In 1959 Tim Lehrer wrote The Elements song – one of the top songs about sciency things of all time! It was just a list of the then-known elements, sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General. Yet it’s inspired millions of people over the years, and become an legend in the songbook of science engagement.
Great as Lehrer’s Elements Song is though, I must confess to being a little disappointed that it doesn’t say much about the science of risk. So over on the YouTube Risk Bites channel, I’m hatching a plan to video the song Lehrer would have recorded, if only he’d been thinking about risks rather than elements.
There’s only one problem – we’ve set ourselves the target of getting 10,000 YouTube subscribers before we record and release the Elements of Risk song. And we still have a long way to go.
Which is a polite way of saying please help us – subscribe to the RiskBites YouTube channel. Get your friends to subscribe, your family, your pets; even complete strangers. And spread the word that we need as much support as we can get.
Just in case you’re wondering how the song might go – if it ever does see the light of day – I can tell you that it might just contain a few chemical risks, and possibly some biological and chemical ones too. There’s a chance we may mention micromorts – and even microlives. And of course, dose and response are likely to find their way in somewhere.
More than that I can’t possibly tell – at least, not until we have a few more subscribers!
What I can do though is give you some trivia on Tom Lehrer’s Elements Song:
- In 2009, Wired Magazine ranked it fifth in its list of Top Ten Scientific Music Videos;
- A YouTube search for “The Elements Song” brings back over 12,000 results – the top ten account for over 30,000,000 views;
- These include renditions by the Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, and Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory fame;
- The greatest number of hits goes to ASAP Science’s re-imagining of the song with the elements in order – sung to the Can Can!
- There’s also a version sung by a three year old;
- And even a slowed down “heavy metal dub” version – for those who can’t quite keep up!
According to Patricia Anderson,
“The Elements song has probably done more for science education than any other single work. There are over 20 thousand separate recordings of it. It has been translated into other languages. It has been recorded by movie stars, scientists, professional musicians, and three-year-olds. It is a pop culture icon for everything science. If you compile views from all the many recordings of it, the total would be in the hundreds of millions.”
I can’t promise Risk Bites will reach these heady heights, but we’re willing to give it a respectable shot.
Only if those subscriptions come rolling in though!
In 1959 Tim Lehrer wrote The Elements song – one of the top songs about sciency things of all time! It was just a list of the then-known elements, sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General. Yet it’s inspired millions of people over the years, and become an legend in the songbook of science engagement.
Great as Lehrer’s Elements Song is though, I must confess to being a little disappointed that it doesn’t say much about the science of risk. So over on the YouTube Risk Bites channel, I’m hatching a plan to video the song Lehrer would have recorded, if only he’d been thinking about risks rather than elements.
There’s only one problem – we’ve set ourselves the target of getting 10,000 YouTube subscribers before we record and release the Elements of Risk song. And we still have a long way to go.
Which is a polite way of saying please help us – subscribe to the RiskBites YouTube channel. Get your friends to subscribe, your family, your pets; even complete strangers. And spread the word that we need as much support as we can get.
Just in case you’re wondering how the song might go – if it ever does see the light of day – I can tell you that it might just contain a few chemical risks, and possibly some biological and chemical ones too. There’s a chance we may mention micromorts – and even microlives. And of course, dose and response are likely to find their way in somewhere.
More than that I can’t possibly tell – at least, not until we have a few more subscribers!
What I can do though is give you some trivia on Tom Lehrer’s Elements Song:
- In 2009, Wired Magazine ranked it fifth in its list of Top Ten Scientific Music Videos;
- A YouTube search for “The Elements Song” brings back over 12,000 results – the top ten account for over 30,000,000 views;
- These include renditions by the Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, and Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory fame;
- The greatest number of hits goes to ASAP Science’s re-imagining of the song with the elements in order – sung to the Can Can!
- There’s also a version sung by a three year old;
- And even a slowed down “heavy metal dub” version – for those who can’t quite keep up!
According to Patricia Anderson,
“The Elements song has probably done more for science education than any other single work. There are over 20 thousand separate recordings of it. It has been translated into other languages. It has been recorded by movie stars, scientists, professional musicians, and three-year-olds. It is a pop culture icon for everything science. If you compile views from all the many recordings of it, the total would be in the hundreds of millions.”
I can’t promise Risk Bites will reach these heady heights, but we’re willing to give it a respectable shot.
Only if those subscriptions come rolling in though!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neOQEEAiwQM