April 30, 2015 Our Incredible, Microscopic World Nikon announced the winners of the annual Small World in Motion competition on April 27. The photomicrography contest first introduced a video category in 2011, which includes digital time-lapse footage taken through a microscope. As a preview, they shared some of the finalists' videos from this year's competition with us, which we've edited together. More than than 130 entries were received this year, featuring remarkable footage that spans everything from embryonic mouse kidneys to a killer T cell engaging a cancer cell. Enjoy a trip into the microscopic world with this incredible footage.
April 29, 2015 Rare Earthenware While journeys to extraordinary places are the cornerstone of luxury travel, this project follows more well-concealed journeys taking place across global supply chains. It retraces rare earth elements, which are widely used in high end electronics and green technologies, to their origins. The film, developed with photographer Toby Smith, documents their voyage from container ships and ports, wholesalers and factories, back to the banks of a barely-liquid radioactive lake in Inner Mongolia, where the refining process takes place. Unknown Fields Division, in collaboration with Kevin Callaghan, have used mud from this lake to craft a set of three ceramic vessels. Each is sized in relation to the amount of waste created in the production of three items of technology – a smartphone, a featherweight laptop and the cell of a smart car battery. The resulting film and 3 vases will be on display at the V and A from the 25th of April.
April 28, 2015 Kite Fight After futebol, soltar pipas, is Brasil’s most popular sport. In the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, flying the pipa is more than a leisurely escape from on-the-ground realities — it’s a venue for battle, with the entire sky as the arena. Pipa designs and airborne “cutting” strategies have been passed through generations, from rooftop to rooftop. Filmmakers Guilherme Tensol and Leandro HBL spent time in Rocinha, Rio’s largest favela, among its young pipa warriors and elder statesmen, absorbing their secrets and documenting their stories.
April 27, 2015 Cinnamon: Harvesting Cassia in the Jungles of Sumatra One of the most beloved spices in the world, Cinnamon is actually the dried and curled up inner bark of one of several varietals of trees in the genus Cinnamomum.
April 24, 2015 46 Recordings of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" in 3 Minutes Remember that time when 30 symphony orchestras, 29 conductors and 9 pianists got together to perform The Rite of Spring? We don't either, but we'd like to imagine what this meeting of minds and talents might sound like. Stitched together from 46 different recordings - a grand total of 64 musical cuts - Q2 Music presents the iconic "Augurs of Spring" performed by as many ensembles and soloists as could be squeezed into 3 minutes and 19 seconds.
April 23, 2015 Hormones and Puppy Love Science explains the chemical love-connection we share with our dogs, and how some of the most isolated populations of people in the world are different on the inside.
April 21, 2015 The Future of Legal Marijuana Explained Twenty-three states have decriminalized marijuana to some degree. And with privateer holdings investing nearly $82 million in weed startups, the industry is poised to pull in a lucrative—and legal — profit.
April 20, 2015 SKYGLOW An experimental timelapse video designed to explore the effects and dangers of urban light pollution imagines the galaxy over the glowing metropolis of Los Angeles through composited timelapse and star trail astrophotography. Shot by Gavin Heffernan
April 17, 2015 Where Did the Oil Go? Five years into the Deepwater Horizon disaster, leading scientists tell NRDC science scribe Perrin Ireland what happened to BP's oil and what they know about its impact on the Gulf.
April 16, 2015 What Does Gun Violence in America Really Cost? This is the most important statistic you'll see all day — and the NRA has been fighting tooth and nail to keep it from you.
April 15, 2015 The Frog Photographer Thaddeus D. Matula followed conservation biologist, amphibian specialist, and nature photographer Robin Moore into the heart of the Costa Rican rain forest on the Osa Peninsula. The Osa is a mecca for biologists as it is home to 2.5% of all the world's unique species. Robin sets out to document some of its smallest four-legged inhabitants.
April 13, 2015 Making the Poor Prove They’re Worthy is F'ed Up No steak, no seafood, no strip clubs: There’s a logical gap in the recent laws that bash the poor who receive government welfare and food stamps. Wonkblog's Emily Badger explains.
April 10, 2015 Racing Extinction — Why Sharks Matter Utilizing state-of-the-art equipment, Oscar®-winner Louie Psihoyos (The Cove) assembles a team of artists and activists intent on showing the world never-before-seen images that expose issues of endangered species and mass extinction.
April 9, 2015 Lembeh Straits — A Macro Symphony Kay Burn's short film is a highlight reel of all the amazing creatures to be found in the world’s Muck Diving Capital. “Most of the creatures shown ranged from the size of a grain of rice to perhaps 2 inches at most," says Burns. "The red ‘Orang Utan’ crab displaying monkey-like behavior was actually residing in a Coca Cola bottle cap. The yellow hairy shrimp after that was barely 4mm tall!”
April 8, 2015 Starlings Decide to Change Lines Dennis Hlynsky is looking at the way the birds leave the line. Often they move from one line to another ... taking off when a second group arrives. Sometimes it looks like a row of dominoes ... one flight triggering the bird next in line. Here it is clear to sea the original take off is not sequential but appears to be crowd reactive.
April 6, 2015 Reid Willis — Placed The official music video for Reid Willis’ track “Placed”, from album The Sunken Half. Inspired by the works of Robert Adams, Storm Thorgerson, Koji Shiraya.
April 2, 2015 The King of the Nordic Forests This short film by Chris Schmid strives to highlight the wild brown bears, it is the result of filming in remote locations in Finland during a couple of days. While the brown bear's range has shrunk and it has faced local extinctions, it remains listed as a least concern species by the IUCN with a total population of approximately 200,000.
