Tag Archives: webcasts

Friday Fun: Tortoise and the Cat

Once again the tortoise show persistence can pay off:

a fierce little tortoise that would not allow a cat to invade what it perceived to be its territory. Instead, it actively sets about attacking and ultimately expelling the feline, which at first cannot believe the sheer audacity of this small but spirited creature.

Ever-encroaching urbanisation is just one of the onslaughts natural spaces around the world are facing. The killer tortoise of Port Elizabeth, South Africa as this little fellow has become known is a small but powerful symbol that some things are worth fighting for.

Related: Bunny and KittensBackyard Wildlife: Turtlefun with catsAgeless Turtles

Science Postercasts

I wrote about SciVee, over a year ago, saying I thought they could become a valuable resource. It has been taking longer to really get going than I thought it would but this new feature, Postercasts, is great. I am glad to see SciVee living up to my high expectation. Keep up the great work SciVee. The experience can still use improvement but this is a great start.

They have provided a tutorial on: How to Synchronize my Poster to my Video. I hope some of our readers try this out.

via: Interactive Virtual Posters

Related: Engineering TVScience WebcastsMagnetic Movie

Algorithmic Self-Assembly

Paul Rothemund, scientist at Cal Tech, provides a interesting look at DNA folding and DNA based algorithmic self-assembly. In the talk he shows the promise ahead for using biological building blocks using DNA origami — to create tiny machines that assemble themselves from a set of instructions.

Algorithmic Self-Assembly of DNA Sierpinski Triangles, PLoS paper.

I posted a few months ago about how you can participate in the protein folding, with the Protein Folding Game.

Related: Viruses and What is LifeDNA Seen Through the Eyes of a CoderSynthesizing a Genome from ScratchEvidence of Short DNA Segment Self AssemblyScientists discover new class of RNA

General Biology Berkeley Course Webcast

General Biology Course at University of California – Berkeley, Fall 2007. Instructors John Forte, R Fischer and R Malkin. “General introduction to cell structure and function, molecular and organism genetics, animal development, form and function. Intended for biological sciences majors, but open to all qualified students.” A great service from Berkeley with video and audio… Topics include: Macromolecules structure and function, How cells function-an introduction to cellular metabolism and biological catalysts, Microbes – Viruses, Bacteria, Plasmids, Transposons and Homeostasis: The body’s defenses.

Related: Science and Engineering Webcast DirectoryHarvard Course: Understanding Computers and the InternetBerkeley and MIT courses onlineArizona State Science Studio PodcastsGoogle Tech Talks

Huge Ant Nest

[Google broke the original link when they trashed Google Video in poor way, which has become their habit. There history now shows they create very unreliable web services that are an embarrassment to any engineer. Still YouTube is difficult to avoid, Vimeo while not suffering from being a Google product and therefore unreliable based on Google’s history, Vimeo offers only a small fraction of the content found on YouTube.]

Very cool webcast. The ant nest goes 8 meters into the earth. The nest is engineered with vents to promote the flow of air, bringing in fresh air and expelling carbon dioxide created by the large fungus gardens. The scientists filled the ant next with concrete to excavate it: 10 tons of concrete were needed.

Related: Symbiotic relationship between ants and bacteriaAnts on Stilts for ScienceGiant Nests of Yellow-jackets