Saturday, January 25, 2014

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Wild Life (Short) - National Film Board of Canada




Nominated for an Oscar® for Best Animated Short at the 2012 Academy Awards This animated short tells the story of a dapper young remittance man, sent from England to Alberta to attempt ranching in 1909. However, his affection for badminton, bird watching and liquor leaves him little time for wrangling cattle. It soon becomes clear that nothing in his refined upbringing has prepared him for the harsh conditions of the New World. A film about the beauty of the prairie, the pangs of homesickness and the folly of living dangerously out of context.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Monday, January 20, 2014

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Dolphins Communicated with Ecolocation



At the KolmÃ¥rden Wild Animal Park, dolphins like young Luna can now aim their echolocation beam at shapes on an underwater screen to indicate their choices and answer questions. The project is called ELVIS (The Echo Location Visualization and Interface System) and it’s currently being used to help the dolphins choose the types of fish they want to eat. Research Director Mats Amundin hopes that the system can someday help dolphins make more choices about toys or music, or even use it to express their emotions.


Saturday, January 18, 2014

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Celebrating Crystallography - The Royal Institution



One of the great innovations of the twentieth century is likely not well-known, but this video from the Ri Channel is looking to change that:
Discovered in 1913 by William and Lawrence Bragg, x-ray crystallography is a technique that reveals the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal. When a narrow beam of x-rays is shown through the crystal, it diffracts into a pattern of rays through the other side. 
“To date 28 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to projects related to the field” and 100 years after its discovery, the Curiosity Rover is using x-ray crystallography to analyze soil on Mars.