24 Films for Advent...

...or how to kill yourself slowly before Christmas.

With the 2012 Royal Insitution Christmas Lectures exploring the chemistry of the modern world, we wanted to produce a suitable project to promote the lectures online.

So for the last two months I have been working frantically to create 24 short films, each asking a bunch of well known scientists, science communicators and famous faces what their favourite element is - the films are being released daily and are housed within a beautiful interactive advent calendar built by Archive Studios. View the advent calendar here.

Trailer for the series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRzwOOd_y8&list=PLbnrZHfNEDZzGSpz8MSKaiwChs-7vH_f8&index=1

It's a bit of a silly question so the films are all a bit tongue in cheek to a certain extent, but there's a nice variety across them - from simple pieces to camera, to more involved short films centered on specific elements. The films also include a lovely animated ident produced by the friendly folks over at 12foot6.

The idea for the series came from a question posed to interview candidates for the Christmas Lectures Researcher role - who were asked what their favourite element was and why - the answers given were often surprisingly personal and often witty, it seemed like a great way to explore the elements from a very personal perspective.

We've worked hard to produce a nice variety across the films to avoid repeating the same format - hopefully this will encourage people to keep checking back on a daily basis! The series also includes a huge range of individuals including, amongst others: Brian Cox, Mark Miodownik, Dick & Dom, Helen Czerski, Dara O Briain, Liz Bonnin, Andrea Sella, Jerry Hall and this year's Christmas Lecturer, Dr Peter Wothers. We hope there are a few surprising faces amongst the line up.

My favourite films of the series so far are...

Andrea Sella in the glassblowing workshop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ul8CmUkO4E

Helen Arney's Boron Song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvqrcW77nFM

Jerry Hall talking about Copper:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBJAbSWrymI

Helen Czerski's piece on Calcium:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMNuYOEBOWI

Tech stuff:

The films were pretty much all shot on a Panasonic AF101 - using a range of lenses, however mostly with a Panasonic Lumix 12-35mm lens. For a couple of the films I was lucky enough to work with BBC producer Tom Hewitson, who brought with him a Cannon XF305. Sound was recorded via Sennheiser ew100 G3 wireless radio mic set and also with a Rode NTG-2 shotgun mic. Edited on FCPX and exported as 720p, h264. The films can also be viewed on YouTube and on the Ri Channel.

Hope you enjoy them!

The Plankton Chronicles

A creative mix of beauty and knowledge

Recently on the Ri Channel we featured a new collection of videos from the Plankton Chronicles - a gorgeous web-video project created by research biologist Christian Sardet working in collaboration with Montreal production company, Para Films. Although I tend to refrain from reposting content from the Ri Channel on this blog, I'm really captivated by the work this project is producing, it's simply stunning - see below:

http://vimeo.com/15443242

The series takes you down into the dark alien world of plankton, a category of aquatic life that encompasses an incredibly diverse collection of organisms; one which includes animals, plants, bacteria and archaea. Each episode delves into the life of a particular organism - from iridescent comb jellies to gelatinous zooplankton - all presented through a stunning mix of high definition video, abstract sound design and narration to guide you along. The project aims to illuminate the hidden world of these bizarre creatures and 'magnifies our fascination for the wonders of underwater life'.

Easily the most attractive feature of this project is the incredible macro photography, with illuminated organisms scurrying across jet black backgrounds in exquisite detail. The sound design is also commendable, with synthetic bleeps and pulses underlining the 'otherworldliness' of this complex ecosystem (and is reminiscent of a particularly cherished episode from the BBC Blue Planet series). The videos have also been carefully scripted and tightly crafted for the 'quick-fix' web-audience, with episodes only running for around two minutes each. With this in mind it's important to note that these videos are beautifully paced - allowing the content to breath and flow under its own rhythm, and providing a delicate balance between eye candy and information.

The videos are all presented across an interactive web-platform which pulls together additional information, imagery and extended links. The videos are also available in a choice of either French or English - opening up accessibility further.

We asked project founder Christian Sardet for a bit more detail on the project and I've reproduced some of his comments below:

What are the aims of the Plankton Chronicles and what are you trying to achieve with it?

The series was conceived in the context of the Villefranche sur mer Marine Station an ideal place to study plankton and the Tara Oceans expedition devoted to exploring plankton in all oceans. This scientific adventure definitely raises ecological awareness. Plankton Chronicles deal with biodiversity, but focus mainly on the visual splendor of marine organisms. The series magnifies our fascination for the wonders of underwater life.

What challenges did you face capturing your footage, and producing the videos?

Catching and maintaining species in perfect shape is tough. Luck and patience are keys to success. Filming animal behavior and movements can take hours of trial and error. Use of dark field macroscopy and microscopy help reveal the exquisite patterns of transparent and gelatinous organisms. Filming requires lots of light and  sensitive cameras. We benefited from the great new SLR cameras able to film in HD format which just appeared on the market when we started the project.

What role do you think the internet and online videos play in today’s communication of science and education?

A major role. It is possible to produce quality documents like the plankton Chronicles episodes on a shoe string budget and make them accessible to large numbers of viewers. The ability to create a site with complementary videos, texts and photos is also a great advantage provided by the internet.

What makes a great science communication video?

A creative mix of beauty and knowledge

--

The project is continuing to update new content on a regular basis - check out a selection of works on the Ri Channel or visit the Plankton Chronicles directly to browse the full library of videos.

TED Ed have also made a great short using footage from this project:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFQ_fO2D7f0&w=560&h=315]

(Re)constructing Reality

Okay, so here are a couple of interesting videos relating to the field of photography (or digital image processing to be more precise) that I've come across over the last couple of months. Some of these have been around for a while, but I thought as a collection they were sufficiently interesting to post up on here. What I find interesting about them is the way in which they deconstruct or alter the way in which we relate to reality; slowing down time to observe imperceivable movements or reinterpreting images to reveal seemingly hidden information.

A trillion frames per second

The first is a video from researchers at MIT who've developed a trillion frame per second (fps) camera. That's correct - a trillion. So you're probably used to watching video in the region of 30 fps and that's fast enough to trick your mind into perceiving motion between frames.

However, this camera is capable of capturing light, as it travels from point A to point B. Although it doesn't seem to be able to capture the movement of individual photons, it does seem able to capture individual pulses of light, as they move across the frame or scatter as they interact with certain materials.

Interestingly, it's dubbed by it's creators as the world's 'slowest fastest camera' - despite being able to capture the speed of light, it can only record data in two dimensions and only one of these is spatial (the other is time).

So in order to record enough data to obtain a multidimensional movie, it must record the scene multiple times from slightly different angles and this takes time (up to an hour apparently). Anyway, the video below elaborates on this and features some of the incredible footage captured by the camera.

http://youtu.be/EtsXgODHMWk?hd=1

As the camera requires multiple takes to obtain enough data, it's seems that its applications are somewhat limited. However it's ability to capture light as it scatters across a scene is certainly valuable in the analysis of different materials and could even be used for what its designers describe as 'ultrasound with light'. Read more here and here.

The camera never lies?

The first time I saw this I was pretty stunned. This video basically outlines a new and simple method of realistically inserting objects into an image after it was taken (in post-production essentially). This is done without the user having to perform complex measurements with perspective or lighting - instead, with minimal annotation the user can place objects into an image and the system will work out all the necessary lighting conditions to which it should to conform to. The result, as you will see, is incredible - with the inserted objects appearing as if they existed in the original scene.

What's more, the researchers also found that subjects were unable to tell the difference between real images and images generated by their system. It's looks so good it's almost a little disturbing.

You sort of have to see it to believe it:

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/28962540 w=501&h=376]

You can read more about it here, or their research paper here.

Reconstructing reality?

The last two videos are also pretty smart, describing processes by which poor quality images can be reinterpreted or reconstructed using the information within them.

If you can get past the rather dry voice over, the first involves the reinterpretation of data within an image allowing one to:

"Decide later if it stays a photo, becomes a video or turns into a lightfield so you can digitally refocus"

http://youtu.be/mAS2IxieUj4

The final is one you are likely to have come across and details an extraordinary feature in the upcoming release of Adobe's photoshop series (CS6) - It's an image deblurring feature which seems to work remarkably well, able to pluck lost detail from what seems like nowhere:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q10kwKm77RY&feature=related

I definetely ran out of steam towards the end of this post.

Thanks.

BOOM! - It's the Royal Institution

I've just finished my first month at the the Royal Institution where I've been helping with a new online project, which will hopefully be knocking everyone's socks off once it goes live. So watch this space. Today I popped into the lecture theatre to watch Professor Chris Bishop as he prepared for his upcoming 'Science of Fireworks' public lecture - this mainly involved blowing up balloons containing varying amounts of hydrogen. This produced a couple of rib rattling explosions like this... (obviously all in the name of science).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwp36jqeXsM&w=420&h=315]

The Joy of Birds

Finally figured out how to embedd this video... This is a short video I produced last month with Nisha Ligon, Tom Welch and Camilla Ruz for the Guardian website. It features BBC wildlife presenter Kate Humble and Martin McGill who were promoting their new book 'Watching Waterbirds with Kate Humble' at the London Wetlands Centre.

We got really lucky with the weather. Turning up at Hammersmith station in the morning we were greeted with a torrential downpour - not ideal for shooting wildlife outside. Thankfully the rain subsided just as we arrived at the Wetlands Centre and we were granted with an afternoon's worth of sunshine to walk round the site and capture some of the wildlife on camera.

Check out the video below to have a look for yourself!

Watch here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2011/aug/31/kate-humble-birdwatching-london-wetland-video

... or below if it works:

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The London Wetlands Centre is an unusual oasis of wildlife and greenery which is situated surprisingly within the city confines near Hammersmith. It provides people with a great chance to break free from the usual urban surroundings and take in some of the natural scenery usually reserved to those living outside the city limits.

GO SEE.

http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit-us/london

Three Dimensional Consciousness

Looking into the unconscious mind

Using a new imaging method scientists from the University of Manchester have constructed a three-dimensional sequence of the brain as it loses consciousness. The small study used a new technique called 'functional electrical impedance tomography of evoked response' (fEITER), which is basically a new way of measuring changes in the brain's electrical conductivity. This is useful because changes in electrical conductivity are believed to reflect changes in the brain's electrical activity and by knowing where abouts in the brain this activity is occurring, we can better understand how the brain operates under different conditions; in this case unconsciousness. What's great about this new method is that it has an extremely fast response, performing it's imaging process 100 times a second, allowing the team to monitor the brain's activity in real time!

The team used fEITER to scan the brains of 20 healthy volunteers as they were administered an anaesthetic and imaged changes in the brain's electrical conductivity as it moved from a conscious to an unconscious state. The team found that a loss in consciousness corresponded with changes in electrical activity deep within the brain. The findings support a theory proposed by Professor Susan Greenfield which suggests that consciousness is formed from the unhindered communication between groups of brain cells called 'neural assemblies'. The findings appear to show that when someone is anaesthetised, these small neural assemblies either work less well together or inhibit communication with other neural assemblies.

The use of fEITER is a great advance and a first for neuroimaging, allowing scientists to witness the brain's transition into unconsciousness in real-time. However there is still a lot of work to be done to understand exactly how and why the brain behaves differently in an unconscious state. The fEITER device used will also have a significant impact in many areas of medical imaging, but will be particularly useful in helping us understand anaesthesia, sedation and unconsciousness. Perhaps the most useful application of this device will be in diagnosing neuronal changes which occur in head injury, stroke and dementia patients.

You can watch a video of the fEITER scan here.

Painting with Video

Content is Queen

Below are two very novel and dynamic video portraits generated by artist Sergio Albiac. He has come to call the technique used to create these pieces 'generative video painting'.

http://vimeo.com/24065726

You can see in the movie above, that the portrait is constructed from a 'collage' of different video clips, similar (but wonderfully more complex) to the effect seen in a photo mosaic image.

Albiac describes that his technique...

 “...uses regions of video content to effectively represent or “paint” heterogeneous regions of the image. Both the partial content of the videos and the whole image are fully visible at the same time, widening the possibilities to deliver meaning in a contemporary aesthetic language.”

The effect creates a duality in the work; presenting an un-synced mish-mash of partially visible video content which is used together to construct a more complete, unified form, in this case portraits of two very famous women.

http://vimeo.com/23974393