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ATP Synthase in Action – HarvardX / BioVisions

April 27, 2020 at 3:09 pm / Molecular Nature, Video

ATP is a universal energy storing molecule in biological systems. How does life generate ATP from ADP? Similarly, how does life consume it on an industrial scale in membrane bound systems such as mitochondria and chloroplasts? ATP synthase (or ATPase depending on which catalytic direction you look at it) enzyme is a hugely interesting molecular structure. Yes it most certainly is a bi-directional turbine. It is one of the few rotatory molecular structures life has evolved such as the flagella […]

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Eye of the Pangolin – Pangolin.Africa (2019)

April 2, 2020 at 11:21 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

The etymological origin of the name pangolin comes from the Malay word pengguling. It means “one who rolls up”. The animal has at least eight species with a wide geographical distribution ranging from Africa to Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia including Malayan Archipelago and Indonesia. Unfortunately we know very little about this highly elusive animal and its existence is under threat. Scaly anteaters are quite unusual among mammals since their skin is covered by large and overlapping keratinized scales hugely […]

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How Coronaviruses Get into Cells – Tom Goddard (2020) / ChimeraX

February 20, 2020 at 11:45 am / Molecular Nature, Video

Tom Goddard is the developer of a fantastically successful free molecular visualization program ChimeraX in the University of California at San Francisco with support from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Here in this augmented reality projection, he explains how coronaviruses manage to enter cells of the host and take over the machinery which spark a viral infection. He takes a peek at the HIV packing structure and delves into […]

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Gear CDC’s Disease Detectives Use – Wired Magazine (2018)

January 28, 2020 at 10:00 pm / Human Nature, Video

Disease and pandemics are scary. As the world is shaking with the news of a new corona virus outbreak in China it is informative to take a look into gear used by “the disease detectives” ie. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The movie Contagion (2011) has done a great job for educating public by depicting a rather probable scenario of a viral outbreak largely based on the SARS outbreak of 2003. The hugely successful BBC documentary The Hidden Life […]

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Snakes in a Cave – Nate Dappen & Neil Losin (2014)

January 24, 2020 at 8:36 pm / Natural history, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

As the world is shaking with the news of a new corona virus outbreak in China, researchers have quickly identified the potential source of 2019-nCoV based on the spike forming glycoprotein structure. Just like the hugely informative movie Contagion (2011) depicting a realistic scenario this new virus was a bizarre sounding recombinant. The corona virus SARS-CoV-2 appeared to be a recombinant of a bat and a snake virus. At first, you may naturally ask how could this weird merger have […]

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In Nomine Terra Calens: In the Name of a Warming Earth – Lucy Jones (2019)

October 9, 2019 at 2:33 pm / Global Patterns, Human Nature, Video

Science can be beautiful. Art can be informative. The urgency of climate change is a pressing issue of our time. Scientists have done their job superbly demonstrating causes for why and how our planet is warming due to Human activities. They have done it by making long term measurements of atmospheric CO2 levels and deep drilling of polar ice cores. The scientific facts are all very clear indicating excessive fossil fuel use must end. However the message is clearly not […]

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The Making of Silent Running (1972) – Douglas Trumbull

October 1, 2019 at 5:30 pm / Human Nature, Technical Notes, Video

Silent Running is a landmark 1972 film directed by Douglas Trumbull. Over the years, it became a cult sci-fi classic and is seen as one of the most pivotal philosophical movies for environmental movement. Recall that Greenpeace was started in 1971 and the spirit of the times was chiming with anti-nuclear sentiment. Obliteration of humankind was indeed an apocalyptic possibility under Cold War. Rachel Carson’s hugely influential 1962 book Silent Spring which showed the global impact of the pesticide DDT […]

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Film Grammar – Khan Academy (2017)

September 28, 2019 at 9:22 am / Human Nature, Technical Notes, Video

This collaboration between Khan Academy and Pixar is a wonderful demonstration of building tool kits for self learning. Psychologists argue that an important cognitive function known as working memory is what made us into modern humans. As the highly inspirational illustrator Beatrix Potter put it, one cannot truly study anything without drawing it. Drawing is an effective working memory exercise that helps reinforce information by converting a short term memory into a long term one. That could be one reason […]

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The Queen of Trees – PBS (2006)

September 27, 2019 at 10:22 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, PBS Nature, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Queen of Trees is now viewable on the official YouTube Channel of Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble. Veteran wildlife filmmakers Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble once again put out a marvelous work by compiling observations on a community centered around a sycamore fig tree. The success of the documentary comes from their long-term observations in a particular filming spot in Kenya where they camped on location for more than two years. A thorough understanding of the landscape with it’s inhabitants […]

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Protein Degradation through Ubiquitination – Oxford University Press (2014)

September 26, 2019 at 2:08 pm / Molecular Nature, Video

What happens when a protein is “done” and must be taken care of? The companion animation to the Oxford University Press text book Molecular Biology- Principles of Genome Function, encapsulates the basics of ubiquitination through E1>E2>E3 cascade and the molecular components involved. Ubiquitin is a small protein that can be covalently linked to lysine residues of proteins targeted for degradation by proteosomes inside the cell. E1 activating enzyme E2 conjugating enzyme E3 ligase complex The combinatorial diversity of E3 complexes […]

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MOSAiC Expedition: An Arctic Odyssey of Climate Scientists

September 25, 2019 at 5:14 pm / Global Patterns, Video

Since Captain Cook’s time (the collier bark Endeavor was the first scientific research vessel in history) ship expeditions have been extremely influential to understand our world. In an age of anthropogenic climate change the Arctic has remained the most understudied component of the global circulation system. Human induced global warming is exerting its effects on both poles of the planet. Now the time has come and the international Arctic drift expedition known as MOSAiC Expedition (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the […]

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When Plants Fight Back – bioGraphic (2017)

September 25, 2019 at 12:50 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Even Aristotle got it wrong. He thought plant roots convert soil into wood and grow that way. Plants resemble bizarre upside down animals. Their superior mouth parts (roots) are located in an inferior position. According to Aristotle, plants are ‘lower’ level living things. They are the first basic steps in procession of life from the inanimate to the animate (animals). Plants don’t move and are without ‘sensory soul’ but still have ‘souls’. Plants do not have any excrement, do not […]

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Weekly Changes in Arctic Sea Ice Age During 1984 – 2019 | NASA/SVS (2019)

September 24, 2019 at 10:02 pm / Global Patterns, Video

NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) has produced an animation showing the sea ice dynamics in the Arctic. The diminishing ratio of multi-year sea ice is staggering. Human contribution to global warming is well documented. The response of the polar regions to heating especially in the Arctic is extremely fast. While scientists are rushing to predict future temperature and precipitation using exceedingly complex climate models, the behavior of the cryosphere is a curious one. We are already witnessing rather large glacial […]

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Bluefish – Prince of The Bosphorus

September 23, 2019 at 2:10 pm / Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

You can now watch the documentary with English subtitles by entering the following code “yavrubalıkyemeyizbiz”. LÜFER (Bluefish) is a glitter in people’s eyes, big time money for the small & big fisherman. When the seasonal migration starts lüfer fishing becomes an addictive daily routine for the retired, unemployed and off time employer/hobbyists across Bosporus. If you have a chance to travel around Istanbul’s coastline on a day in October, you can count close to ten thousand active fishing rods, day […]

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Whack! Jab! Crack! It’s a Blackback Land Crab Smackdown – Deep Look – PBS/KQED (2019)

August 23, 2019 at 9:50 pm / Natural history, PBS Nature, Short Observations, Video

DEEP LOOK is an award-winning PBS program produced by KQED. Here’s another cool story from season 5 Episode 13. Shred a sponge into thousands of pieces but the cells can still rearrange and organize themselves in a surprisingly rapid manner. Here we are shown a snapshot of another example of limb regeneration from the crustacean blackback land crab (Gecarcinus ruricola) native to the Caribbean. Human tissue and organ regeneration is a curious goal for medicine. However in order to achieve […]

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