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.

Name the Biologist - Halloween edition

Time for some scary biologists - can you name them?

And this guy isn't a biologist but I'd definitely enjoy being able to study him - after taking all the appropriate risk assessments.

And finally, he doesn't scare me but I think he terrifies certain demographics...

Reference Rage!

I've been doing some mutant hunting today for some genes of potential interest and because they are fly mutants it's useful to know exactly what the mutation is as they can range from the gene being deleted, a portion being deleted or have a transposable element stuck in them - all of which effects how much of a "mutant" they are. This information is usually in a figure but sometimes, in a busy manuscript, it will be mentioned in the materials and methods. In this case the mutant was referenced as being described in another paper. Fair enough, I thought, and dutifully looked up the other paper. I scour this paper and it merely says "as has been previously described". Not in the paper, so where? In one of their previous papers? In someone else's paper?

This annoys me as I shouldn't have to waste my time chasing up dead-ends. It wouldn't be so bad if this was the first time it's happened but this is a frequent problem when you are trying to find out the exact nature of a mutant, clone construct or methodology. I don't mind them referencing the original paper if it has all the details but people who reference papers that only reference the source material again should hit over the head with a rolled up journal. It's really bad form and strikes of laziness or, worse, hints the author never actually checked the data in the original source.

If editors/reviewers can't be bothered to weed this reference riddles out, then journals should perhaps insist that the information for mutants etc be included as supplementary material - that way they'd have to cite the original if they are printing their data.

I guess the small mercy is that I at least have access to online databases. This kind of nonsense must have resulted in a lot of premature baldness back in the days when people had to go to the library to find papers.

Science Songs

A song that lends itself to many an occasion, particularly student clubs. I've noticed at science retreats this song always gets a strong response and upon reflection it makes complete sense.

"we've got to hold on to what we've got
Cause it doesn't make a difference
If we make it or not....
...We'll give it a shot"

The chorus reminds me of the PI - postdoc/ postdoc - student relationship of getting them to finish the project.

" Whooah, we're half way there
Livin on a prayer
Take my hand and we'll make it - I swear "


It ahould be an anthem to research!

Sometimes you just need an excuse to play this song :)

Wall of Shame

My group leader told a fun anecdote that I think deserves to be a "wall of shame" entry. He was recounting a tale of a student whose experiment kept failing despite their insistence they were following the protocol correctly. He asked they student whether they were getting the correct pH for one of the solutions and the student was insistent they were doing this correctly. Eventually he asked to see how they were pH-ing the solution and the student took him to the pH meter inserted the meter into the solution and then turned the calibration dial to the pH they desired. "Then I turn the dial to the pH I want and it's done", proclaimed the student...

A fundamental misunderstanding of how a pH meter works but an excellent idea for creating a pH-ing machine. I'd love to put a solution into a machine and turn a dial to a desired pH which would in turn convert my solution into the selected pH.