Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, GE published a series of six-second videos through their blog Edison’s Desk that coincides with the start of the new school year. The blogs-plus-video feature scientists like Grigorii Soloveichik and his work on flow batteries for electric vehicles. The blog includes his six-second video published via Twitter’s video technology, Vine. Similar to Twitter’s 140 character limit, Vine has a limit of six seconds, so obviously, the scientists who took on the challenge had to get to the point pretty fast. Soloveichik implies in the blog that making a “meaningful six-second video” is challenging.
I came across the blog and video earlier this week but did not pursue it, mostly because I figured that, like me, many of you don’t Vine, even if you tweet. Thankfully—mercifully?—GE patched some of the snippets together into a four-minute YouTube video, and thankfully—mercifully?—PBS writer Joe Hanson put together a synopsis of the 40 selected six-second videos. The list is published on his blog “It’s Okay to be Smart.” It looks like Soloveichik’s Vine video did not make the cut, but you can watch it on the blog link above.
Some of the GE experiments will look familiar from grammar school science projects. But, if you were the kind of kid who can’t get enough of exploding baking soda volcanoes, potato-amped lightbulbs, and other very cool stuff, you will enjoy this video.
(Hat tip to David Crotty at The Scholarly Kitchen blog.)