Feedback is New Scientist Popular Sideways covers the latest in science and technology. You can reach out to Feedback@newscientist.com to share items you believe will captivate our readers.

Quick Botany Lessons

We’re on top of our game, thanks to our assistant news editor and Swiftie Alexandra Thompson. The upcoming release titled The Anniversary of Botany is set for August. It’s named “Dance with Plants: Taylor Swift’s music video as a Catalyst for Engaging Botany Learning.”.

The study reveals that high school students exhibit a “generally low interest in plants,” leading to “plant blindness.” Teachers, frustrated by the challenge of igniting interest in botany, often find themselves repeating tired lessons. Plants are deemed an afterthought, making visits to the garden seem less inviting. It’s disheartening; interest in botany should be more pronounced.

However, as autumn leaves begin to fall, researchers have proposed a novel solution: showing a Taylor Swift music video.

This might appear off-track. Swift wouldn’t typically be seen as a conventional instructional tool. Yet, her videos prominently feature numerous plants. “Out of the 61 official music videos on Swift’s YouTube channel, 53 (87%) contain elements related to plants,” the authors note.

By incorporating videos like green cardigan into the curriculum, educators can introduce concepts such as “photosynthesis, light competition, forest waste, nutrient cycling, seasonal changes, canopy structure, plant growth habits, and morphology.”

Botany is a captivating field, filled with beauty and challenges, and students show enthusiasm for learning about plants, echoing, “You look like my next mistake.”

Botany Communicator: This is a game-changer. Embrace it! Stop denying your inner Swiftie and start incorporating her videos as teaching tools. Soon, you’ll have your students engaged.

Feedback eagerly awaits updates from researchers who find inspiration in Showgirl’s Life, as I slowly drift towards my favorite city.

Acronyms Galore

Feedback continues its mission to uncover the most imaginative scientific acronyms. Readers have highlighted two noteworthy examples. Credit where it’s due for discovering them!

Firstly, Eric Foxcroft points out that Graham Lawton’s discussion of chronic sinus infections included a “number of pages in columns” which mentioned mid-nasal results or runny noses. This was literally beneath our noses! While our feedback addressed the concept of “runny noses” way back in 2001, it seems we had forgotten, so it’s time to bring it back.

Meanwhile, Johann Gottalt Olsen highlighted a recent September Nature paper detailing unique rock formations discovered by the Mars rover, which may indicate ancient life on Mars. This was mentioned in New Scientist and notably included an acronym Olsen found that we missed.

One instrument is called Rimfax, a nod to the Norse mythical horse Hrímfaxi. The acronym cleverly stands for “radar imager for underground Mars experiments.”

But it gets better! “We also encountered Shelllock and Watson,” Olsen writes, representing “scanning habitable environments with Raman and organic matter emission” and “wide-angle terrain sensors for operation and engineering.” Olsen continued:

Feedback is curious as to why “patience” didn’t also lead to Raman rainbow colors and radiation tomography monitors. It’s essential to keep up with the feedback in New Scientist from time to time!

Creatures, Gremlins, and More

Exciting news from the Wall Street Journal reveals that OpenAI is producing its first film. Well, kind of. OpenAI is “lending tools and computational resources” to Vertigo Films, which will create films based on concepts from OpenAI’s “creative specialist” Chad Nelson.

The film is titled Cricktails, likely due to its clever spelling. A previous title, Creatures, belongs to a Science Fiction Comedy Horror film from 1986. The plot centers on “a forest creature embarking on an adventure following the destruction of its village by an outsider.”

This feature expands on the 2023 short film, Cricktails, which you can watch for free on YouTube. The short is noted as the first animated film crafted entirely using DALL-E’s generative AI, creating all visuals, characters, and backgrounds—the entirety of Crikterz’s world.

Only DALL-E could generate such unique designs as seen in Critterz. Where are the Wild Ones? Despite the desire for more animation, one YouTube commenter quipped, “I enjoy watching the whole movie with a character standing still, staring at me.”

Feedback has gathered ample content, so you can expect that the best joke is the film is narrated by “David Attenborough’s neighbor Dennis.” I’m eager to see how this unfolds as a full-length feature. Mark your calendars for its anticipated debut at Cannes next year!

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