Merry Science-mas

As we're all gearing up to Christmas I suppose it's time for a little festive cheer - I'm sure you're all familiar with the 'Night Before Christmas' poem, well here it is with a little science orientated revamp! The poem was written (thanks to Ben and Catherine!) and produced as part of my MSc course.

You can listen to it here (to download, right click 'Save target as')

The lovely voices you hear are thanks to (in order of appearance): Tosin, Alex, me, Ben, Chloe, Jack, Catherine and Camilla.

Merry Christmas!

-Ed

Ray-D-8!

So today we took  over (Ed, Katie and Andy) short science and broadcast our own 'take-over' show which focused on the end of the world via Nuclear Annihilation! (Merry Christmas)

We also produced and recorded a little sketch for the show which gave our own take on an emergency broadcast  (Orson Welles style), thanks also goes to 'Nathaniel Wren' who features as the food correspondent.

You can listen to this on it's own here (Right click 'save target as')

Or if you want to listen to the whole episode of Short Science (episode 80), you can check it out here

Drinkers beware

A short video we shot and produced this week to accompany an article appearing in the Imperial College I, Science magazine. Watch out for Adam Ant!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE9BbGHc9Cw]

The article, written by student Katie Tomlinson, dissects the biology of a night out - so we went to the Union bar with a camera to bombard students with a range of questions to see just how well they performed after a few (or in some cases many) drinks.

Remember, drink responsibly (or at least make sure there isn't a camera in the vicinity).

The Sounds of Science #02

SEEING WITH SOUND

In this episode I take a listen to the vOICe technology which has been developed to help the blind ‘see’ with sound.

I'm joined by Dr Michael Proulx of Queen Mary University London who is currently using the vOICe technology to understand how different sense modalities interact to give rise to perception.  Dr Proulx tells me how the vOICe technology can be used to induce a type of ‘synthetic vision’ and how this is achieved through the process of 'sensory substitution'.

To find out more about how the software creates sound from visual information we put it to the test with the use of several interesting images (below).

[slideshow]

So if you ever wanted to know what a banana or even a goat might ‘sound’ like you’ve come to the right place!

[soundcloud width="100%" height="81" params="" url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/16620880"]

You can download the episode here (right click ‘save target as’ to download)

Or listen to this feature within episode 078 of Short Science.

For further information on the vOICe technology, visit: www.seeingwithsound.com

Music to smash atoms to

Kate Simko’s ‘Music from the Atom Smashers' (2009) is a beautiful and serene collection of tracks made as the soundtrack for the documentary ‘The Atom Smashers’ Simko is an American born electronic producer and DJ, who produces an interesting and subtle blend of techno; her classical piano training is certainly evident in the wonderfully rich and melodic textures of her work.

If you have spotify you can check out Music from the Atom Smashers here:

Kate Simko – Music from the Atom Smashers

If you want to listen to her most recent work, check out her Myspace

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa-ypx_wUms]

The film itself details three years at the American Fermilab, examining the concerns arising from the fact that it is often politicians, not scientists, who decide upon the future and value of science within society.

Tuition Fees Protest (10/10/10)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f73pRiGYF4w] A brief video put together by students of the MSc Science Media Production course at Imperial College London – thanks go to Andrew Bailey, Ed Prosser and Katie Draper.

The video reflects upon the mostly peaceful nature of the student tuition fees protest which marched past Westminster on Wednesday 10th November 2010.

The BBC provides useful coverage on the continuing University Funding debate: click here.

The Sounds of Science #01

LHC Sound Project

In the first episode I explore the work scientists have been doing to turn the data from the Large Hadron Collider at Cern into sound.

Through a process known as 'sonification' - data from the ATLAS experiment at CERN can be transformed into sound, providing an insight into what the elusive Higgs Boson may sound like.

[audio "http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13042873/The%20Sounds%20of%20Science_01%20%5BTO%20SEND%5D.mp3"]

You can download the episode here (right click 'save target as' to download)

Or listen to this feature within episode 074 of Short Science.

For more information on the LHC sound project check out http://lhcsound.hep.ucl.ac.uk/