Elation and Belation

A bit of Saturday night random while I take a break from studying...

Elation: I just realized that Blogger has finally rolled out their nested reply feature for comments!! Woo hoo!  I still think I will mostly reply to comments via email (for those of you that have it set up), but for those of you who are first time commenters or who don't have your email set up, now I can reply directly to your comment here...so make sure you subscribe to follow comments!

Belation: I know I haven't posted today's SciSat post.  Part of it is because I'm lazy and haven't written it yet.  Part of it is because I've been studying virology all day.  Part of it is because Matt has commandeered my laptop to play The Great Midwest Trivia Contest (a super fun contest held by our alma mater...it's not really trivia as much as "how good are your googling skills because we wrote really convoluted questions", but it's fun nonetheless).  I promise I'll have it up by the end of the day tomorrow. SciSat on Sunday :)

*yeah, I know I made up that word...belation.  But it rhymes and rhyming is legit.

Happy Birthday, Mozart!

via

A lot of musicians dislike Mozart for his happy-go-lucky and predictable tonal compositions (cough, cough, Matt).  His music doesn't really make you smarter.  His music isn't particularly driven by overt emotion.  It music isn't transcendental like Beethoven or Liszt, it isn't as melodious as Chopin, nor is it anywhere as harmonically complex as Bach or Brahms.  But sometimes we overlook the beauty in simplicity.  Sometimes we just need to take in a breath of fresh air.

Here's a recording from my senior recital of the first movement from Mozart's Sonata in C major, K330 - not the "famous" C major sonata...the better one ;)  Definitely botched the trills in the recapitulation (the final section where the main theme returns), but it's still one of my favorite pieces to play!

Una Semana Bien

My five positives this week:

1 - More affirmation from my professor in regards to how I'm doing with research.

2 - Staying up late watching YouTube videos of dogs playing, babies laughing, and babies laughing at dogs playing.

3 - Discovering new music thanks to my awesome younger/bigger brother. (he's younger than me, but WAY taller than me...hehe)  Check out this Buddy Holly tribute album!

4 - Nice warm weather - it was in the 60s/70s this whole week - though, I do miss WI snow.

5 - Having a positive mini-discussion about dinosaurs, the creation account in Genesis, and modern scientific evolutionary evidence with some people from church who had questions.  Thanks to my hubby who told them "talk to Mariel about it, she's a nerd..."

What were you thankful for this week?  Were you looking for positives, or focusing on the negatives?

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 

-James 5:13

Science Saturday: Music Video Edition

This week, I'd like to feature some amazing YouTube videos that help promote science, teach a science concept, or just show how science is fun!  Enjoy!


1.) Grab your periodic table and follow along as rock band They Might Be Giants sing us through "The Elements."

2.) Musical parodies can be found by the handful on the internet, but this Lady Gaga "Telephone" parody takes the cake for being one of the most clever science music videos.  They have the lyrics posted, so you can sing along with "Chromosome."

3.) Symphony of Science takes video clips from science documentaries or lectures and autotunes them to create these catchy music videos.  The whole series can be found here, but "The Quantum World" is one of my favorites. (Matt and I will sometimes randomly start singing the chorus...nerd city...)

4.) PCR (polymerase chain reaction) is a laboratory technique used to amplify a piece of DNA to quickly produce multiple copies.  The "We Are the World"-style supergroup, "Scientist for a Better PCR", give us a brief history on PCR and it's applications.