Science in Shorts playlist 2022
Watch and share the best Shorts from 2022. Which is your favourite?
Illustration: Sam Falconer
Illustration: Sam Falconer
Nature Awards asked viewers to vote for their favorite video, and “A Power Hungry Killer” was the people’s choice! Have you ever wondered why the malaria parasite is deadly for humans, but not for mosquitos? Now you can find out why in just one minute. Congratulations to Taco Kooij, Cas Boshoven, Felix Evers, Julie Verhoef, Nick Proellochs, and Alex van der Starre!
The Science in Shorts Award was presented to Pavel Dolezal at the 2022 Curious Future Insight Conference. Dr. Dolezal’s video, “Iron’s Will,” demonstrated how iron molecules get to work inside cells—heads up, you may need a suit of armor. Congrats to Pavel Dolezal!
Top 10
Extreme violence and snow
Gamma-ray bursts are the most violent things in the Universe, but by the time their cosmic messengers reach Earth, they’re tiny, tired and fading fast. Samuele Ronchini scales mountains to find and interpret them.
- Authors:
- Samuele Ronchini
- Institution:
- Gran Sasso Science Institute
Please visit YouTube to view this video.
Out on a limb
Most people think they know a bit about the human genome, and most assume that humans must be the peak of genome complexity. The Tree of Life team debunks that idea and romps through the weird and wonderful things they’ve found lurking where you’d least expect them.
- Authors:
- Luke Lythgoe for the Tree of Life Team
- Institution:
- The Wellcome Sanger Institute
Please visit YouTube to view this video.
Now you see me
What would you do tomorrow if I gave you an invisibility cloak today? The Metasurfers are getting closer to this vanishing act. And this is how it works.
- Authors:
- Ahmed Dorrah & Xinghui Yin for The Metasurfers
- Institution:
- Harvard University
Please visit YouTube to view this video.
Salmonella and me
How a childhood snack in a sandpit sparked Emma Werner’s startling discovery that a VIP (Very Important Polypeptide) was hooking up with her least favourite bacterium in a new and unexpected way.
- Authors:
- Emma Werner
- Institution:
- Cambridge University
Please visit YouTube to view this video.
Don’t be alarmed
The liver is the only organ that can regenerate if it gets damaged. What switches on this response, and keeps it from continually growing like your hair and fingernails?
- Authors:
- Eleanor Jenkins, Filippo Macchi & Elena Magnani for the Kirsten Sadler Edepli Lab Team
- Institution:
- NYU Abu Dhabi
Please visit YouTube to view this video.
A power hungry killer
Do you want to see a Dutch scientist explain why the malaria parasite is deadly for humans, but not for mosquitoes? Of course you do. Malaria kills more than half a million people every year, and this team is working to unplug its energy supply.
- Authors:
- Alex van der Starre, Cas Boshoven, Felix Evers, Julie Verhoef, Nick Proellochs & Taco Kooij
- Institution:
- Radboud University Medical Centre
Please visit YouTube to view this video.
Disorderly conduct in space
Gily Ginosar used bats to find out how the brain’s GPS builds a changing 3D image of the world as you move through it. It turned out to be nowhere near as predictable and neatly ordered as she thought.
- Authors:
- Gily Ginosar
- Institution:
- Weizmann Institute of Science
Please visit YouTube to view this video.
Stick with me, kid
To make super-strong sand for a sandcastle that lasts forever, you just need the right kind of glue and a 3D printer. But to make an ultra-sticky glue you can squirt through an inkjet printhead is as easy as trying to thread a needle with a hotdog.
- Authors:
- Amy Elliott for ORNL Binder Jet Team
- Institution:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Please visit YouTube to view this video.
Iron’s will
How would you explain what iron molecules do inside the body’s cells? Or inside the cells of bacteria? Got a suit of armour handy? Excellent; because that’s exactly what you need. Honestly.
- Authors:
- Pavel Dolezal
- Institution:
- Charles University
Please visit YouTube to view this video.
Crumpled sheets
Nobody looks at their unmade bed in the morning and wonders if maths can explain the state of it, do they? Or the crumpled tissue in their pocket? Or the scrunched up crisp packet on the pavement? Apparently, they do. And you’ll be amazed where that’s leading.
- Authors:
- Jovana Andrejavic & Chris Rycroft for Team Crumple
- Institution:
- Harvard University
Please visit YouTube to view this video.
Recommended
Video 1 of 34 selected.
Please visit YouTube to view this video.
The quantum teleportation pencil
Are you sitting comfortably? And concentrating hard? We’re entering the realms of superfast computing based on quantum teleportation via twisted graphene lattices. But don’t worry, you’ll be fine as long as you have a pencil handy.
- Authors:
- Bin Bin Chen & Zi Yang Meng
- Institution:
- The University of Hong Kong
Choose a video from the following list to load in the above player.
- View "The quantum teleportation pencil " on YouTube
- View "Live transmission" on YouTube
- View "The lab in the moon" on YouTube
- View "The scientist. The fly. The spaghetti" on YouTube
- View "A little rusty?" on YouTube
- View "Give me my pound of flesh" on YouTube
- View "Blame the Vikings" on YouTube
- View "Instant replay" on YouTube
- View "Fruits of my labours" on YouTube
- View "Stand and deliver" on YouTube
- View "Sleepless in Seattle, and elsewhere" on YouTube
- View "Not silent yet" on YouTube
- View "Saving frozen memories" on YouTube
- View "Who gives a dam?" on YouTube
- View "Not my job, mate" on YouTube
- View "The great COVID hijack" on YouTube
- View "Breaking good" on YouTube
- View "The lunch line" on YouTube
- View "The last 8%" on YouTube
- View "Electrifying news" on YouTube
- View "Hook, line and sinker" on YouTube
- View "Perovskite, Mr Bond" on YouTube
- View "Llamas and stoolpigeons" on YouTube
- View "Cleverly camouflaged" on YouTube
- View "The seeds of a great idea " on YouTube
- View "Happiness therapy. And apples" on YouTube
- View "Windows of the soul" on YouTube
- View "Way cool" on YouTube
- View "Let’s do it" on YouTube
- View "Melting over the cracks" on YouTube
- View "Songs in the key of life" on YouTube
- View "When is a stress hormone…" on YouTube
- View "Watch over you" on YouTube
- View "Almost fantastic voyage" on YouTube