November 9, 2011 
I was browsing the Symphony Of Science website and thought I would put one of the songs on here. They are videos of scientists talking about “Life, the Universe and Everything” but put to music. A program called Auto-Tune is used to turn normal spoken English into sung lyrics. It is the same technology that Rebecca Black’s producer used, but in this case it is designed to give lectures on science a little more life. I love them and will probably put others here in the coming months.
As per request, here are the lyrics to the song.
[Morgan Freeman]
So, what are we really made of?
Dig deep inside the atom
and you’ll find tiny particles
Held together by invisible forces
Everything is made up
Of tiny packets of energy
Born in cosmic furnaces
[Frank Close]
The atoms that we’re made of have
Negatively charged electrons
Whirling around a big bulky nucleus
[Michio Kaku]
The Quantum Theory
Offers a very different explanation
Of our world
[Brian Cox]
The universe is made of
Twelve particles of matter
Four forces of nature
That’s a wonderful and significant story
[Richard Feynman]
Suppose that little things
Behaved very differently
Than anything big
Nothing’s really as it seems
It’s so wonderfully different
Than anything big
The world is a dynamic mess
Of jiggling things
It’s hard to believe
[Kaku]
The quantum theory
Is so strange and bizzare
Even Einstein couldn’t get his head around it
[Cox]
In the quantum world
The world of particles
Nothing is certain
It’s a world of probabilities
(refrain)
[Feynman]
It’s very hard to imagine
All the crazy things
That things really are like
Electrons act like waves
No they don’t exactly
They act like particles
No they don’t exactly
[Stephen Hawking]
We need a theory of everything
Which is still just beyond our grasp
We need a theory of everything, perhaps
The ultimate triumph of science
(refrain)
[Feynman]
I gotta stop somewhere
I’ll leave you something to imagine
Sir, Can you put its lyrics up?
Done!
Sir for our exam do we need to know how to explain blood and circulation
really cool video sir and nice blog site!!! are you going to do the brain one?
I am just in the process of putting two new videos up as well as a list of some sites that might prove helpful for revision.
Its just as good as in the lesson!
Sir I found this poem on the Internet about a chrysalis
My little Madchen found one day
A curious something in her play,
That was not fruit, nor flower, nor seed;
It was not anything that grew,
Or crept, or climbed, or swam, or flew;
Had neither legs nor wings, indeed;
And yet she was not sure, she said,
Whether it was alive or dead.
She brought it in her tiny hand
To see if I would understand,
And wondered when I made reply,
“You ‘ve found a baby butterfly.”
“A butterfly is not like this,”
With doubtful look she answered me.
So then I told her what would be
Some day within the chrysalis;
How, slowly, in the dull brown thing
Now still as death, a spotted wing,
And then another, would unfold,
Till from the empty shell would fly
A pretty creature, by and by,
All radiant in blud and gold.
“And will it, truly?” questioned she -
Her laughing lips and eager eyes
All in a sparkle of surprise -
“And shall your little Madchen see?”
“She shall!” I said. How could I tell
That ere the worm within its shell
Its gauzy, splendid wings had spread,
My little Madchen would be dead?
To-day the butterfly has flown,
She was not here to see it fly,
And sorrowing I wonder why
The empty shell is mine alone.
Perhaps the secret lies in this:
I too had found a chrysalis,
And Death that robbed me of delight
Was but the radiant creature’s flight!
I am not convinced that it is really about a chrysalis.
whats a chrysalis!?
It is the stage in the lifecycle of a butterfly after it has been a caterpillar and before it emerges as a butterfly. It is a pupa, a hard shell that appears to be non-living but from which emerges a butterfly. It is a beautiful image and is often used in writing to symbolise some sort of rebirth or turning point in a person’s life.
This is a picture of the chrysalis (or pupa) of a monarch butterfly.
http://www.obsessionwithbutterflies.com/img/butterfly/Monarch%20Chrysalis2.jpg
Its the thing that caterpillars form when they turn into butterflies!
Its a buttterfly in the early stages when it is only agrub and so i forms a protective shellaround it and hangs itself from a tree I think!
Use Arthur C as your name then I won’t have to approve your comments again.
I did the simple answer.
Thanks Louis – if you use Louis R as your name then I won’t have to approve your comments again.
k
Why aren’t u convinced that the poem is about a chrysalis. It says ‘chrysalis’ in verse 2, line 8.
Well yes. It is called “The Chrysalis” but when I read it through I thought the death of Madchen was what the poem was ‘really’ about. A chrysalis is interesting and sciencey and I am writing a post about metamorphosis, but the death of the child in the penultimate verse seems more significant than the hatching of the butterfly.
where can i find ‘my blackberry’s not working’?
Please type ‘Blackberry’ into the search box to the right of the page. It’s the fourth link shown. I also posted it as a link on the post today called ‘Counting Dilemma’
I think the gappers should perform this to us at the end of the school year.
We might manage something similar but let’s leave explaining quantum mechanics to the experts.
Sir, for our exam will we have to know:
Identifying transducers,
How to draw an energy flow diagram,
Generating Electricity,
The Carbon Cycle,
Respiration Notes,
The Bird Scarer,
Heat Transfer,
Yeast,
To show that inhaled air contains lees carbon dioxide than exhaled air,
Measuring the rate of respiration,
Everything we have done this term acids and Alkalies.
Don’t worry too much about “to show that inhaled air contains less carbon dioxide than exhaled air or measuring the rate of respiration”. Read them through then move on! There won’t be much about acids because we have only just begun it as a topic. Otherwise, you pretty much have it covered.
what specifically do we need to know on Generating Electricity?
Sorry to reply so late. I would like you to know how a conventional power station uses the energy present in fossil fuels, turning it into electricity. I would also like you to know examples of alternative/renewable methods of generating electricity.
great tune