{"id":2870,"date":"2013-08-06T01:46:11","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T05:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/?p=2870"},"modified":"2013-08-06T01:46:11","modified_gmt":"2013-08-06T05:46:11","slug":"idea-the-drama-of-biology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/06\/idea-the-drama-of-biology\/","title":{"rendered":"Idea: The Drama of Biology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Evolutionary biology is dramatic. Species come, and species go. Simple, random mutations allow organisms to exploit bold new resources. A year&#8217;s worth of field data can hinge on the immediate availability of duct tape. You get the idea.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/storify.com\/BioInFocus\/the-drama-of-evolutionary-biology\" target=\"_blank\">After discussing these thoughts on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0with <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/sciencegurlz0\" target=\"_blank\">@Sciencegurlz0<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/sciliz\" target=\"_blank\">@sciliz<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/cbahlai\" target=\"_blank\">@cbahlai<\/a>\u00a0this evening, we&#8217;ve come up with a way of conveying the events occurring in research labs and backyards around the world in a manner befitting their seriousness: a YouTube series featuring abstracts of evolutionary biology papers being read dramatically by professional actors.<\/p>\n<p>Picture it: Hugh Jackman belting out the abstract for &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/110\/23\/9415.short\" target=\"_blank\">Macrophages are required for adult salamander limb regeneration<\/a>&#8220;, or Jenny McCarthy sharing her talents to pass along the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/jnci.oxfordjournals.org\/content\/105\/3\/175.abstract\" target=\"_blank\">Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975\u20132009, Featuring the Burden and Trends in Human Papillomavirus (HPV)\u2013Associated Cancers and HPV Vaccination Coverage Levels<\/a>&#8220;, or Sir Patrick Stewart providing a dramatic reading of, well, anything really (although I&#8217;d suggest &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fasebj.org\/content\/13\/9\/1031.short\" target=\"_blank\">Space travel directly induces skeletal muscle atrophy<\/a>&#8220;). Yes, I believe this is what the internet was made for.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2871\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/06\/idea-the-drama-of-biology\/goslingguppies\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2871\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2871\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2871\" alt=\"Sexual selection is sexy.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/GoslingGuppies.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/GoslingGuppies.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/GoslingGuppies-300x202.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2871\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/j.0014-3820.2001.tb00684.x\/abstract\">Sexual selection is sexy.<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>While the videos would be highly entertaining and have the potential to go viral, I&#8217;d accompany them with explanatory write ups of the paper in question. The silly-sounding readings would serve as the hook to pique people&#8217;s interest in the science (i.e. what on earth is Hugh Jackman singing about), and encourage them to read more about the paper with the help of a skillful synopsis provided by one of the many talented science writers currently at work on the web.<\/p>\n<p>While I think the idea has a lot of potential, we don&#8217;t have the connections to make it a reality (I&#8217;m not sure I know any actors personally, famous or otherwise). So, I&#8217;m throwing the idea out into the web with the hopes that a connected and creative person out there will run with it. The online science community is a large and diverse place, and I&#8217;m sure there&#8217;s someone who can make this a reality.<\/p>\n<p>The only thing I ask is that you send me a link when you roll it out, because I&#8217;d really love to watch Samuel L. Jackson ad lib &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/jid.oxfordjournals.org\/content\/195\/5\/621.short\" target=\"_blank\">Germs on a Plane: Aircraft, International Travel, and the Global Spread of Disease<\/a>&#8220;.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Evolutionary biology is dramatic. Species come, and species go. Simple, random mutations allow organisms to exploit bold new resources. A year&#8217;s worth of field data can hinge on the immediate availability of duct tape. You get the idea. After discussing these thoughts on Twitter\u00a0with @Sciencegurlz0, @sciliz &amp; @cbahlai\u00a0this evening, we&#8217;ve come up with a way <a href='http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/06\/idea-the-drama-of-biology\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,16,380],"tags":[86,599,615],"class_list":["post-2870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fun-stuff","category-pop-culture","category-science-communication","tag-fun","tag-pop-culture","tag-science-communication","category-151-id","category-16-id","category-380-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2870"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2875,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870\/revisions\/2875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}