Film Your Kids, Strike It Rich? Making Videos That Go Viral

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First things first: I'm jealous. Katie Clem has a 6-year-old daughter. So do I. Her little girl is earning thousands of dollars for her. Mine is not. This week, The New York Times chronicled the uncanny world we live in, where a mom with a Flip camera — a YouTube virgin, no less — could post her daughter's priceless reaction to the news that she'd soon be going to Disneyland, and earn enough money from advertisements to send said daughter to college.

Clem's video went viral and in three weeks, she's already made $3,000 from ads. That figure is just the beginning: watch the video, and you'll see why Disney is eager to pay Clem an undisclosed sum to use the footage in its own TV commercials.

No one is more amazed than Clem that the video has been viewed more than 5 million times. This is hardly the case of a hard-charging mother pushing her daughter to show off for the camera; she was just trying to record her kid's reaction for posterity. There's Lily, on the couch, as candid-camera as it gets, unpacking her early birthday present, a seemingly bottomless pink princess backpack crammed with stuff: art projects and Oreos (for an upcoming trip — hint, hint), pajamas (to wear in the hotel during that upcoming trip), and an I ? Disney t-shirt because — surprise! — they're going to Disneyland! When Lily hears the news, she is so completely flummoxed that she dissolves into tears.

MORE: Disney's Princess: A Breakthrough for Curly Hair

And all of a sudden, there were three people crying: Lily, her mom and me. I don't even know the girl, and I'm tearing up, envisioning her fantastic impending trip to Anaheim, Calif. Judging from her reaction to all her Ariel/Aurora/Snow White bounty, she's still clearly and firmly ensconced in the princess stage. She's gonna love Cinderella's castle and the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, where my own 6-year-old — the one who's not yet contributing to the family coffers — got primped and drizzled with fairy dust.

Lily's wide-eyed breakdown is eminently watchable — the magic stuff of a viral video. But when the Times asked her mom for recommendations for would-be videomakers hoping to capitalize on their own kids' cuteness, Clem came up empty. She didn't set out to make a viral clip; all she did was say yes when YouTube asked if she'd like to plant ads alongside her video and divvy up the revenue.

"We didn't try," Clem told the Times. "I don't have any advice because I literally went to bed that night and woke up and our lives were completely different."

MORE: Millions Watch Twin Baby Boys Babble: Are They Truly Talking?

That reminded me: earlier this week, I posted on Facebook about my 6-year-old and 8-year-old, who were scheduled to play a violin concert at their younger sister's preschool. The night before, my son, who is 8, had practiced how he would introduce himself. He settled on: "Hi, I'm Aviv, Orli's brother. I started playing the violin when I was your age." His delivery was as charming as it was (unwittingly) patronizing.

To my surprise, I got a rash of comments begging me to post a video of the concert on YouTube. Tiger Mom I'm not — on too many days their 30-minute violin practice gets whittled to half that and, out of self-preservation, I don't restrict their visits to the bathroom — but I am still superproud of my two budding virtuosos.

Yet until I read about Clem's experience, I hadn't even considered uploading a video. Clearly, though, there's money to be made out there on the Web. Why shouldn't my kids and I be the benefactors of some of that largesse? Like Clem, I don't have any experience uploading videos. But that may change.

Bonnie Rochman is a reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @brochman. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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Scientists Back Down From Viral Cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

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A new paper published online in Science on Thursday has failed to confirm a link between a mouse retrovirus called XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome. Along with the new study, the authors of the controversial original study that first associated the virus with the illness in 2009 published a partial retraction of that work.

For the new study, conducted by the Blood XMRV Scientific Research Working Group, researchers analyzed blood samples from 15 people who had previously tested positive for XMRV or a similar mouse leukemia virus; 14 of these people had chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and one person had contact with a patient with the disease. The researchers also looked at 15 blood samples from healthy donors who did not have XMRV or CFS.

The samples were blinded and sent to nine different labs — including the Whittemore Peterson Institute lab and a National Cancer Institite lab, which participated in the 2009 study — for testing for XMRV. Seven labs could not find XMRV or any related viruses in the blood samples. The two labs that were involved in the original research did find the retroviruses, but they didn't find them in the same people and they were equally likely to find the viruses in controls as well as those who had earlier tested positive. Neither lab was able to replicate its own findings.

The origins of chronic-fatigue syndrome, which causes severe pain, exhaustion and memory and concentration problems, and has no cure, have long been a mystery. Studies have fingered immune system inflammation, the herpes virus and the Epstein-Barr virus as possible culprits. But there is no definitive cause, and many sufferers of the disease say that doctors don't always believe they're sick.

When the 2009 paper was published in Science, it came as a great relief to people with CFS — an estimated 1% of the world population — and to the scientists who study it. If a cause could be identified, then it could open the door to potential treatment.

But since that time, the original research has repeatedly come under fire. Seventeen studies have been published since the 2009 paper, showing no link between XMRV and chronic fatigue. One particularly damning study published in May found that the retrovirus found in the original blood samples got there by laboratory contamination.

All 13 of the authors of the 2009 study signed the partial retraction published in Science on Thursday. However, Judy A. Mikovits of the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, Nev., which led the original research team, said the initial work deserved continued follow-up study. The Wall Street Journal reported:

Dr. Mikovits said she stood by the theory that there was a retrovirus associated with chronic-fatigue syndrome, though not necessarily XMRV. "We have to dig in to find the right viruses. We need to keep looking," she said.

Many other experts, including Kim McCleary, president and CEO of the Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome Association of America, said they thought it was time to move on to other lines of research.

"We share the deep disappointment of many CFS patients and scientists that the initial data did not hold up. Whether you have been diagnosed recently or have been ill for decades, this news comes as a blow to hope for rapid advances in the care available to CFS patients," McCleary said in a statement.

Meredith Melnick is a reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @MeredithCM. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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Gamers Solve Stubborn Viral Mystery: The Shape Of A Key Enzyme

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A screenshot from the Foldit puzzle for an enzyme found in HIV-like viruses.

UW Center for Game Science A screenshot from the Foldit puzzle for an enzyme found in HIV-like viruses.

See, Mom? Playing online video games can pay off.

An online group of gamers has correctly deduced the structure of an enzyme that AIDS-like viruses use for reproduction. By playing the online-game Foldit, the group figured out the structure of an important viral protein that has baffled scientists for more than a decade.

The enzyme is a retroviral protease and plays a critical role in how the AIDS virus matures and proliferates. Gamers, who weren't experts in viruses, solved the puzzle in just three weeks.

 

X-ray crystallography, the gold standard for protein structures, verified the result. The findings were published online by the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

Biochemist Firas Khatib believes the data will help researchers develop better antiretroviral drugs and show that Foldit can help solve thorny scientific mysteries.

More than 600,000 people have played Foldit since it was rolled out in 2008 by researchers from the University of Washington. "The game is like Tetris on steroids," Foldit co-creator Zoran Popovic tells Shots.

Gamers start with a protein that looks like a necklace. Instead of beads or pearls, amino acids hang from the strand. The game challenges players to manipulate the structure of the protein so that it reaches the lowest energy state, which earns them the highest score. The function of the protein changes with the shape it takes.

Gamers bring a different viewpoint to the table when it comes to solving scientific puzzles: freedom from scientific convention. "Humans can outperform the computers when you have to make a drastic move in order to get to the correct answer," Khatib says.

Sometimes to get to the right answer, a drastic or seemingly illogical decision has to be made. But a computer trying to solve a problem won't make an illogical decision that leads it down the wrong path because it can't always see that far ahead, the researchers say.

Scientists sometimes have related but irrelevant information flying around their problem-solving process that can blind them to unusual solutions. Gamers don't have the restrictions that scientists and computers impose upon themselves.

Khatib hopes that the gaming technology will catch fire with other scientists. "Citizen science can actually help solve unsolved scientific problems," he says.

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