As a PhD student in physics who is hoping to become an astrophysicist it’s never been hard for me to get excited about space. The real trick has always been getting other people as excited about it as I am. This is hard to do when the large potion of the public relations teams in charge of drumming up popular interest fail so utterly at conveying the vast wonder of the cosmos.

But that is not to say science isn’t without a voice. I have known many talented spokesmen for science in my short life, and arguably the best of the last few decades was Carl Sagan. Few have had the poetic flair to so aptly marry the potential of humanity to the grandeur of exploring and understanding the universe in which we live in a manner that is not only comprehensible, but inspiring. His words offer a glimpse at what is best about humanity, by - among other things - showing that we can outgrow what is worst.

And so it’s only appropriate that this NASA enthusiast took it upon himself to show NASA how it’s done. He took as his inspiration this video by Michael Marantz, and put together a promo reel that commends and compels the capacity for exploration that - so far as we know - is uniquely human.

[From Damewse via Reddit via The High Definite via The Huffington Post via Geekologie. Damn, keeping track of where these things comes from is hard.]

Source: youtube.com

Tumblr has been woefully unreliable the last few days, and apparently it ate my final Musical Science Muesday post. So here it is, an Ode to Quantum Mechanics by Casual Entropy. It does a decent good job translating people’s uncertainty about quantum mechanics (har har har) into song, and even attempts to resolve some of that confusion within the limits of artistic license. Plus, it’s catchy! (Kinda). I particularly liked the bit about relativity at the end, because that’s a statement I disagree with quite fervently (at least as far as my personal experience is concerned). In any event, I suppose this means that Musical Science Muesday has now extended into Musical Science Muenesrihursday. What’s that you say? Oh come now. I’m just following in the footsteps of science greats before me. We all know how good they are at naming things, after all…

Another pi song for you, this time with 80% more hypnotic melodies. But wait! There’s more! I also dug around (read: had Google dig around for me) and found the full caboodle for ya! Enjoy:

This one is by Mike Offutt (I think), but you’ll have to skip to 0:35 to actually GET to the song. Heh. I tried to find one that didn’t have an obnoxiously long intro, but to no avail. (Mostly because I didn’t actually try that hard. Sue me.)

And now for something completely different. For real this time! I mean, come on, when was the last time you saw Eric Idle climb out of a refrigerator and start singing about space? Really? Last week? I take back what I said math, you can hang out with me again. But only if you bring Eric Idle.

And while we’re on the subject of math, how about this whimsical twist on a classic tune? [From The Reference Frame]

AND NICOLAI IVANOVICH LOBACHEVSKY IS HIS NAME! HEY! This little gem was written by Tom Lehrer. You can find more here. [From S.C. Kavassalis]

And now for something completely different! Only it’s more or less the same as what you’ve already seen, in that it’s music… about science. Also, it’s a rap. SEE! I TOLD YOU THEY’D BE BACK!

I don’t need to fail to write witty commentary for this video, because it’s the freakin Animaniacs. And just because I love you so much, you get a two-fer with this post!

I once wrote a full length cover of American Pie for biology class. If I ever find the lyrics, I’ll have to record it so I can NEVER SHOW ANYONE. In the meantime, you’ll have to settle for some Pi. (Sorry, but the cake is a Li. We only had three bits, and we weren’t expecting such a rush.)