"Brain cells glow with different colours under UV light in this image of the brainstem of a "Brainbow" mouse.
The trick is to add a piece of DNA containing the genes for several different fluorescent proteins to a mouse, along with a mechanism that randomly cuts out some of these genes when activated in brain cells. As a result, different brain cells produce different mixtures of fluorescent proteins, creating a kaleidoscope of colours. " THIS IS SO PRETTY!
This post is to celebrate my Brian Cox video having over 1,000 views!
I made the video a few months ago, before the Wonders series had even finished. I heard the Owl City song and just got this UNCONTROLLABLE urge to make this video. Which is always the best kind of urge when undertaking an editing project. I scoured the internet to find a way of making iplayer downloads editable, a process which I will NOT be revealing here.... Suffice to say it is very complicated. I used two of the episodes, and edited it right down to the most artyfarty pretty shots - Of which there are MANY because the cameraman is clearly in love with Brian. (who isn't?) So it's had 1,100 views today. I have been watching the views go up almost obsessively. I especially enjoy the 'discovery' tab which shows me how people are finding the video... Now the yellow bits are where my video has been on 'featured video' which is totally cool! But I get a lot of views from people looking for that bloody 'Brian Cox Spoof' video because mine is a response to it. Yes its funny, but it got 131,158 views in the same time that mine got 1,000 and that pisses me off. Because mine had ten times the work go into it. *sulk* But on a positive note, the video has gone down very well, with a bunch of people favouriting it and one guy even stole it and uploaded it seperately! ...I chased him up and made him take it down. Turns out they're hankering for a better quality upload, which turns out to be trickier than anticipated. As for whether Brian himself has seen it, who can tell, but I sent it to him a gadzillion times so lets hope so. :)
They're all bursting with really really interesting stuff, the sort of stuff that's a little bit hard to make yourself watch without checking your facebook in the middle but its worth it, really. (the internet has definitely shortened my attention span...)
Here are a few choice articles and videos that I've enjoyed the most:
British Amputee Cat First to Get Bone-Grafter Exoprosthetic Paws
this is so cute.. and, frankly, should have been done years ago. I caught a program about pioneering vetenary surgery on pets that is using artificial knee joints and stuff, but they were saying how been doing it to humans for decades, why not animals?e.g. RACEHORSES?
(I'm leaving out the whole ethical business here but in terms of pushing boundaries its all hunkydory)
Chatroulette Plans Penis-Recognition Algorithm to Block Pervy Users
so so so funny. This is best appreciated if you have spent an evening on chatroulette, where you will discover that 3 out of 4 people just turn out to be a guy having a wank. Penis recognition software?? seriously? I loved the comment of one guy who said
"Why do I get the impression that these same wierdos will start to dress up their penis in odd costumes to bypass the software?"
Incidentally the picture is from possibly the best south park episode ever, which deserves a blog in itself.
Clay Shirky: How cognitive surplus will change the world
this is a good'un, its about all the faffing we do on the internet in our spare time and what it can be used for. It's also interesting because he basically explains how we are more generous in a social contract than in a monetary one. It's nice to hear people talking positively about the internet for a change. He says how all our new technology has revealed how generous we are as a race and how much we enjoy sharing.
Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy?
This one really got me thinking. Its basically about how we have two types of happiness, synthesised and natural, and how in society we PERCEIVE synthesised happiness to be inferior to natural - BUT IT ISN'T!!! Because when we 'make do' we are actually happier than when we get what we 'want'... I found it really relaxing cos it was like, you'll be happy no matter what happens to you.. But sabine said it made her all nervous like if you understand this video you will be happy
Jonathan Harris: the Web's secret stories
Last one from TED. Another corker about the internet. It's not that great but what I love about it is the visualisation of information, which is something cropping up an awful lot at the moment with google maps and iphones and stuff.
Time Lords discovered in California
OKAY so it's not really about time lords, its about synaesthesia and I LOVE SYNAESTHESIA, I do kind of wish I had it.. I'm always on the look out for new combinations of senses to check whether I have any of my own wacky little eccentricities.. 'even numbers ARE warm coloured!!!' and so on So these people see time, mostly in circular shapes like one woman has a calendar thats a circle around her body. I get that, because in my head the yearly calendar is like a clock layed flat. But anyway imagine being able to see time!? reminds me of Donnie Darko with the tube coming out of his stomach.
There's tonnes of other stuff but to be honest the best place to find this sorta thing is on Derren Brown's blog or his twitter - sounds mental but he is ridiculously busy finding interesting articles, I can't keep up with him. I'm going to sleep now, got a horrible cold but a day off tomorrow and its set to be a scorcher. Toodles!
Saturday 3 July 2010
I'm sitting in bed next to a sleeping lois in whitechapel. shes knackered cos shes been working all day and then we went to gay pride in soho and got a bit tiddly and had chinese and ice cream. But i'm chronically nocturnal and I was lying looking at the stars from the massive open window and the steam rising from the hospital incinerator and my head was whirring so I started to type. I've played a lot of pokemon since I moved out of halls. (maybe its a clinging on to doing stupidly childish timewasting stuff leftover from furzedown) Sabine got me into it, so I blame her. basically what I didnt realise is that you can download a gameboy visualiser thing onto your laptop and then play loads of different gameboy games on it AND you dont even have to play it little, you can make it full screen if you like! The last time i played pokemon was when i was about 9, so it was familiar but i didnt know it back to front (like sabine haaar har) I got sapphire only cus it was the first that happened to work when i downloaded it. im actually finding it enjoyably challenging, but training up my pokemon in the long grass was a little monotonous. the game is pretty funny, I saved some screen shots of the bits that made me laugh: what's the obsession with the soil being 'soft and loamy'???anyway i had to stop because when i went to bed the trees outside my window looked like pokemon (a charizard and an abra to be precise) and then i had horrible swirly dreams about pokemon battles where i couldnt work out which types were most effective against each other. (cos its not logical right, fire is really effective against electric, but theyre all metal and stuff??)
im working on monday for two weeks and its a fine job but really mind numbingly boring sometimes so i need stuff to occupy my head with like, interesting things so if anyone has any cool thought provoking stuff i could do with it about now.all im going on at the moment is the TED lectures, ive watched one today - was about cognitive surplus, pretty much my area.. and it was about how people are really generous and enjoy sharing and we've not realised this as much as we have in the new digital world and stuff. http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cognitive_surplus_will_change_the_world.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2010-06-29&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email
Incidentally the picture is from possibly the best south park episode ever, which deserves a blog in itself.