Splice - Movie Review

Splice is a 2009 science fiction film directed by Vincenzo Natali (all the pertinent info can be found on wikipedia). Given it's about biologists creating an artificial chimeric life-form I thought it would be worth a look.
To my relief the film isn't actually a horror film despite the trailer being edited to make us think that.

Humans have special powers!

Sometimes a research headline pops up where you think "What a pointless question" only to find out it's answer is potentially quite interesting. This was probably the most involved I got in the discussion of science at work today.

Scientists speak the truth

Twitter is having fun with #OverlyhonestMethods  at the moment. This site collects some of the best ones too.
I think it's a good thing that scientists are being a bit more open about why they do things in experiments the way they do. It makes us seem a bit more human and fallible.

If I were to admit to some they'd be along these lines and I suspect they'd be true for a lot of biologists.

• Flies are kept at 25 degrees because then I don't need to come in at weekends.

• Secondary antibodies are left on the sample for 2 hours because sometimes I like a long lunch or a quick drink in the evening.

• I worked on a project because the wings looked fat (short and round) and not because they looked like Fat (protein knock down). Luckily it actually did interact with Fat. 

• I do X method because that's how it worked - I have no idea why it worked and honestly don't care that much.

• I use euparal fixing method because you can order it, rather than make it and it smells nice.

• When I try to summarise a method with the phrase "basically" you can guarantee there's nothing basic about it.

• sometimes I find an interesting result by accident and then have to concoct a legend as to why this was what I was expecting to find all along. 

•  when a method says "72 hours" later I tend to do 10 or 14 as staying at work until 9pm or starting at 7am is too painful.

If I was being overly honest about this blogpost I'd say "I wrote this post because I don't have a twitter account and can't be bothered setting one up right now"

Happy New Year!

Hopefully 2013 will bring a more regular schedule on the site with some of my science, some of other people's science and the general silliness. I have to admit finding new "name the biologists" is getting trickier with time but there are 1000s out there so I just need to think more carefully.

One thing I've discovered is that Flies really don't care if it is a bank holiday. Those little sods are going to need collected, tomorrow at the latest and I have a host of virgin flies to collect if I want to try and establish some mutant lines.

Science Songs

Finished for Christmas!  Working with flies always makes for a tricky wind-down as you need to time things properly for coming back. It's a frustrating week though when you can only do immediate things, so I'm happy to be done.
I think this song is quite apt.

Dog Driving School

Maybe a tenuous link to Biology but it is demonstrating how intelligent dogs can be and it does have DOGS DRIVING CARS!!!
The pose of the dog while driving is by far the best thing. Doesn't matter how bad your driving is as long as you look good.

The dog would truly become man's best friend if he could drive you home from the pub after a few drinks. Although the carnage that could occur when a dog is in heat is quite scary. Would the dogs rival white van drivers in their attempts to sniff other car's exhaust pipes?

Science Songs (mature content)

The following rant contains immature content so for those who blush easily at the discussion of sex and related bodily functions should read on at their own risk. This article also contains terrible pop music so for those with impeccable taste, please don't click on the video.


X-factor winning "little Mix" try their hand at a song about d-d-d-DNA (maybe a misplaced reference to Sanger's dd DNA sequencing?). Anyway I'll let you enjoy the song/video before trying to dissect the lyrics.

And now to look at the lyrics; First verse is just fluff - nothing to do with biology other than being horny. Snide comments are in brackets and not to be confused with bizarre background pop echo lyrics.

"It's the blue in his eyes that helps me see the future  [true on the eyes - not so much seeing the future]
Fingerprints that leave me covered for days, yeah yeah  [I guess there might be DNA from the grooves?]
Now I don't have any first degree  [that's becoming self-evident]
But I know, what he does to me
No need to work it out, it's so familiar  [this isn't a very scientific attitude]"

" And my heart won't beat again
If I can't feel him in my veins  [I have no idea what kinky kind of things they are getting up to - or they may just be sharing needles]
No need to question, I already know  [again with the anti-science stance]"

" He's from a different strain
That science can't explain"
 [Again, I'm sure with the right kind of experimentation and samples, science probably could eventually explain this. Not that it would be a good use of research funding. ]




My favourite lyric by far is this one though;


"It's simple genetic
I'm the x to his y"

Let's ignore the dropping of the "s" (this is maybe how the cool kids use the word) but consider the genetic(s) of the statement. So, the girl is the guy's mum? That's just sick. A pop song about incest. Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire have really become a trend setters. The lyrics tend to fit the "pop song innuendo" a lot better if the "DNA" they are referring to is sperm. This may also let them off the hook for the incest line in that she's maybe singing about making a baby, which is possibly connecting with their target audience.

" It's in his dna
And he just takes my breath away
B-b-breath away
I feel it every day, and that's what makes a man"

and "Contaminates my lips"  [she should have read the COSHH form and at least had safety glasses on]

Laying it on a bit thick there? (innuendo intended)

In summary, while it's nice that biological terms are so well known they can be used as the basis of a pop song, it's clear they don't know much about how the things actually work. Or they do but prefer nonsense pop lyrics over substance, which is fair enough. Or they are trying to make the next generation comfortable with the idea of incest.