Mitocast Project

Contents

Description

A podcast for interviews with persons researching mitochondria. Content will be targeted at scientists. The intent is to provide an outlet for leading researchers to disseminate their ideas within our community. By focusing on interviews, the work required to produce a broadcast can be minimized and the interview can be seen as a networking opportunity. Interviewers should become familiar with the work done by the person they are interviewing and be prepared to ask insightful questions. Some boilerplate content will be available (i.e. opening theme song, general outline of questions, and closing credits) for packaging into a podcast. All of the resources and directions will be posted to this page. Anyone who shares this interest is welcome to get involved (contact Marty).

Notes

Resources

• Podcasting Hacks - Read this O'Reilly book from a UCI computer for free!
• Audacity - Free audio editor with lots of features.
• http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-create-a-killer-screencast-in-final-cut-studio-pro-17609/ - Great set of instructional videos about making screencasts. Much of it applies to audio too.

Ideas

• Format
  • Interviews with leading mitochondrial researchers
  • Target audience is scientists, though some genomics enthusiasts may also find interest
  • Monthly timetable - keep it small and sustainable with time between episodes to learn about the work of the next person
  • Make the process streamlined so that it supplements understanding and is not a distraction from work
  • Occasional special issues, perhaps devoted to a particular topic, such as apoptosis. This might also be used to generate a discussion that would be mediated via email or through Mitowiki.
  • Combine this with other recorded media (Doug's lectures, lab presentations, etc.)
• Interviews
  • Begin with Doug, get him to set the tone (provide some history and perspective, establish the format)
  • Request interviews from visitors
  • Use Skype for remote interviews
  • Get interviews at conferences or perhaps post presentations
  • Experiment with video (maybe more trouble than its worth)

Boiler Plate Content

• Main Theme Music
  • Oxidative Phosphorylation
• One-line Description:
  • "Mitocast, interviews with leading scientists researching mitochondria"
• Open Credits
  • "Mitocast is hosted at The Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics at The University of California, Irvine"
  • I'm your host . . .
• This Episode
  • "In this episode we'll be interviewing . . ."
• Main Content
• Next Week
  • _"In next weeks episode, we'll be speaking with . . ."
• Closing Credits
  • "Mitocast is hosted at The Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics at The University of California, Irvine"
  • "Please send your comments or suggestions to . . ."
  • "Technical assistance is provided by . . ."
  • "The Mitocast theme song is Oxidative Phosporylation composed and performed by Science Groove. Visit them on the web to hear other songs about science at http://www.science-groove.org/"

Protocols

Producing a Mitocast episode entails recording the interview, editing the interview, combining the edited interview with the opening and closing material, and then posting the file. The directions below are intended to be analogous to a lab protocol for doing these things. Follow them to create a new episode of Mitocast.

Recording - Olympus digital recorder

• connect two ATR35S micropones (use the dual adapter) and position the microphones about five inches below the person's chin
• start recording and record 5 seconds of absolute silence (this is used to create a background noise profile that can be subtracted during editing)
• record the interview

Recording - Skype

Editing

• transfer the file to a computer and open in Audacity
• use the following Audacity filters:
  • Noise Removal (5 seconds of silence is used for the noise profile)
  • AUHighPass - 155 to 332 is recommended for voice, but I think 150 sounded best during testing
  • Amplify - recommended when the sound is too low, but haven't tested yet
  • LowPass, Leveller, and Equalization also seem useful, but I could not determine settings that reliably improve the sound
• splice and rearrange sections as needed
• sandwich the interview between the opening and closing material
• export as an mp3 (not actually sure if this is the best format for distribution)

Posting

• upload to ???

Log

7/7/2009
mitocast.bio.uci.edu now resolves to the Mitocast home page?. This will be the official web address for Mitocast, while this page will be used as a resource for those contributing.

6/29/2009
From Marty: Experimented more with sound recording and editing over the weekend. The ATR35S lapel mic gives acceptable results when passed through a few filters in Audacity. Still seem to be missing something, but it's not too bad. GargageBand does not support wma files, those produced by the Olympus recorder. Fission and Audacity open them with no problem, so Apple doesn't want to add a feature that is available in free software. Suppose that they would rather you use their file format. Audacity looks like a better choice all the time.

6/26/2009
YouTuber QualiaSoup does some really nice animations, so I sent him a message to ask what he uses. His stuff is done in Flash, Garage Band, and iMovie. Have been looking more at this trio. Apple is doing a good job at integrating them. Was initially put-off by some of the limitation of Final Cut Express, but it seems that Apple is making iMovie a sort of gateway through which all your video is expected to pass. Once in iMovie, the options seem more flexible. Also read a couple articles on recording Skype with Garage Band or Audio Hijack. Audio capture/editing using some combination of Audio Hijack, Garage Band, and Audacity still seems like the way to go.

6/19/2009
From Martin: Experimented a bit with editing software. Seems that the general strategy is to record at a very high quality, do a bit of editing, and then export to the format/quality needed to deliver the content. If you do not need to do any splicing then passing the recording through a filter may be all the editing that is needed. There's no shortage of expensive and specialized filters, but the standard filter for voice recordings seems to be some kind of high/low pass variety that removes the extremes. Fission, my favorite easy-to-use editor does not offer filtering, but the free Audacity software has a large variety.

5/29/2009
From Martin: I've been experimenting with the lab digital recorder. Seems to give good results when combined with an inexpensive lapel microphone I have. Plugging in some earbuds allows you to monitor the dialogue, and that, combined with the audio bars on the recorder, give enough feedback for properly positioning the microphone. This seems the way to go - ultra compact, cheap, and simple, but with reasonable quality. Have not checked the final final after editing.

5/29/2009
Martin registered mitocast.uci.edu with NACS. It will be configured to point to a Mitocast webpage, probably within Mitowiki. Also took a first stab at creating a logo. Will post it when it looks a bit better.

5/29/2009
Martin sent an email to Dr. Crowther of the band Science Groove requesting to use "Oxidative Phosphorylation". He quickly replied:

Hi Marty -- 
Many thanks for your kind message!  While Science Groove no longer exists as a distinct, clearly defined group, its former members 
would be quite happy to let you use the music in the way that you describe below.  Some form of attribution would be appreciated, of 
course.  Best of luck getting the podcast up and running!
--Greg

I've worked a line into the credits for Science Groove and will make sure a link to their website is posted on the Mitocast page. They have a number of other science-related songs too that might be fun to feature if they give permission.

5/29/2009
Kate identified some potential theme music:

• http://www.science-groove.org/Now/Oxidative.html - This has nice vocals, an easy beat, and sounds very professional.
• http://scienceblogs.com/worldsfair/2009/05/quite_possibly_the_only_song_d.php - More rock 'n roll style, but difficult to hear the words.
• http://cherrypeel.com/#p=/comments/53406 - Another rock tune, but a bit chilled and swanky.

9/23/2008
Steve Franklin from NACS met with Prasanth and Martin:

• UCI does not have any plan to create a university iTunes or YouTube site
• Suggested getting an undergraduate student to do editing