http://www.flounder.com/amphioxus.htm

Also semi-relevant: “Weird Al” Yankovic and ‘I Think I’m a Clone Now’.

Somehow I got a hold of a whole bunch of science songs from the 60s and 70s mostly by Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans, and Marais & Miranda. They’re all pretty silly and become pretty annoying — you wouldn’t want your child to play them on repeat — but they’re well-produced, and I had great fun creating mash-up remixes with them.

Somehow I got a hold of a whole bunch of science songs from the 60s and 70s mostly by Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans

The mere mention of that means that I am now going to have

“the sun is a mass
of incandescent gas
a gigantic nuclear furnace
where hydrogen is built into helium
at a temperature of millions of degrees”

stuck in my head all weekend.

(…find them all here.)

“Once a jolly pyruvate
enters the matrix
of a mitochondrion, so they say,
a decarboxylating complex dehydrogenase
turns pyruvate to acetyl coA…”

(Apologies for errors, it’s entirely from memory.)

I used to listen to the science songs as a kid.
They Might Be Giants cover “Why Does the Sun Shine” which is a preferable permutation of that song to have in your head.

Dammit, came here to post this. Also, there was a (not nearly as good) sequel to PE.

I hope that one he found was mine. It should be in the tri-beta database, as it and a poem about spring wildflowers was in the Fall 1971 or Spring 1972 newsletter.

Well, in any case, here it is again, plus two limericks on the same subject, to “Clementine”.

…a song of “BioPower” from “New Songs from the Biology Lab”
published in the BBB [tri-beta] newletter, Fall 1971–Russell Jeffords

In the body, in the liver there exists a special clone
‘Tis the powerhouse of the body, mighty mitochondrion!
Oh my mighty…
My striated…
Cristi’d mitochondrion
I have seen you thru my micro and fain not leave you ‘lone.

In the Hunland, thru the Frankland, down the Southland I do roam
Grabbing skeeters by the liters, and in haste be labward bound.
Come Aedes
Soon the Culex
Then Anopheles to home
I have put you in my bottle and soon shall hie thee home.

In the safety of a lab shelf, I will leave you for a spell
‘Til your genes are wont to drifting, forming races in your cells.
Segregation makes the species
When divergence
Takes a while
But I’ll soon be breeding races, their genomes not yet on file.

Gentle vampire, dermic creature; grind you now we must
Five swift passes of the pestle and your tissues all be dust
Dread Aedes
Cruelest Culex
By this means we curb your lust
We dare not to lend more guineas to the saber of your thrust.

Push the switch now, spin the chamber till the members start their fall
With 10,000 re-resentatives, our machines must heed the call.
Turgid mitos
Flaccid mitos
Be you young or be you old
You must join precipitation, and return then to the fold.

In genetics rests a theory, engraved fitness of the race
Hybrid vigor–foremost values of the par3nts set the pace.
Give me P/O
Give me Nitro
ATPase by the pile
And I’ll show your mitochondria with a heterotic wile!

In the body, in the liver, there exists a special home
For the fuel cell of the body–mighty mitochondrion!
In the biome
In the test tube
In the factory and the home
Mitochondrial hybrid vigor is the law, and so is shown.

TWO LIMERICKS

There once was a crazy bacterium
Who decided he like the interiorum
He invaded a cell
And adjusted quite well
To becoming the new–mitochondrion.

There once was an algae blue-green
Who by enemies wished not to be seen
So within the cell she hid
And a billion years abid
Having changed to a chloroplast green.

[PC disclaimer: sexes may be changed.]

I bet your cells aren’t singing “Mitochondria… Mitochondria… Mitochondria… Mitochondria…” as the by-products of mitochondrial “metabolism” (the song makes it sound so innocent) wreak havoc in them.

This will probably start a flamewar, and I’m sorry for that (I like your blog!), but it had to be said.

AK

“Hey Lisa, they’re having a big party down at the Allele Pool tonight!”

“Oooh, let’s do it!”

You will put your good traits in
You will put your bad traits out

Do the Homozygous as you shake them all about

Unless you’ve got your dominance down in
your genes you’ll have a kid, invalid
just like Mendel’s beans
Oh hold me, you know you are my one and only phenotype
And together we could have a genotype

Darwin willed that we would do or die
Brains and brawn are both in great supply

Kalikaks a-swimmin’ back and forth will multiply
You could choose your ancestors and grow just like a weed
Pick a stud to congeal your blood, and get your earlobes freed

…and fail miserably, because those words DON’T RHYME.

This is not specifically about “mitochondria” but it is very science-y by a long-time local Oklahoma City cult band by the name of Love Button. This song is at least 18 years old (they were singing it regualrly when I graduated from OU in 1992) and the band still exists and still performs it regularly.

This video from 2007 isn’t great, but if you listen carefully you can get the brilliant “Tom Lehrer” style lyrics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_MzITLSx2w

Take a little hydrogen and put it right beside /
Methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide /
Take a little lightning from a passing storm /
And that’s the way amino acids are born /
that’s life, that’s what they say /
that’s how you got your DNA /
that’s life, you know it’s true /
from a bubble in a puddle of primordial goo /
la la!

Aggrieved parties my ass. All you Mitochondria and Mitochondria-sympathizers can pack your DNA and get the hell out of our cells.

Here’s some intelligent reading material for the road:
http://www.thebody.com/content/art2145.html

Don’t let the Golgi apparatus hit you on your way out.

AK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwroUEJVVmA&feature=related

http://www.csulb.edu/~cohlberg/songbook.html

Sing it with me!

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of respiratory chains
In every mitochondrion, intrinsic to membranes,
Functionally organized in complex subdomains
Where electrons flow along!

Glory, glory, respiraaaa-tion
Glory, glory, respiraaaa-tion
Glory, glory, respiraaaa-tion
Where electrons flow along!”

Biochem looks better already!