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Gene editing humor and song

I happened to be exploring the wonderful world of one-man barbershop quartet singing the other day. Don’t ask me why; I have no idea.*

But that led me (and it was a surprisingly short leap) to science-related a capella singing. I knew the latter existed. I didn’t know there was so much of it these days. One of my faves was this “Mr. Sandman” parody about gene editing, “CRISPR-Cas9.” It’s actually quite educational. With subtitles to help with unconfusication.

Then I turned around and discovered that The Onion has done a funny on the very same subject.

So I guess the universe was telling me to blog about this.

Oh, and if you’re interested in one-man barbershop quartets, check out the work of Julien Neel, aka Trudbol.

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*That’s a lie. I’m just too embarrassed to admit that I ran across one-man barbershop quartets while listening to H.P. Lovecraft-based Christmas carols. Damn, I wish YouTube weren’t owned by Evil Google. It’s a wonderful place.

5 Comments

  1. larryarnold
    larryarnold August 29, 2017 12:47 am

    Barbershop is First Tenor, Second Tenor, Baritone, Bass. Not Second Tenor, Second Tenor, Second Tenor, Second Tenor.

    But it looks fun.

  2. Fred M.
    Fred M. August 29, 2017 6:44 am

    I agree with Larryarnold but the harmony was outstanding and I’m a harmonious guy!

  3. Claire
    Claire August 29, 2017 7:07 am

    larryarnold — I’m totally non-musical and therefore mostly oblivious to such distinctions. But if you’re referring to the CRISPR-Cas9 song, I don’t think that was supposed to be barbershop. Just a capella. Julien Neel purports to be barbershop, and in his videos I do hear the different types of voice. But it’s definitely a “what the heck do I know?” situation for me.

  4. Ellendra
    Ellendra August 29, 2017 7:56 am

    If you want some truly amazing solo-acapella music, check out Peter Hollens. His rendition of “I See Fire” blew me away! I first heard it on Pandora, and it wasn’t until I saw the video later on Youtube that I realized he was singing a capella. He’s just that good.

  5. Claire
    Claire August 29, 2017 8:05 am

    Ellendra — I’d never heard of him, but after your mention I checked him out. I got a kick out of his “how not to shoot a video during a solar eclipse.”

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