In a series of videos, surgeons at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle present their skills with the DaVinci surgical robot in novel ways, including folding a paper plane, lacing an American football and painting fingernails.

A very creative way to communicate the precision of robotic surgery to the public. You can find all the videos here.

Knowing how to control the depth of field is one of the basics of photography, but do you know why a large aperture results in a shallow depth of field?

Artist Justin Snodgrass has created this 20 minute tutorial that explains it all in detail. The video have some references to a “35 mm adapter” as it was made for videographers working with these kind of adapters, but the information applies to all sorts of photography.

Hat tip to PetaPixel.

In an effort to bring surgery back into the public domain, the Wellcome Collection in London arranged a Live Surgery event last year, broadcasting live open heart surgery to an audience of 200 lay people.

It’s interesting to hear people’s expectations and reactions in this short clip from the event. It reminds of the time when I showed the start of a prostatectomy video to my grandparents once. When I stopped it after a minute or so saying “So that’s what I do for a living”, they yelled “Don’t stop, we got to see how it ends!”.

Surgery sure is intriguing.

Check out this video of a surgeon at Kobe University using an iPad to view 3D and 2D CT images while operating.

The touchscreen seems to be working fine, even though it’s covered with sterile plastic film and the surgeon is using gloves.

(via Japan Probe).

If only more geeks would put their skills to use like this, that brighter future wouldn’t seem so far away.

Two things caught my attention this last week:

1. The video above, from KORB, directed by Rimantas Lukavicius. Absolutely stunning! Hat tip to Street Anatomy.
2. The blog Medical Moments in 55 Words, where internist WordDoc writes about her patient encounters using only 55 words. The result has almost haiku-like qualities. Best blog I’ve read in ages!

The reuse of syringes is one of the major causes for the spread of AIDS, and accounts for more deaths annually than malaria.

In this TED Talk, British inventor Marc Koska presents the problem and a low-cost solution.

I came across this great video clip of Irish comedian Dara O’Briain having a go at homeopathy, nutrinionists and other pseudosciences. I especially liked this passage:

Homeopaths get on my nerves with the ol’ “Well, science doesn’t know everyting.” Well, science KNOWS it doesn’t know everything, otherwise it would’ve stopped. (…) But just ’cause science doesn’t know everything, doesn’t mean you can fill in the gaps with whatever fairytale most appeals to you.

Hat tip to Life in the Fast Lane.

I’ve been busy the last few weeks editing English voice overs for all my 90+ medical videos at www.oncolex.no. While the English version of the website will not be launched yet, I can give you an exclusive sneak preview of a video right here, right now. Check out this video of a preoperative stoma marking, and tell me what you think!

Hat tip to Vijay.