vision."

Writing in the published article, Bernardi notes:  "the similarity of the behaviours [between wrasse species] suggest that either they emerged independently or they correspond to a deep-seated beahvioural trait"

Bernardi says there may well be other examples of tool use in fish that just hasn't been observed:

"We don't spend that much time underwater observing fishes," he said. "It may be that all wrasses do this. It happens really quickly, so it would be easy to miss."

Funny Science: all-action Darwin

Dana Carvey is Charles Darwin in this all-action epic.

Dana Carvey is "DARWIN" - watch more funny videos