Oxford’s renowned biol­o­gist Richard Dawkins puts the his­to­ry of life on earth in per­spec­tive, using sim­ply a piano. This short video is a great jump­ing off point for this bril­liant lec­ture Dawkins gave back in 1991. It’s called “Wak­ing Up in the Uni­verse, Grow­ing Up in the Uni­verse,” and the 57-minute video pulls you deep­er into some big ques­tions. What’s the ori­gin of life? Where do we fall in the scheme of life on plan­et Earth? What’s our role in the larg­er uni­verse? And how lucky are we to have the brains and tools to under­stand the awe­some won­ders that sur­round us? Thanks to “Con­stant­line” for send­ing today’s video along.

Not to miss. Pop­Sci has pulled togeth­er a gallery of “The Most Amaz­ing Sci­ence Images of 2010.” It fea­tures 72 pho­tos in total, includ­ing the image above – an E. Coli Sculp­ture that fig­ures into artist Luke Jer­ram’s “Glass Micro­bi­ol­o­gy” series of por­traits. Find a short video his Malar­ia sculp­ture right here.

Lance Lund, a pro­fes­sor at Anoka-Ram­sey Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, pre­pared this pro­mo­tion­al video for cable TV. It nev­er aired.

via @courosa