Posts Tagged ‘science’
They Might Be Giants Video for Time
January 19th, 2010
Here Comes Science is supposedly a kids’ album but it’s my favorite They Might Be Giants album. I love it. And I had the opportunity to interview John and John at their Brooklyn rehearsal studio, and attend one of their family shows at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. It’s our newest video for Time Magazine:
Is Time Travel Possible?
January 9th, 2010
With so many recent movies and TV shows about time travel – Star Trek, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Lost, FlashForward, Heroes – I thought it might be fun to explore the science behind this science fiction device. Our most recent video for Time.com asks, Is Time Travel Possible?…
Science Cookies
December 13th, 2009
Awesome science cookies in a series of posts to a food blog by a biological anthropologist.
Aren’t all anthropologists biological? I’m a biological comedian.
Ooh, she also has Space Invaders!
Videos for Time Magazine
November 20th, 2009
You can easily access all the science videos I’ve made for Time Magazine’s website at this link – the results from a search on my name (Brian Malow) at Time.com.
Science Comedy Show in Sunnyvale
October 13th, 2009
Science Comedian Brian Malow
presents
Rational Comedy for an Irrational Planet
An evening of science humor
8pm, Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Rooster T. Feather’s Comedy Club
157 W. El Camino Real
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
(408) 736-0921
I've Been Scooped Again
October 9th, 2009
A couple of the presentations at today’s “Let’s Have An Awesome Time Doing Science” conference were conducted via Skype video.
Uri Alon of the Department of Molecular Cell Biology & Department of Physics of Complex Systems at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, gave a particularly fun presentation entitled, “Peace Love Science Happiness.”
He performed his song “I’ve Been Scooped Again” – with audience participation from across the globe. Here’s a snippet:
Music & Lyrics ©2009 Uri Alon
“Let’s Have An Awesome Time Doing Science” was a 3-day science conference (and part unconference) held at UCSF’s Mission Bay Campus, Oct. 8-10, 2009. Scientists from various fields and at all stages of career development met to discuss ways to help make science as fun, supportive and nurturing as possible.
Ten Things I Love About My Academic Job
October 8th, 2009
Wrapping up a great first day of the “Let’s Have An Awesome Time Doing Science!” conference/unconference, Ron Vale, Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology at UCSF, endeavored to impart some optimism and positivity to some proceedings that would no doubt also explore some of the challenges and downsides of doing science.
He began by telling us that he has friends in more lucrative jobs that are anxious to retire. They’re always talking about how they hope to be able to retire five or ten years early – not because they have something in particular they long to do – they just don’t enjoy their careers and want them to end so they can do something else.
Ron said that someday he will retire from his position as a university professor – but he doesn’t look forward to it. Like his family, his job is integral to his life and who he is.
His presentation was entitled, “Why I Love My Job,” and was structured around a Letterman-style Top 10 List (though in no particular order). He spoke for several minutes on each point, and the list itself doesn’t really do the presentation justice, but he successfully conveyed how much he loves his job.
Ten Things I Love About My Academic Job
by Ron Vale
1. Freedom to choose your own directions (like Ira Mellman said earlier, “I am serially interested”)
2. Reinventing oneself throughout one’s career – flexibility
3. Participating in a great era of discovery
4. Being part of an international community joined by common interests
5. Pleasant travels
6. A social and “youthful” job
7. Many measures of “success”
8. Flexible daily schedule (“I don’t have to report to the office when the stock market opens” “I own one suit and a bunch of t-shirts”)
9. Doing some good
10. Scholarship
Why is Science Important?
March 18th, 2009
Alom Shaha has made a wonderful 28-minute film entitled “Why is Science Important?”
Shaha is a physics teacher at an inner city school in the UK, and also a TV producer who specializes in science programs. The film was made to be broadcast on Teachers TV (a UK cable channel) but it’s also available online in excellent HD quality – and can even be shared and embedded, as seen below (you can view a larger size if you click over to his site).
The website also contains “a collection of thoughts from leading scientists, public figures …and you.” Add your thoughts on why science is important and they’ll appear alongside the thoughts of Bad Astronomer Phil Plait, SETI’s Seth Shostak, LabLit’s Jennifer Rohn, and many others.
Visit Alom’s YouTube Channel – sciencefilms – to see more answers to the question “Why is Science Important?” as well as some of his other films.
Links:
Why is Science Important?
Bad Astronomy blog
SETI
Seth Shostak
LabLit
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Vega Next 3 Exits
March 17th, 2009
Oops… I must’ve taken a wrong turn at Arcturus…
From the Wikipedia entry on Vega:
Vega is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, the fifth brightest star in the night sky and the second brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus. It is a relatively nearby star at only 25.3 light-years from Earth, and, together with Arcturus and Sirius, one of the most luminous stars in the Sun‘s neighborhood.
Vega has been extensively studied by astronomers, leading it to be termed, “arguably the next most important star in the sky after the Sun”.[8] Historically, Vega served as the northern pole star at about 12,000 BCE and will do so again at around 14,000 CE. Vega was the first star, other than the Sun, to have its photograph taken and the first to have its spectrum photographed. It was also one of the first stars to have its distance estimated through parallax measurements.
Also: Vega became the first star to have a car named after it when Chevrolet launched the Vega in 1971.
Science Comedian in The Manitoban
February 24th, 2009
There’s a new Q&A with me up at The Manitoban – the inventively-named official student newspaper of the University of Manitoba, in Canada.
Student journalist Trevor Bekolay contacted me two weeks ago, intending to write a short article about science and humor (or “humour,” as he calls it) but, after transcribing our telephone conversation, he decided to just run it as a Q&A with a brief intro…
“No one has explored the connection between science and humour more than Brian Malow. A veteran standup comedian, Malow frames his witty observations with scientific theory, asking from his audience a basic understanding of the universe and rewarding them with laughter from start to finish.
“Malow is treading in uncharted territory for a standup comic…”
Thanks, Trevor!
One of the topics we discussed was science and science fiction, which leads me to my next post – Astronomy in Science Fiction – about Mike Brotherton’s fantastic new anthology of science fiction stories that feature accurate portrayals of science concepts.
Links:
Q&A: Brian Malow, science comedian
Related post: Astronomy in Science Fiction