Jeffrey Vinokur, UCLA http://www.DancingScientist.com
Zach Donnell, Princeton http://www.ZachDonnell.com
This video is a bit different then my usual uploads of popping tutorials ans freestyles, but at least now you can learn some science while watching popping! I recently started graduate school in Biochemistry at UCLA and entered this contest with a friend (Zach) who studies at Princeton. We had never met before deciding to do this! Zach is a dope cinematographer, professional photographer for magazines, and super talented scientist. I helped him out with some popping, and this is the result of our teamwork. He worked hard to pickup the moves and we had fun filming it. The goal is simply to help disprove the silly stereotype that scientists are weird, uncool, and geeky people with hobbies like chess and watching paint dry, Most are actually cool, normal people -- Hope we qualify haha. Hope you like the video! Plz share if you think it is worthy./n~~~~/nZach's Research:/nQuorum sensing is a cell-to-cell communication mechanism where bacteria regulate their gene expression based on population density. The process of quorum sensing involves (1) The production of a signaling molecule, (2) release of the molecule into the bacterium's environment, and (3) detection of signaling molecules from the entire bacterial population. My work focuses on how an enzyme that produces a signaling molecule in Vibrio cholerae is regulated. Current research suggests that production of this enzyme is turned on and off by other regulators in the same quorum sensing signaling pathway./n~~~~/nJeff's Research:/nBiofuel is a general term for a fuel that contains a lot of energy like gasoline, but it is made from a renewable source such as plants. Most biofuels are made when bacteria or yeast eat sugar and then poop out alcohol -- that is the same process used to make beer! Jeff works to improve enzymes in bacteria so they can eat woody, non-valuable materials like corn stalks and leaves, and then sh*t out fuel cheaply and efficiently. More specifically, Jeff tries to compartmentalize some of the enzymes involved in making a specific alcohol called isobutanol. Putting some of the enzymes in a tiny nano-compartments is thought to increase reaction rate and make isobutanol (fuel) more efficient.

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