December 31, 2015

Best of The Brain Scoop in 2015!

Our most popular episodes from this year!
No. 5: Mummy Brains with JP Brown
87.6k views
I was very excited that we finally got to publish a video featuring JP Brown. This was our third attempt at a video with him! Not everything we film makes it into an episode, for any number of reasons. The first time we filmed with JP was when we hauled a dead, pickled cheetah to the University of Chicago to have it CT scanned in order to retrieve a model of its skeleton for 3D printing. Unfortunately, that footage was lost. The second time involved taking the skull of the Magdalenian Woman to have it micro-CT scanned using an industrial scanner. Due to a backlog of other episodes and overestimating the amount of footage a complete episode would require, it fell out of the production queue. Throughout our blunders JP’s always been a sport, and incredibly supportive of the program!
No. 4: Spiders, The First Web Developers, with Dr. Petra Sierwald
92.1k views
This isn’t the only video featuring Petra in our top 5 of the year! While none of our interviews are scripted, Petra and I spent a lot of time planning these conversations and identifying learning objectives and takeaways. Ultimately, we just wanted the audience to have a better appreciation for invertebrate biodiversity. And, I’m not going to lie… I was quite proud of the punny title.
No. 3: How To Taxidermy a Squirrel, with Anna Goldman and Afterlife Anatomy’s Katie Innamorato
123.4k views
I know how much you all love the dissection videos (we get more feedback about those episodes than any others!), so when Katie Innamorato emailed me to ask if we’d want to do a collaboration, I was there. She’s an incredibly skilled taxidermist and artist, and learning from her was enlightening and incredibly educational. Katie’s a fantastic teacher and advocate for natural history - just the type of person who we want to work with. Plus, we got to learn along with Anna, and it was fun watching her go through preparation steps that much different than when she traditionally makes a study skin for research.
No. 2: Millipedes: The First Land Animals, with Dr. Petra Sierwald (again!)
125.9k views
It’s Dr. Sierwald again! When I first approached Petra about doing an episode on millipedes, she seemed hesitant. I remember her telling me, “nobody is interested in millipedes,” and I reassured her the topic would be a great one for our audience. This video was featured in the ‘Leading Women’ playlist on the #PopularOnYoube channel, and achieved a higher-than-average viewership. I ran into Petra the following day and when I shared the exciting news, her comment was only, “it’s good for the millipedes.” I admire Petra for her dedication to research, and her unending support and appreciation for the organisms she has spent her life understanding.
No. 1: Bullet Ant Venom, with Dr. Corrie Moreau
342.7k views
The funny thing about this episode is that we were never even going to make it. Corrie had originally called me in my office one day to ask if I’d like to watch her dissect an ant, and Tom was around and free to film it so we figured, why not, and went ahead with the Dissecting Ants video. Afterwards, she mentioned she had this bullet ant she was going to try and milk… and then we had a gap in the production schedule, so ‘Bullet Ant Venom’ was created! Corrie is one of the people that make me incredibly thrilled about the work that I do, and having the opportunity to collaborate with scientists such as herself is the primary reason I love my job.
The past 2.5 years at the Field have been the most educational, challenging, and rewarding years of my life, and I’ve got you as our audience to thank for it. This series and my role as Chief Curiosity Correspondent would not exist if nobody was watching our videos, or going on this journey with me – so for that I want to thank you for supporting our work, and your interest in learning about the research of our institution.
This year nearly 3 million people visited The Field Museum through our episodes, we built a diorama together, and I got to share my love with you all across the country. I promise next year will be just as interesting!
<3
Emily

3 of the Top 5 @thebrainscoop episodes are about arthropods. YES.