Showing posts with label Science Spotlight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science Spotlight. Show all posts
Bloomberg Green Festival | September 14-18, 2020
SeanChron | Bill Nye, From Stylish Scientist to Cause Model for Prostate Cancer Awareness
February 9, 2020. Bill Nye the Science Guy proved once again that scientists can be stylish. Nye took part in the 4th Annual Blue Jacket Fashion Show hosted by the Prostate Cancer Foundation. The event invites designers to reinvent the traditional men's blue jacket and brings together the fashion, entertainment, sports, and media worlds to raise awareness and funding for prostate cancer research. Nye is wearing a design by Nick Graham.
Read the full story here:
- Kacala, A. 2020. Bill Nye struts down catwalk in viral video. Today
Fiz Fiz Pop POP on Ellen
Multi-talented science ambassador Steve Spangler stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show in February 2013 to share some more weird science. This time around Spangler showed us sound vibrations and made cornstarch monsters come to life. Best of all, Spangler set off a 3,000 canister salute after he prepped thousands of plastic film canisters with a bit of water and an Alka-Seltzer and then, with Ellen's help, arranged for them to go off all at the same time. Steve's little science shows get bigger and better each time he's on the show...and we love him for it!
SeanChron: My Crush on PopSci Just Got Bigger
I think I'm in love...well, at least more in love with Popular Science than I thought I could be since I was already a big fan. Jacob Ward was recently promoted from West Coast Bureau Chief to Editor-in-Chief of the magazine and its multiple media. He certainly has a great track record in journalism and science, but what really stands out to me is his background and work on design, including architecture, interior design, industrial design, and even some hipster DIY time at ReadyMade. I'm in love with PopSci now because this means that a true marriage of science and design shaping the future has arrived. PopSci actually has made this connection for some time, but I expect it will be even stronger going forward. Just look at the photo of Ward above...it looks more like a fashion editorial in GQ than an EIC of a science magazine. And that's a good thing! Can't wait to see where it all goes.
PBS's The Secret Life of Scientists & Engineers
Björk's Nature, Music, Technlogy Mashup
The TechnoScience revolution rocks on and the latest artist to teach us a thing or two about science is the Icelandic extraordinaire, Björk. Her latest album, Biophilia, is a mind-blowing, multi-dimensional tour de force of the mysteries of nature, from the microscopic to the ever expanding universe. The album and apps used to experience this inspiring grand opus are candy for your eyes, ears, and both hemispheres of your brain. Just when you think it can't get any better, you realize there's an intro by legendary naturalist, Sir David Attenborough. A few samples of Biophilia appear below, for the full experience check out the discopgraphy at the link above.
Introduction by Sir David Attenborough:
Video for Track 1 on the album, "Moon":
SeanChron | Backwood Brainiacs
I'm originally a farm boy from Nebraska and I'm here to tell y'all...National Geographic Channel's new series, Rocket City Rednecks, is hotter than Georgia asphalt. The series is the latest addition to a long list of 'redneck engineering' shows that features the creativity and craftsmanship of multi-talented design-build teams. Like many of its predecessors, Rain City Rednecks involves a whole lot of science, technology, engineering, and math.
The show is lead by real life rocket scientist Travis "Doc" Taylor and features a whole cast of good ole boys with science and engineering backgrounds. This isn't just main street science, its backwoods science and the boys really do have a blast in each episode. What sets Rocket City Rednecks apart from other similar shows is that many members of the team actually have advanced degrees...they really are rockets scientists. From a submarine and solar-powered bass fishing boat to moonshine rocket fuel and a junkyard Ironman, the rednecks are sure to keep you entertained. Will Rocket City Rednecks bring in a whole new crowd of folks into science and engineering? As Doc Taylor and the boys would say..."You bet your astronaut!"
SeanChron | Hawaii Weekend at Pacific Science Center
Beer Suds for the Smart Set
Play Time at the Nuclear Power Plant
Talk about a theme park...check out this dream vacation spot for the 'nuclear' family. Developed at a decommissioned nuclear power plant in Kalkar, Germany, Wunderland Kalkar includes a convention center, over 40 attractions, a 400 bed hotel, and - as seen in the image above - an aerial swing in the reactor’s cooling tower (you can also conquer the climbing wall on the outside of the tower). The reactor was completed in 1985 but never activated due to the unpopularity of nuclear power at the time (recall that Nena's protest song 99 Luftbalons was released in 1983). The facility was sold to Dutch businessman Hennie van der Most in 1995 for $2.5 million and the rest is amusement park history. Today, Wunderland welcomes over 600,000 visitors each year. Interestingly, in May of 2011 Germany announced that it would shut down all nuclear power plants by 2022...that's a lot of future theme parks.
Nuclear Testing Tableau
A picture is worth a thousand words but an infographic may be worth many more. Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto created short video that chronicles the number of nuclear explosions conducted around the world from 1945 to 1998. Find more on Hashimoto and the video here.
The Sound of Pi
WSJ Slideshow on German Brain Drain
Photojournalist Armin Smailovic put together a fascinating slideshow on the current brain drain in Germany for the Wall Street Journal. Find the full slideshow here.
Student Racing Challenge: NASCAR STEM Initiative
Year-round Wheat
Image Credit: Dehaan via Wikimedia CommonsIf Wes Jackson succeeds in his life dream, the annual autumn wheat harvest may come to an end...and that's a good thing. In 1976, Jackson founded the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas to revolutionize modern agriculture by researching and demonstrating the concept of perennial polyculture. Conventional agriculture uses large amounts of water, chemicals, and fossil fuels and only produces crops once a year. By domesticating perennial crops like wheatgrass and hybridizing them with annual crops like wheat, the resulting crops are more productive, much less resource-intensive to maintain, and more in tune with the prairie ecosystem within which they grow. Best of all, as a strong proponent of sustainable agriculture, Jackson accomplishes all this without the use of genetic engineering. We've also heard that the Land Institute's annual Prairie Festival, full of lectures, storytelling, and music, is not to be missed.
SeanChron - Live Chat with Bill Foster
Google Global Science Fair 2011
Attention all high school students...get out your Coke and menthos. Google has launched the first international online science fair for students 13 to 18 years old. Find all the info at the Google Global Science Fair 2011 website. Go volcano!
Climate Art and Science in Seattle
Artwork: Carrie Bodle. 'Northeast Pacific Ocean Hovmoller Plots 2002-2010'. Image credit: Carrie Bodle).In an article in the University of Washington's UW Today, Vince Stricherz reports on an art exhibit organized for the 91st Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Seattle. Weather and climate scientists from the US and abroad collaborated with EcoArts Connections and 36 artists from Washington State to create Forecast: Communicating Weather and Climate From microbursts and mixed-media art to sculpture and sea level rise, art and science instillations mingle effortlessly in this innovate show. Curated by Lele Barnett in the North Lobby of the Washington State Convention Center (WSCC), the exhibit will be on display through 4/9/2011.
Sponsored Link: Climate Solutions: Practical Solutions to Global Warming
SeanChron - President Obama on Mythbusters
After months of buzz, the 'President's Challenge' episode of Mythbusters in which President Obama challenges Adam and Jamie to re-test the myth of the Archimedes Solar Ray with proper manpower (500 high school students) aired on Discovery this evening. I watched and needless to say, I was pretty psyched. The President of the US is talking about science, he's doing it on Mythbusters, and the project involves elements of science, design, and culture...cool, Cool, and COOL. President Obama mentions that he and the girls are fascinated by science and are fans of Mythbusters because they have fun and make science exciting and interesting. The episode trailer appears below, a quick internet search will find many clips of the program, as well as pre- and post- show discussions (CNN's is particularly entertaining).
SeanChron - International Tiger Forum
I've been hearing a lot about the first ever International Tiger Forum being held in St. Petersburg, Russia November 21-24, 2010. The coverage has been extensive, partly due to the fact that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and The World Bank are very involved. From the reports I've heard and read, it sounds like some great progress was made in starting the campaign to save the species throughout its many and diverse habitats in the wild. I'm psyched about the forum for several reasons. First, my academic background is in conservation biology so I'm always happy to see the subject get international attention. Second, as the son of one of the first female zoo administrators in the US, Ingrid Schmidt, I happened to be raised around lions, tigers, clouded leopards, snow leopards, etc. I know...a bit crazy but this happened because in the early part of her tenure at the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque, NM (1970s-1980s), my Mother was often in charge of hand raising the cat species at the zoo since zoo-born 'kittens' were often abandoned parents. Other zoo staff took on other species, but my Mom was all about the felines. She would later often be referred to as "Madame of the Cat House". So...I have a bit of an affinity with all the cats.
Later, I became very involved with the International Snow Leopard Trust and even did my senior thesis at the University of Washington on zoos of the Former Soviet Union. I was interested in the ability of Post-Soviet zoos to take part in international conservation, education, and research goals. I visited 15 zoos in seven of the newly independent states (from Uzbekistan to Estonia) and among the many challenges that faced Post-Soviet zoos after perestroika, conservation of species in the wold was at the top of their list...Siberian tigers, Amur leopards, snow leopards, and manul (a small forest cat) were some of the most critical species mentioned.
Third...I was very pleased to see that The World Bank is so involved in the process. I recently finished my Masters of Arts in Policy Studies at UW Bothell and my research topic was conservation finance. The scale or organization and finances of what is needed to protect a species like the tiger, with its many and diverse habitats across many different countries, is enormous so it will take the likes of The World Bank and the Global Environmental Fund (GEF) to provide support needed for these efforts.
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