Oh, great, so we’re naming people with rebuses now. I’ve heard of someone named “Le-ah”, pronounced “ledasha”. Why is alphabetic script not good enough for these people?

Second, we’d like to defend our honor just a little bit in regards to the arsenic debate. Certainly, we know it is a very contentious subject, but we felt we couldn’t really do the whole controversy justice in the context of this parody, so we went with the brief mention.

Are we trying to say this is a comprehensive look at everything about astrobiology? Of course not, and we understand you weren’t implying that it was supposed to be. But if we can pique the scientific curiosity of even a few young people, and get them interested in pursuing this field, that’s a win for us. We’re strongly of the belief that this video, and more like it, could be integrated into a classroom setting.

But we hope that educators understand that a video like this isn’t a self-contained lesson. Certainly, it can be used as an engagement or enrichment piece – that’s what it’s designed for. But hopefully it can be used in a variety of ways – discussions of the definition of life, why certain places may be more suited to host life, even critical thinking about the scientific method through a discussion about the whole arsenic debate – why there’s a debate in the first place, the importance of an experiment’s design, peer review, etc.

With that said, we again thank you for featuring the video, and appreciate the constructive criticism. We’re always open for more discussion!

- Jank

In answer to Matt B., you know it’s pronounced “KE- dollar sign – HA”

This parody video is well done though. I can’t imagine the original had anything nearly as interesting to look at in the background. Or foreground for that matter (I detest glitter).