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Giant Leaps

by Professor Karmadillo

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Rishi Shaped Blob
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Rishi Shaped Blob The first of the scientific work, check out more as Singing Science! Favorite track: ConCERNing Higgs.
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1.
The Big Bang theory says things all started / with one big blast Still, physicists have many queries / in particular they asked From 14 billions years ago, at the beginning of our past How did all this matter come to have a mass? It starts with the Higgs field which permeates, through time and through space, in which when a particle moves it can make, itself have a permenant mass The plain particle is a gauge boson, which moving in the field then goes on, to cause an interaction, gaining inertia due to the fields drag the beginning universe was hot fiddling a la Nero, the Higgs field that existed was of type zero, not ready yet to be our mass creating hero, but with high potential energy As things cooled down there was a phase transition, a non-zero Higgs field came into existence, settling to the lowest PE point on its curve, making particles inert Chorus What if / there was no field of type Higgs Electrons / Protons / neutrons wouldn't exist We'd all just be particles photon like No mass at all just light At the start all was massless / there was nothing but light
2.
Catalyst 03:16
There's a reaction / I want to happen / Yeah I want it to take place But it happens so slow / I want it to go / faster and quicken the pace Luckily I know / to start the show / there's a way I can get my wish All I need / to increase the speed / is find the right catalyst Hand me a catalyst ! Bam Bam! x3 For example ammonia which has the formula NH3 Needs more than just nitrogen and hydrogen for making it with ease The gases are mixed with an iron catalyst at a ratio of 1 to 3 The final twist a high pressure squish and 400 degrees spoken middle catalyst your worth it / your an idea that we worship / we kneel at the altar / of the ADSORPTION church holding together molecules / that may not want to mix / so they can come together / and the reaction is made quick / all thanks to a catalyst solo There's a reaction / I want to happen / the rate to increase With a catalyst / I can make it quick / thanks to lower activation energies Thats the threshold where a reaction goes on and tales place Helping it go low / stops the go slow / making catalysts ace
3.
got Brownian motion / do you get the notion / behind my random moves / pushed by air molecules Mostly its Nitrogen hanging round in pairs 21% of its oxygen there Water vapour and noble gases are present.... ...but pretty scarce I give Brownian motion / do you get the notion / bounced like a fool / by air molecules I can hang round close to the ground / transmitting pressure wave sounds / that bounce right / into your ears and if the sounds are wrong / or too loud and too strong / don't blame me, I'm just an air molecule I didn't write this song / just passing it on / just let go and bounce / like a fool ....whats this ... I'm dissolving into the body of water 40 miles off the coast of Norwich....I'm slowing down with a different crowd I've got Brownian Motion / In the Pacific Ocean / joining in the liquid now / I've got Brownian motion / even in the ocean / its just that down here / its a little slower less energy to share around thats why i've got less of a bounce Chorus But I can't go where I choose and that gives me the blues I'm stuck in my own private hell I never make friends with other air molecules Trapped in a Whitley Bay Smoke Cell Chorus finale But I can't go where I choose and that gives me the blues Bouncing around is what I do Bouncing around across research groups, across towns I could be a metaphor for you
4.
You grew up on the family farm Moved to a monastory with an experimental gar-den Six years of wrapping bags around the flowers of plants Giving us the music for the genetic dance You analysed traits of the plants that give us peas Then controlled how they got to breed You then analysed the plants that grew from the seeds Eventually proposing living things had genes Growing 29000 plants was not the only trick You still had to perform some Mendel arithmetic Probabilities of hybrids, dominant and recessive traits Giving us genetics and showing us the way Chorus You must be Mendel Mendel Mendel Mendel yeay oh yeah Its a shame they didn't believe / in the theory you got from you plants It was only after you died / that they gave the peas a chance
5.
GFP 03:10
A cell contains much DNA But a decade ago, it was hard to say To tell which genes were being activated Without obvious phenotypes we would be frustrated Lets face it, a cell is complicated Trying to find out when and where a protein is made is hard, but Shimomura et al gave us our wish? Copying the natural process in a jelly fish There are times when we need to see If a cell encodes a particular protein If we want to do that we can tag the gene With the magic that is GFP Genes contain a stop and start In between lies the active part So to see if the gene is being activated We put the GFP making sequence into these places Then let the cell get on with its life Doing its thing and by turning on a light We can see just how much GFP shines Where the protein has been made will be green and bright Chorus GFP - Green Fluorescent Protein GFP - Green Fluorescent Protein GFP - Green Fluorescent Protein I want to know if there's expression of this gene Get its output to 'glow' so it can be seen - G F P
6.
Dark Matter 03:45
They measured and got / strange results / estimating masses of galaxies They measured what? / luminous / EM radioactivity The calculations showed / that they were owed / some mass to fit the theories Conclusion was / there must be stuff / that you and I cannot see Evidence came / as it must / in 1933 Thanks to the / Galaxy Cluster Coma / and Fritz Zwicky he compared / galaxies near the edge / and what we could see There was more mass there / than luminosity led / all of us to believe We can't see them / we can't hear them But we know Dark Matters there! Thanks to the Virial Theorem We know Dark Matters there! It doesn't emit / or reflect and scatter / thats why you can't see dark, dark matter I'm just a poor boy, give me your sympathy, trying to find something that cannot be seen Look up to the skys, its trying to hide, from inference and tools we've got on our side some try with detectors, deep underground, where there are less cosmic rays around a particle might, hit a cooled atom just right, giving a heat trace that sets off the light Its hard to find it, but if we're denied it, so many theories shatter gravitational lensing, causes bending, assists in the theories defending a galaxys, kinetic energy, is far greater than it should be if all the mass was what we could see, and virial theorem to be believed Chorus We can't see them / we can't hear them But we know Dark Matters there! Thanks to the Virial Theorem We know Dark Matters there!
7.
there's a .... Standard Model of Particle Physics And you'll find that in it is a set of elementary particles Of all of these there's still one to be seen We need to know if it exists and so we seek Its called the Higgs-Boson And the hunt for it goes on sighting it would confirm Standard Theory And so to find out if We needed got our wish For a particle accelerator of high energy Its not just amazing physics there's engineering to go with it miles and miles of precisey placed machines Its a huge facility Magnets accelerate proton beams into each other at high velocities Neutrons and protons are hadrons, and when they go fast and collide it's hoped the debris will reveal a Higgs-Boson to be seen confirming Standard Theory and provide hints on supersymmetry Chorus Thats why they look inside a, Large Hadron Collider, to find a, son of a particle gun Set sail, cos we've got to know, set sail, cos we've got to show, head for CERN in Switzerland The small particles of fast moving matter / when they collide will shatter / the bits inside will leave tracks as they scatter Large amounts of data will abound / and will the Higgs Boson be found? / Or will the Standard model be left in tatters?
8.
Its not just the sun when we look up that leaves us blind Its the data that comes from telescopes pointed up in to the skies There's no escaping it, its in our DNA when we look down deep inside Always generating bits from whatever exists we can measure and record all life How did we a create a world with so much data? At first we used to observe and intrude Then propose, experiment, conclude Three was modelling and compute But four is here now for our use How did we a create a world with so much data? We don't let it frustrate us Instead we've embraced the the fourth paradigm
9.
Graphene 05:00
There are many forms in which we've used Carbon Coal has helped us keep the lights on So we can see the sparkling Diamonds For the 21st century there's a new one We've known for ages the allotrope that is graphite Its structure shows why it helps us to write Loosely bound layers which over each other slip And if you take just one layer thats a single atom thick What's the most exciting way it'll be used? Could it when it's rolled up as a nanotube Could it be inside electronics? Not bad for something the guy who thought of it, thought could never exist Chorus Graphene its time to live the dream The most sexy carbon allotrope since Buckminster-Fullerine The first modern pieces were made / from granite with sellotape Forming tiny tiny tiny tiny graphene flakes
10.
A Musicians fave plant's supposed to be marijuana But I prefer A dot thaliana Unravelling DNA and all the drama that entails A model organism standing alone With your 5 delectable chromosones Your genes provide a knockout selection That I just wanna grow Why are there no pop hits / about arabidopsis And all the hard work you doooo for plant science noone knows your story / roses get the glory but lets celebrate you in these modern times The basis of so many papers the science you inspire will go on 'n shape us Working on in quiet that's just the way you are That the public don't know you, that's unfair But they can get your genome, thanks to TAIR at arabidopsis.org all the info is there Why are there no pop hits / about arabidopsis And all the hard work you doooo for plant science noone knows your story / roses get the glory but lets celebrate you in these modern times A girls favourite flower is of the genus rosa But a man who gives you those is just a poser I wanna woman who knows the ideas that mustard seeds A hundred years from now they'll forget these days How your 100 million plus base pairs paved the way helping scientists investigate the function of genes in the DNA Chorus Why are there no pop hits / about arabidopsis And all the hard work you doooo for plant science noone knows your story / roses get the glory but lets celebrate you in these modern times
11.
I am just a leaf On the phylogenetic tree Swaying in the breeze Its so beautiful to see Tracing through the lines the lines Showing how we're all defined Relations through the eras Bringing all life forms so much nearer Sit, and look, in wonder, at how we all got here Stand, and stare, and ponder at evolution through so many years Some might say how? By looking at the life of now Genes and fossils show Just how far back together we go Common genes can indicate When our ancestors were once the same The ones we do not share Tell us when if not where Sit, and look, in wonder, at how we all got here Stand, and stare, and ponder at evolution through so many years Close your eyes Go back in time Experience the feeling Of being one with so many other beings

about

An album of scientific tunes, covering the beginning of the universe, genetics and the movement of molecules in air.

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released February 29, 2012

Songs written by Professor Karmadillo. Mostly Performed by Professor Karmadillo and Ben Garnett with additional contributions from Gya Avern, Kate Fleet and Jon Craven.

Mixed by rishistar and Mastered by Eric @ Philosophers Barn Studios

Funded by The Arts Council

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Karmadillo Cambridge, UK

Home to Karmadillo and Singing Science (formally Professor Karmadillo!), this page is the place to get the charango based music oddities that cme out from Rishi's brain!

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