Dara Ó Briain's Science Club: The Story of Inheritance
"This first episode in a new six-part science series presented by Dara Ó Briain takes a look at the weird and wonderful world of reproduction and inheritance.
Dara chats to leading biologist Professor Steve Jones and finds out how the bicycle did more to improve the human immune system than any other invention, comedian Ed Byrne discovers just how closely related he is to a Neanderthal and materials scientist and engineer Mark Miodownik creates a DNA cocktail with the help of some strong Polish vodka.
Dara is also joined by neuroscientist Tali Sharot, who explores the cutting-edge science of epigenetics and reveals how exercise can change your DNA. Science journalist Alok Jha asks if the human genome project was oversold and the studio audience are put to the test in the elusive search for attraction.
Combining lively and in-depth studio discussion with exploratory films and on-the-spot reports, Dara Ó Briain's Science Club takes a single subject each week and examines it from lots of different and unexpected angles, from sex to extinction, Einstein to space exploration and brain chemistry to music. It brings some of the world's foremost thinkers together to share their ideas on everything, from how to avoid asteroid impact to whether or not we are still evolving."
(BBC Two, UK)
Fig.1 this animation is from Episode 1 or 6 of Dara Ó Briain's Science Club, Tuesday 6 November at 9pm on BBC Two, animated by 12Foot6, Published on YouTube on 5 Nov 2012 by BBC.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Pink Flamingos: a provocative celebration of otherness
"'Pink Flamingos was an antihippie movie made for hippies who would be punks in two years. It's a pothead movie. I wrote it on pot.' - John Waters"
(Jeff Jackson, DreamlandNews)
Fig.1 John Waters (1972). trailer for "Pink Flamingos".
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
How and When Prototyping Practices Affect Design Performance
"How does the structure of prototyping practice affect learning, motivation, and performance? In this talk, I will describe research on iteration and comparison, two key principles for discovering contextual design variables and their interrelationships. We found that, even under tight time constraints when the common intuition is to stop iterating and start refining, iterative prototyping helps designers learn. Our results also demonstrate that creating and receiving feedback on multiple prototypes in parallel - as opposed to serially - leads to more divergent concepts, more explicit comparison, less investment in a single concept, and better overall design performance. This talk highlights relevant research in cognitive and social psychology and shares the results of our preliminary design studies."
(Steven Dow, 19 November 2009, Google Tech Talk)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
A Tamagotchi Creation Myth
"A tamagotchi is a 'cyber creature who has traveled millions of miles from its home planet to learn what life is like on earth' (Bandai 1996). These creatures were found by a professor and his assistant, Mikachu. The two built these creatures 'little egg-shaped protection cases so they could survive on earth' (www.mimitchi.com). If these lovely virtual creatures receive 'proper care and feeding', they will grow into 'different shapes and personalities' and may live on earth for as long as 31 years (www.mimitchi.com). (One earth day is equal to about one year for tamagotchi.) However, as soon as one 'wakes up' his or her tamagotchi 'from its million light-year sleep by removing the insulating sheet', constant attention has to be given to the tamagotchi (Bandai 1996). It does not matter if one is attending a meeting or if one is cooking, a tamagotchi will still beep at its owner for attention. And if it is ignored when it is in need, the tamagotchi will 'grow into an unattractive alien' and eventually 'return to its home planet', which is millions of miles away. But by pressing the reset switch on the back of the case, the leveling of timeline occurs - another tamagotchi wakes up from its million light-year sleep."
(Elaine Lai)
[Tamagotchi's were first released in Japan on November 23, 1996.]
CONTRIBUTOR
The Constellations ProjectSHARE
