Jonny Berliner

On Radio 4 Rambling Show

Jonny — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:56:27 +0000

Last month, I was invited to take part and sing on an evolutionary walk through the Quantock Hills in Somerset – undoubtedly one of the strangest gig requests I’d ever her had. The walk was inspired by Dawkins book , The Ancestor’s Tail, so the ramblers were divided into groups representing living species (I was a chimp), who all started the trek in different places. As the walk progressed the species converged and by the time we’d walked back through time to meet our shared ancestors with Fungi, we were 150 strong.

Also on the trail were some butterfly conservationists who were very happy as they have successfully reintroduced the Large Blue, an iconic butterfly that disappeared from Britain but is now back thanks to the conservationists and some Swedish Large Blues who were happy to emigrate. Naturally, I was asked to commemorate this in song and chose to write a blues about the life cycle of this intriguing creature. If you look carefully at the picture you can see me performing it on a windy hill.

And who else should be on the trail but Claire Balding and her team from the radio 4 Ramblings show. So follow the link and you can listen to me explaining the life cycle of the butterfly in a voice that suggests that I know more about butterflies than I actually do and then at the end of the programme you’ll hear me singing it too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011tsdb

DNA (The Genetics Calypso) – New release!!!

Jonny — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 12:10:50 +0000

If you unraveled all the DNA in your body, it would stretch to the moon a couple of times. With this in mind, I thought this fascinatingly complex molecule deserved its own song. So I went into the studio to record the happiest, feelgoodest, catchiest, sunshine laden calypso about genetics that I possibly could. With Jay Enticknap’s masterful production and my dubious girly backing vocals, I bring you, DNA (The Genetics Calypso).

Of course one song is not enough to scratch the surface of the myriad of issues and facts that surround the entire field of genetics so my contribution should be taken as a massively oversimplified and incredibly silly introduction to the subject. For further reading, I highly recommend the book Genome by Matt Ridley.

Enjoy the song and let me know what you think. It’s available to download in the jukebox page of the website and will shortly be available on itunes, spotify and all online music stores.

It will also be featured in the Geek Pop 2011 online festival at http://geekpop.podbean.com/ from 11 March which is in line with National Science and Engineering Week. Geek Pop have always been great supporters of my science songs and they do an enormous amount of great work to promote the small but growing Geek Pop scene.

DNA (The Genetics Calypso) by Jonny Berliner

Welcome to the shiny new website

Jonny — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 11:17:16 +0000

Welcome to my new website. Isn’t it nice? You can now navigate the various strings on my bow much more easily. Whether you want to browse some of the theatre I’ve been involved with over the years, look up some science songs, find gigs or check out the Freewheelers you can now do it all from here. This is my blog and I’ll keep it updated with my latest goings on and scientific musings. So have a look around and let me know what you think.