Audio: The History and Development of Chemotherapy Drugs

Distillations Podcast: The History and Development of  Chemotherapy Drugs

Back over the summer I recorded an interview with Dr Viviane Quirke of Oxford Brookes University about the history and development of cancer chemotherapy drugs. The piece was recorded for the Chemical Heritage Foundation's brilliant and award winning podcast 'Distillations' - which has sadly now come to an end.

The piece was edited by Mia Lobel and can be listened here:

http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/media/distillations/181-chemotherapy.aspx

The episode also features a very personal story by producer Christine Laskowski who looks at her father's cancer treatment with a drug called Cisplatin - a drug that was developed in the 1970s and despite very nasty side-effects - is still used to treat cancer today.

If you don't already listen to the podcast, it's well worth checking out the Distillations back catalogue - with close to 200 episodes - there's some great stuff there waiting to be listened to: http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/media/distillations/index.aspx

Video: This Film Sucks! - The Science of Leeches

Tim Cockerill returns to take a  look at some leeches in a short piece produced for YouTube's Geek Week back in August. If you're a bit squeamish this probably isn't for you! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jerqq06uxAo&w=640&h=360]

We couldn't really make a video about leeches without showing off their impressive feeding apparatus, a Y-shaped jaw packing in roughly 300 teeth! This was a tricky shot to achieve, we had to persuade the leech to attach to a glass plate, holding it in position by hand, allowing us to shoot from below with a macro lens. It was a great sight to behold once we finally got it and it certainly helps bring something to the film that you hopefully wont have seen elsewhere.

We also had to get some footage of a leech feeding, so we set one loose on Tim's arm, shooting a time-lapse to demonstrate how much they can expand during the feeding. Once it had attached to feed, we were very much at the mercy of the Leech's hunger as we couldn't shoot the final shots until it had detached. As Tim mentions in the film, it's not a good idea to pull or burn leeches off as this may cause them to vomit their stomach contents back into the open wound - not a good idea if you don't know what the leech as been feeding on previously. The best course of action to take is to let detach when it's good and ready.

We also wanted to dispel a common myth about leeches using anaesthetics to dull the pain the sensation of pain whilst feeding - as Tim reports there's little scientific evidence to support this and he certainly reports to feel a stinging sensation as the leech feeds on him.

After about 3 hours the leech was finally full and very happily detached from Tim's arm - during 'the feeding' the leech utilises an anti-coagulant (called hirudin) and as you can see in the film this prevents the blood from clotting, causing the wound to bleed profusely four a couple of hours after it's detached!

Christmas Lectures 2012 - Behind the Scenes

The Modern Alchemist

One of the great pleasures of working at the Royal Institution is witnessing the frenzy that goes on behind the scenes in the lead up to the Christmas Lectures. This year the lectures cover the chemical elements and are presented by Dr Peter Wothers, a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and teaching fellow at the University of Cambridge.

The lectures themselves are available for a limited period on iPlayer, but will also be available to stream indefinitely on the Ri Channel, the team behind them have done an incredible job and so they're well worth a watch - you don't necessarily need any scientific background or knowledge of Chemistry to enjoy them!

Naturally this year's subject lends itself well to the presentation of scientific demonstrations and there has been plenty of opportunity for loud bangs and fire spewing explosions. However, the lectures have also provided chance to perform some very rare and unusual demonstrations - and it's these that have formed the subject of a couple of behind the scenes films produced for the Ri Channel:

Reacting Caesium and Fluorine (First time on camera)

Fluorine and Caesium are the two most reactive elements in the periodic table and so for the lectures, Peter was very interested in trying to react them both together. However their extreme reactivity also means that they're both very dangerous to work wit, so it was important Peter found the right person to work with! Enter Dr Eric Hope a Fluorine specialist at the University of Leicester and so on a grey day in November we travelled up to see how this reaction might work and I think it might be the first time it has ever been caught on camera!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLOFaWdPxB0

What was particularly nice about this meeting was that Peter had never previously seen Fluorine and Eric had never seen Caesium! This demo features in the second lecture, 'Water: The Fountain of Youth'.

Cloud Chamber

I was so pleased I got to see this demo with my own eyes, I'd previously heard a lot about cloud chambers and seen a few bits of ropey footage on the internet, but never actually seen one in the flesh (so to speak). It's essentially a particle detector with a sealed environment that is supersaturated with alcohol vapour and as charged particles zip through the vapour they ionize it, allowing condensation trails to form.

It's an absolutely beautiful thing to look at, as it makes visible the background radiation that exists all around us and on the last day of recording I was lucky enough to capture this close-up on camera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OtiTeNWPH4

This demonstration features in the third lecture entitled 'The Philosopher's Stone'.

Testing Hydrogen Balloons

Lastly, the Christmas Lectures wouldn't be complete without some sort of gratuitous explosion and so here's a little film about testing different sized hydrogen balloons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLuOM9aOWvk

Taking a Peek Inside the Living Lung

For the final Royal Institution Advent film, I travelled to the University of Sheffield MRI Unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, to look at how a very strange element is being used in a pioneering MRI technique to image living lungs. http://youtu.be/dmPmHSVqfZE

The film is presented by this year's Christmas Lecturer, Dr Peter Wothers (University of Cambridge) who takes part in the research programme by having his own lungs scanned. Conventional MRI is usually pretty poor at imaging areas such as the lungs, which have very little fatty tissue and water (MRI scanners essentially detect radio frequencies given off by protons in Hydrogen nuclei) - and so this novel technique involves the inhalation of hyper-polarised Xenon to image the ventilated lung. Xenon is an inert gas so is relatively safe to inhale, although it does have some unusual effects on the human body, especially on the voice - it's also a mild anaesthetic - so watch the film to see how it affects Peter!

Xenon Lungs

As the Xenon is only present within the respiratory system, signal is only detected within ventilated areas - areas in which Xenon is not present appear black on the resulting image. This therefore allows medical professionals to identify damaged or obstructed areas of the lung which may be poorly ventilated or not at all, providing a novel method of efficiently and non-invasively examining the lungs of a living patient.

The research is being conducted by Dr Jim Wild and his research assistant Helen Marshall (both featured in the film) at the University of Sheffield and is funded by the EPSRC. More information on this technique can be found here.

The films forms part of a series of 24, released daily in the Ri Advent Calendar here. The films are also available on YouTube and on the Ri Channel.

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!

In The Dark: Beyond The Grave

It's halloween, so I thought it'd be a good opportunity to post some audio shorts and transitions produced for the In The Dark 'Beyond The Grave' event, held back in July. The event took place in the derelict chapel in the grounds of Abney cemetery, Stoke Newington. We ran two sessions with the later taking place in almost complete darkness. Audience members were locked inside the Chapel for their own safety! These shorts acted as transitions between the main pieces featured at the event.

http://soundcloud.com/eprosser/sets/beyond-the-grave

BONUS TRIP TO HELL: Brighton Horror Hotel

Not quite a bonus or a trip to hell, but anyway here's an extra recording of a Ghost Train taken whilst on a trip to Brighton back in May. Walking along the pier we came across the 'Horror Hotel' and couldn't resist paying for a ride inside. Screams generously provided by my girlfriend.

[audio https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13042873/Fright%20Night/Ghost%20Train.mp3]

Expanding on the power of the image

Non-linear use of Multimedia

I was recently made aware of the online platform Thinglink.com - which essentially allows you to 'tag' an image and embed media from around the web - such as from YouTube and Soundcloud. Anyway this really got me thinking about some of the potential that such a platform offers - images provide a really powerful and direct way of communicating something (an image is worth a thousand words, bla bla) - and being able to combine an image with additional multimedia or information can offer a much richer experience to the audience.

For example, you could use an image as a backdrop for presenting other media (such as related video and audio), or you could expand upon an image, by tagging key areas and providing additional context with video, audio, text and other images.

I thought a lot about how this could be used in terms of story telling and perhaps even communicating science, particularly by augmenting image diagrams. There's loads of cool interactive / animated diagrams and educational apps already out there, that essentially bring textbooks into the digital sphere, but they take a lot of 'know-how' and time to develop. Thinglink offers a quick and accessible route for users to create their own interactive diagrams and multimedia packages, through which to share a rich wealth of information and also tell stories through non-linear pathways.

So I took my recent audio documentary on the vOICe technology (you can listen to it here) and I cut out sections that matched up with a diagram I found in a New Scientist article on the same subject (you can read it here).

Diagram below:

I then uploaded my clips to Soundcloud here:

http://soundcloud.com/eprosser/sets/the-voice-thinglink-samples/

and used Thinglink to embed the short sound files into the New Scientist diagram image - to produce an interactive diagram of sorts. The audio accompaniments augment the visual impact of the New Scientist diagram with some added 'context' from my documentary. Users can explore the subject at their own pace and explore the clips in any order they choose. Click here to see it all together.

This was just a really quick proof of concept mock up, using existing work - but I'm really keen to start using this platform as a way of quickly creating rich multimedia packages, which combine images, video and audio to communicate stories, ideas and information in a non-linear fashion.

Audio feature: Oh, I See

Seeing with your ears.

An audio feature I produced over the summer for Pod Academy, exploring the development of the vOICe technology and it's impact on blind users. The vOICe is a computer program developed by dutch engineer Dr Peter Meijer which essentially converts images into sound. Through training and experience blind users can learn to interpret these sounds as a sort of 'synthetic vision'. The piece explores the technology from the perspective of blind user Pat Fletcher, and uncovers some of the science and technology behind its use with it's creator Dr Peter Meijer and cognitive psychologist Dr Michael Proulx (University of Bath).

It was my thought that technology and the computer would be my way out of blindness.

-Pat Fletcher, vOICe user

http://soundcloud.com/eprosser/oh-i-see

Download it HERE

Essentially, the software takes spatial information captured by a camera and converts this into a coded soundscape. Users can then learn how to decode this auditory signal into a visual one thanks to a process known as 'sensory substitution', where information from one sense is fed to the brain via another. Fundamentally what the vOICe is doing is re-routing information usually obtained by the eyes and delivering it through another sense organ, the ears.

Although the neuroscience and psychology behind the technology is still largely unknown, it is thought that the visual cortex is eventually recruited to process the incoming auditory information and through experience, is able to decode it as spatial / visual information. There's a great article over at New Scientist that goes into greater depth about the neuroscience behind it  - including a useful diagram depicting how the technology works.

The software is currently freely available and can be used with virtually any imaging device, from webcams to camera-mounted glasses – there’s even an android version available for mobile devices! With the increasing prevalence of mobile computing, the vOICe technology is liberating users from their blindness, allowing them to step outside and experience the world through a completely new visual perspective.

For more information visit: http://www.seeingwithsound.com/ where you can experiment with the vOICe for youself and learn more about how it works. I've also prepared a page with a collection of images as heard through the vOICe software, including some featured within the piece above.

Music

1. Hypermagic – Start Again Start
2. Ed Prosser – Untitled
3. - – b31
4. No Color – L’Aube
5. Hpermagic – Pico Bisco
6. Ed Prosser – Untitled
7. Marcel Pequel – Four

Freesound Credits (freesoundarchive.com)

1. Alarm Clock – 14262__xyzr-kx__alarm-clock
2. Camera Shutter – 16071__heigh-hoo__nikonf4
3. Data sound - 3647__suonho__futuretrocomputing-10-suonho

Steam Powered (Zoom H4n vs Sony PCM-10)

Field recordings from Bitton Railway Station (a comparison between the Sony PCM-10 and the Zoom H4n)

A few weeks ago, as part of a filming trip with work I went to Bitton Railway Station just outside of Bristol. Whilst there I thought it would be a good opportunity to throw my audio recorders about and hopefully capture some nice recordings of steam engines. It would also give me a nice opportunity to make comparisons between my Zoom H4n and Sony PCM-10 recorders - not only on sound quality* but on ease of use.

We were filming there as part of an Ri Channel filming project involving engineers (find out more here), we were interested in using old steam engines at Bitton to illustrate the problem of dynamic loading in material fatigue. A common problem with old steam engines is that they imposed an uneven / cyclic loading pattern, which was bad news for old railway bridges - often leading to their collapse and horrendous train accidents (see Dee bridge disaster).

I absolutely love the complex sounds of machinery and especially the rare sound of an old steam engine - so whilst in between hoping around madly with cameras, changing lenses or getting lost in clouds of steam I placed my recorders mostly at random and very much hoped for the best. I'll go through the results below:

*A caveat - the recorders weren't placed in identical locations and the recordings aren't all made simultaneously - so the comparisons are in no way definitive.

Sony PCM-10

I was really pleased by the quality of these recordings - theres a lot of detail in them and I found that this recorder relative to the Zoom H4n was much easier to manage, in terms of setting it down somewhere and getting it into record quickly. Due to its generous battery life and size I could very easily leave it powered on and bung it in my trouser pocket - this allowed me to get it out very quickly and stick it on record at a moments notice - something that wasn't as easy to do with the Zoom.

Another, very simple note - in this instance I much preferred the Sony's analog gain dial, which is a physical wheel (rather than the Zoom's buttons) - it's not only easier to make minute adjustments but also easier to set without necessarily having to monitor the output (for example just by looking or feeling for the position of the dial)- the Zoom has a digital interface, with values from 1-100, although it's more precise, it's a little more fiddly to make quick adjustments and is at a greater risk of creating handling noise if adjusting during a recording.

Recordings are in stereo using the inbuilt mics, light eq added in post, removing some low end and a subtle limiter placed on it.

Train Departs Station 1 (01:31)

Recorded at the end of the station platform, with the train about a meter or so away. You can hear a few voices in the background and the controllers whistle just before it departs - I especially love the sound of the train whistle from a distance with its light reverb, it has a very haunting quality to it. The train was probably a couple of meters from the recorder.

[audio "https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13042873/Bitton%20Railway/Sony/Train%20Departs_1%20%28Sony%20PCM10%29.mp3"]

Train Departs Station  2 (02:40)

This was both the best and the worst recording of the day, recorded from 'the other side of the tracks' - in other words from the ground across from the station with the train a couple of meters away, departing from center to left of the recorder. There's some nice detail in this as the train moves into the distance, particularly its whistle and the rattly carriages, but the beginning is pretty useless as it peaks and distorts!

[audio "https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13042873/Bitton%20Railway/Sony/Train%20Departs_2_Clipped%20%28Sony%20PCM10%29.mp3"]

Setting the levels was total guess work as I had to just leave the recorder running whilst we filmed - so in this case I wasn't so lucky! Bugger.

Here's the same thing happening, but from the camera input  (Panasonic AF101) via a Rode NTG2 shotgun mic (mono):

[audio "https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13042873/Bitton%20Railway/Rode/Train%20Departs%20Station%20Rhode%20NTG2.mp3"]

Zoom H4n

I've always loved my Zoom, but I must admit on this occasion it was a lot more hassle to manage. It's a lot bulkier, meaning it's a bit of a faff to carry around and keep about your person, especially when you've got a lot of other gear. It also seemed to take a lot longer to power and set up (esp having to put the wind shield on each time) - the Sony seemed to manage fairly well without a windshield (but there wasn't much wind). However the recordings were pretty nice - sometimes they sounded a bit 'muddier' than the Sony but this could be due to the recorders physical placement, it was often a bit further away from the action than the Sony.

Note - these recordings (I think) were taken at different times to the Sony recordings. Recordings in stereo with built in mics - light eq added in post to reduce low-end and a subtle limiter.

Train Departs Station 1 (01:22)

Recorded from the station platform, a little further back than the Sony - train moves across to the right, I particularly like the sound of the carriages as they move across the center and again the train's whistle in the distance is lovely.

[audio "https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13042873/Bitton%20Railway/Zoom/Train%20Departs%20Station%20%28Zoom%20H4n%29.mp3"]

Train Enters Station (00:50)

A lot noiser this one - this captures the train entering the station from the other end, passing from left to right - the recorder was pretty low on the station floor and a couple of meters from the platform edge, it picks up a lot of voices and excited children!

[audio "https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13042873/Bitton%20Railway/Zoom/Train%20enters%20station%20%28Zoom%20H4n%29.mp3"]

Train Departs Station 2 (01:10)

Still at the other end of the platform, this time the train departs moving from right to left - you can clearly hear the controllers whistle before the train departs and voices from people standing about the platform. Again the recorder was a couple of meters from the platform edge.

[audio "https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13042873/Bitton%20Railway/Zoom/Train%20departs%20from%20station%202%20%28Zoom%20H4n%29.mp3"]

--

Final thoughts...

Okay so this isn't a definitive comparison review, but personally I found the Sony PCM-10 to be the more useful recorder in this circumstance. It's far more portable - I tend to keep the Sony on me all of the time now and only bring the Zoom when I know I'm going to be recording something. If I was concentrating specifically on capturing audio, then the situation might well be different, but in this instance, when I wanted to quickly make decent recordings without much thought, the Sony was ideal. Monitoring audio without headphones was also a lot clearer with the Sony as it has little green and red (for when audio peaks) indicator lights mounted above the screen below the mics - this is great for quickly knowing when your record levels are set too high - even from a distance I could see this.

I think the pre-amps in the Sony are also much quieter than the Zoom's which often leads to recordings with much less noise and hiss. This is especially useful when capturing the more subtle, quieter details of a soundscape.

Ultimately the portability and battery life of the Sony means that I can just leave it powered on and bung it in a bag or pocket and because of this it's the recorder I tend to reach for more often.

If you have any thoughts, questions or experience with these recorders I would be interested to hear about them in the comments below. Additionally all these recordings are available under a Creative Commons licence - attribution, non-commercial, share-alike and I'd be happy to send them to anyone who wants them.  Hopefully I'll get round to adding them to the Freesound Archive.

Pod Academy - In The Morgue

I've recently started producing podcasts for a new non-profit organisation called Pod Academy - they release weekly podcasts on academia and research, covering everything from the arts and culture to science and the environment. There's a really nice range of subjects covered by the podcasts and their library is growing on a weekly basis. You can browse what they have to offer here.

Auto-erotic Asphyxiation

My latest offering takes a trip around the morgue of the Sunderland Royal Infirmary, with pathologist Dr Stuart Hamilton as a guide. The piece provides a glimpse into mortuary life,  from working with the dead on a daily basis, to dealing with cross dressing 'auto-erotic asphyxiation' fatalities.

You can listen to the piece over at the Pod Academy website here. Or download it here. The piece takes material recorded for my larger documentary piece 'The D-Word'.

If you want to stay up to date with the podcasts you can subscribe to their podcast feed via iTunes.