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August 18, 2012
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Joanne Manaster is a university level cell and molecular biology lecturer with an insatiable passion for science outreach to all ages. Enjoy her quirky videos at www.joannelovesscience.com, on twitter @sciencegoddess and on her Facebook page at JoanneLovesScience Follow on Twitter @sciencegoddess.
Everyone knows by now of the versatile sports cameras by GoPro. People are capturing interesting videos with them across the spectrum of sports, day-to-day life, and even science.
Mark Peters went out fishing for Albacore Tuna west of Santa Monica, CA, and had made a clear torpedo casing to hold his GoPro camera beforehand. The contraption was lowered into the water beside their boat, and the cameras captured a magnificent sight: a pod of Pacific White Sided Dolphins.
This is a fun video, even if it has been questioned as being a hoax . If you want to skip the fishing, jump ahead to 1:12 to watch.
I’ll be posting more about GoPro and their initiative to work with scientists in the weeks ahead.
Image captured from Mark Peter’s video.
About the Author: Joanne Manaster is a university level cell and molecular biology lecturer with an insatiable passion for science outreach to all ages. Enjoy her quirky videos at www.joannelovesscience.com, on twitter @sciencegoddess and on her Facebook page at JoanneLovesScience Follow on Twitter @sciencegoddess.
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Am I think only one thinking that if it is fake it’s actually not that cool at all?
Link to thisVideo footage on the boat shows the weather as very overcast. Underwater footage of dolphins looks like a sunny day and even has glare from the sun at certain parts. I would say it’s fake.
Link to thisThe films of the fishing and the dolphins may have been taken on different days, but, to certain extents, that wouldn’t make it that much of a hoax. Many films using “foleying”, inserting sounds in a studio, supposedly attributed to action on screen. If you hear the sound of leaves crunching underfoot in a nature film about ants, or even reptiles or foxes, the sound likely came from a “Foley stage”. If the dolphins were added digitally, that could be something else entirely. The magnitude and perceived reasonableness of the situation, along with whether the film is being touted to others as authentic, can come into play in claiming it a “hoax”. Notice, though, this may be a fraudulent film, but it doesn’t threaten the “standard story” of “science”, so it’s “cool”. Let a film of UFO’s be touted as real, with no sign of fraud, and “science” devotees will insist, “How dare they try to perpetrate an obvious fraud like this?”
Link to this