What on earth has happened to poor old Alfred Russel Wallace?
Two people discovered evolution, and we’ve blithely forgotten one of them, says “The Animated Life of A.R. Wallace,” a video short I watched this morning. Reconstructing the life of a forgotten biological pioneer might not sound like the video equivalent of beach reading, but stick with me for a minute, and I’ll explain.
Flora Lichtman, whom I got to know when she was at Science Friday, and Sharon Shattuck–the masterminds of Sweet Fern Productions–have put together a charming and engaging story of Wallace, his adventures, and his overlooked importance.
This is not a visual story; we don’t have footage of Wallace collecting specimens or scrawling his ideas on a blackboard. Instead, Lichtman and Shattuck have constructed puppets and paper landscapes to act out the story. You might not want to read Darwin (that other discoverer of evolution) on the beach, but I guarantee you’ll enjoy watching this. (And don’t miss the how-we-did-it stills at the end.)
I found the video through Science Studio, which is about “finding the best multimedia about science on the Internet so you don’t have to.” I’m happy to cede that responsibility to Science Studio, especially after discovering how good its selections are.
Science Studio was launched last year as a site that would accept nominations of audio and video about science, judge them, and post the best. Science Studio founders Rose Eveleth and Ben Lillie (more about them here) decided they’d proven the concept, but they wanted to do more. They decided that instead of posting a pile of stuff at the end of the year, they would add a new pick to their site every Friday.
They relaunched the new and improved Science Studio on May 16th. Eveleth and Lillie are still migrating things from the old site, so not everything is there quite yet. But you can find a lot there, including a NOVA video about a tongue-eating parasite of fish that looks like something out of Alien, a piece about the Field Museum’s first taxidermist, and a podcast on a woman who has lived in an iron lung for 60 years–and still does.
Eveleth told me in an email that for her and Lillie, this is their “15th job or so, so things go slowly sometimes.” But I have high hopes. The next time you’re tempted to click on an Upworthy video THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE, go to Science Studio instead.
Especially in the summer. Put your toes in the sand, your iPad in your hand, and relax and enjoy.
-Paul Raeburn
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