I have been introduced to some interesting videos that feature movies or music videos for entertainment that others have retrofitted to discuss science. I think this is very difficult to do well, but many people have given it a try in order to make science fun and interesting.

 First, I'd like to introduce you to some videos produced by Jim Hutchins at Weber State University who likens the interactions of various immune system cells to the interactions of high school students!

 You might notice that the girls are the T cells and the boys are the B cells. He put this in two parts. Take a look:

Not too bad, if you ask me. Especially entertaining if you've seen the movie! I laughed at the part where kissing is used to highlight MHC sampling. MHC is an abbreviation for Major Histocompatability Complex, and, simply, is a way for cells to recognize if a cell belongs to the same organism or another one. Here is a great article by ScienceGeekGirl about the chemistry of kissing that explains all about it! If that information interests you, you might want to keep in mind that Sheril Kirshenbaum has a book coming out early next year called "The Science of Kissing" and I will definitely keep you posted on the release of that book.

The iGEM team (International Genetic Engineering Machinery) from TU Delft University retrofitted several videos to highlight a coupld of techniques used in genetic engineering and synthetic biology, namely ligating DNA and transforming a bacterial cell. It's called Popstars go BIOTECH

 

When a scientist adds new DNA to a bacteria to hopefully convince it to do something else, like create insulin, or to glow green, it is called "transforming". And sometimes molecular biologists need to put several pieces of DNA together to make a new sequence and that is called "ligation".

I hope you enjoyed these videos and learned a little something, too!

Until next time,

Kindly, Joanne

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After 20 years in affiliation with the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology and eight years with Bioengineering at the University running laboratory courses, which I just LOVE, it is time to move along and challenge myself in new ways! I have moved on to a position as an online science course designer for the School of Integrative Biology here at the University of Illinois. I will miss the lab and time standing in front of the classroom, for sure, but I am very much looking forward to improving my ability to relate science online to even more students. My expectation is that I can bring some of the personality I have and ability to relay science online through my personal outreach to new courses and also then take what I learn in my job to ramp up the production quality of my outreach as well.

Without my office and lab, I will have to start filming my book reviews and quirky science elsewhere. Luckily, I have access to a studio here on campus. I will be sharing facilities with a great popularizer of engineering here on campus, Bill Hammack. In case you haven't heard of him, he is "The Engineer Guy" . Have you seen his videos yet? Well, here's one where I have a cameo at the end. It is the closest I will ever be to being a Department Chair!

 

With any luck, the new studio means increased production values for my videos. Maybe not quite as elaborate as this one, but still better! And, look for some clever collaborations where a scientist and engineer try to figure out what the other really does and what that means for you!I anticipate a bit of a learning curve, so video production may slow down temporarily.

This summer, I ran two sessions of the GAMES camp (girls adventures in math and engineering sciences). Both weeks were great fun! Each year, myself, Marina Miletic, and our amazing college aged coordinators and lab assistants guide young ladies into a brief introduction into the world of chemical engineering and bioengineering! One module we run introduces the girls to biomechanics. On of my lab assistants (and former student), Joleen Su, put together this video featuring the handiwork of the girls as they attempted to make some models of legs "walk"!  They had to think about the roles of muscles, tendons and their roles in the physics of walking (ie. fulcrums) in order to make their legs walk realistically!

 

 I hope to have more time to post to the blog and add videos now that I'm less tied to a semester schedule and the very demanding needs of cells. I will continue to support the GAMES camp and even hope to be involved in projects that do even more outreach to schools and teachers.

I will be in London in early September for  Science Online London, some networking with various science communicators and the team of the Young Scientists Journal as well as a bit of sightseeing. I promise to do a few nerdy things and report back to you about it!

 Until next time,

Kindly, Joanne

This will be a slightly different post than I usually place here on my website, but it addresses something that has been in my mind for several months and am finally getting around to sharing about it here.

Late last summer a book called Don't Be Such a Scientist was published by Randy Olson. At the time I received it, I only skimmed it briefly as my father had just passed away.

Which means, given the personal circumstances, I did not review it. It received mixed reviews from many science communicators, some saying it is a bit harsh on the scientists. I personally know many great scientists who are fabulous communicators, even able to relay their work to the general public, but I also know many who continually speak above other's heads, so immersed in their topic they forget about the importance of sharing their ideas and findings in a way that the general public will appreciate.

In fact, the fabulous Jonah Lehrer (who is probably the best sport in the world for being filmed with a bevy of Barbies!) and I had a short discussion about science communication recently for Bora Zivkovic's Blog Around The Clock

How is all of this related to Aspergers' Syndrome? I have a child who was considered to be on the autistic spectrum. She is doing well at this point thanks to the early intervention and diligence to get her all the help she needed while she was quite young. The person she is now is compentent and thoughtful. I watch as she consciously analyzes situations (vs. many of us who intuitively interpret facial expressions and "get" idioms) so she can relate to much more supposedly socially adept individuals.

In my research to understand how to best help her get the skills she needed, I went to conferences featuring the biggest names in the Autism and Asperger's world, notably Temple Grandin, Lianne Holliday Willey, Carol Gray and Tony Attwood. Asperger's is characterized by many traits, and these are variable from person to person, but some of the obvious ones include having restrictive interests and difficulties in social situations and communication. You can learn more here. 

As I listened to Tony Attwood, one of the foremost experts in Asperger's syndrome, I recall a very humorously delivered comment about the prevalence of Asperger's syndrome amongst faculty members at colleges and universities. This is because, historically, faculty members are generally rewarded for a narrow focus and academia tolerates eccentricity in exchange for their intellectual talents. Tony has some documentation that there is a high percentage of scientists and mathematicians having Aspergers vs members of the general population.

Paul Dirac, the great British theoretician in the field of Quantum Mechanics seemed to display many traits of someone on the autistic spectrum, as speculated by Graham Farmelo in his wonderful book about Dirac called The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac. I reviewed it here.

(Here is a list of good and bad jobs for people on the autistic spectrum by Temple Grandin)

Recently, Newsweek magazine ran an article here about scientists being "lousy communicators", citing Olson's work. In it, Olson chastises scientists for not being more charismatic. Some Aspies (as many like to be called) may not be the most charismatic people in the world due to their pedantry and their narrow focus, so maybe asking them to be so could be a challenge. (That being said, Aspies can make marvelous actors as they have a great ability to mimic others)

When I read that article, I immediately recalled Attwood's words,and thought I would contact him for his insight on this issue. I appreciate his generosity with his time to share his thoughts.

Tony Attwood's response to me (April 6, 2010)

Dear Joanne

 

Thank you for your message and you raise a very interesting topic, namely what I consider is the higher prevalence than expected by chance of people with Asperger’s syndrome at University.  This can include all faculties and is not necessarily restricted to Science and Information Technology.  There are those with Asperger’s syndrome who are unsure of how to understand other people and consider a career in academic Psychology may help them understand others.  They also know those with Asperger’s syndrome who have become renowned historians and exceptional linguists with the ability to speak many foreign languages but without an accent associated with the person’s first language.

 

One of the characteristics I have identified in Asperger’s syndrome is that the person may have difficulty conveying thoughts and feelings into spoken words.  Thus, the person may have difficulty explaining an academic concept in a lecture but be more easily understood should the information be provided in a book chapter or paper or using a diagram.  To a certain extent, I use the phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. 

 

In days past, people with Asperger’s syndrome would be comfortably based at University and able to conduct their research throughout their academic careers.  However, Universities have changed and are now much more financially orientated and status is based in terms of publications and research grants.  This ability (sic) to convince others of the value of the research can be to the detriment of those with Asperger’s syndrome and the expectation of working in research teams has also been very difficult for those with Asperger’s syndrome.

 

Do post these comments on your blog as I am sure this will promote quite considerable discussion.

 

Best Wishes

Tony

Professor Tony Attwood

The last paragraph is most telling. Assuming we have brilliant scientists who manifest traits of Asperger's (whether a formal diagnosis has been made or not), they may have a more difficult time acting as the kind of communicator that Randy Olson feels all scientists need to be. I'm definitely not saying they cannot learn, as I have witnessed what my daughter can do thanks to her willingness to be observant of the world around her and choose skills that best serve her needs at any given time.

I know this is not a thoroughly researched scholarly article, and rightly so as it is beyond my field of expertise. It is merely an observation based on my personal journey with a child on the autistic spectrum and my knowledge of the world of scientific academia. I think, however, that I have brought up an idea to be considered before we quickly judge a scientist who has difficulties relating their ideas to the general public.

Kindly, Joanne

 

Here we are in summer and I have a few videos I'd like to share with you all!

On June 24th, materials science grad student, Allen Hall, and I went to Camp Explosion at the Community Center for the Arts to help students learn about liquified and solidified gases. In particular we brought liquid nitrogen and dry ice! Nitrogen gas makes up about 78% of Earth's atmosphere. To turn it into liquid requires a lot of energy. Carbon dioxide is what we breathe out as waste gas and plants use to create their fuel in the presence of sunlight. Dry ice is solidified carbon dioxide

We allowed the students to choose a gummy bear, place it in a cup, and Allen added liquid nitrogen to the cups so the bears could freeze and the liquid nitrogen to boil off completely. In the spirit of destruction, we let the kids smash their bears with hammers.

 As a special treat, we brought along two larger size bears, a medium sized one and then a large 5lb bear, both of which were frozen and then smashed. Here's what the kids filmed of the day!

Congratulations to these youngsters who filmed this!

As you can see, with the very large gummy bears, we had a "control" bear, (one that did not get frozen) and was dropped out of a second story window (everyone well out of the way). Basically, it "thudded" to the ground. Nothing spectacular. We let the second giant gummy bear sit in the liquid nitrogen for quite some time, but not long enough, as the center still was gummy. It cracked and crumbled when hitting the ground, but not as spectacularly as I had hoped. I will try this again in a few weeks and this time will use a high speed camera to film it!

Making liquified gases is a tricky thing, even though we do it all the time! The path to getting gases to become liquid is quite a story and this was captured quite well in NOVA's Absolute Zero. If you have about 2 hours, sit down and watch their presentation.

We also made very mini dry ice 'bombs' using dry ice, water and tiny snap cap tubes that popped loudly once the dry ice sublimated quickly in the presence of the warmer water. Sublimation is the process of a solid transitioning to a gas state without passing through a liquid state. The increase in pressure inside the tube allowed the tube to explode open quickly and make a much bigger sound than one would expect from that tiny tube! The kids wore safety goggles and pointed their tubes toward an empty wall. A word of caution. Do not make any dry ice bomb at home. You could be arrested. I'm serious.

Our Kids Read Science and Teens Read Science contests are getting a lot of good press! We officially have about $2500 worth in prizes, and that's on top of the generous book donations by science authors. So if you aren't motivated by the mere love of science, consider that you could win an iPod touch and other great prizes. Phil Plait featured the contest on his site Bad Astronomy and the local paper also featured a story. Many bloggers and science communicators have so kindly given a shout out as well!

On July 30th, 8pm at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts here Champaign-Urbana, I will be one of the featured speakers at the 4th Pecha Kucha CU event. It's FREE!  I will revisit my role as a time travelling beauty who talks about "My Little Black Book of Scientists I Love"!

 This fall, at the Champaign Public Library (see my book suggestion on their site here), I will run two outreach programs for the afterschool crowd, in the hopes of exciting these kids for science and I will also run two registered events for teen girls focused on the "Science of Make-up" and "Science of Hair Care" Rolled into both I hope to have a make-up artist for one and a hair stylist for the other. More info as it becomes available.

I also am working up a presentation for the general public about the science behind how the most common prescription drugs work (Prevacid, Tylenol, Fosamax, and more.) It will be a simplified treatment of the cells of the body and how they work and their corresponding responses to these drugs, without a lot of biochemistry. (As I am not a physician nor a pharmacist, please understand that I cannot help you with your medical conditions or your drug prescriptions).

I have a small vacation this week followed by running the Cell Biology Module of a NSF supported summer institute about Biosensing and Bioactuation of cells, immediately followed by high school week for the Girls Engineering camp (GAMES). Middle school girls follow shortly after! Whew! A very busy summer!

Until next time,

Kindly, Joanne

I don't know exactly how this happened, but one day in May, I woke up and thought, "Why should I have all of the fun in reading and reviewing books?" I certainly love it, but really, there are just way too many books to read, and wouldn't it be cool if kids started to read them and share with the rest of us what they learned?

And thus was born, in the blink of an eye, a new contest. You can watch the promotional video above or HERE

I really like working with people who have similar values and goals as I do, so I contacted my friend Jeff Shaumeyer who runs a great reading challenge already called the Scienticity Reading Challenge and asked if he would like to help out! I'm very pleased that he said yes, because, frankly, I like this man. I have from the moment we communicated starting last year or so. We both care about science and how people learn about it and think about it, and are happy if people do either of those things at all.

Jeff and I have become a super science literacy team as we both care about science and we care about literacy. It is the cornerstone of what we do in our outreach to the world! 

The contest is simple--just do what I do quite often. Read a non-fiction science book and make a video! Oh, you have to be a kid or teen. Just making that clear. Age 8-12 can enter Kids Read Science and ages 13-18 can join Teens Read Science. We will be thrilled to see you all be creative and articulate. Tell us what you learned in less than five minutes.

Anyone anywhere in the world can submit an entry. We have prizes, too! But, for now, with our limited legal knowledge, we can only distribute those in the US. Don't worry, we're going to try to figure something out for everybody else.

Mostly, we want to see your enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering and mathematics shine through! You have from now until 11pm Central Time on 22 September 2010 to upload the video and submit your application. That simple.

 If you need help choosing a book, please contact myself or Jeff and we will guide you along. I also recommend you visiting your librarian, a trusted teacher or parent! Remember, you don't need to buy the book, either. Visit your library, I've heard they keep a lot of books there. :)

Many more details can be found at the respective websites (the How to Enter page has lots of details there), so check it out and I look forward to seeing you on video soon!

Kindly,

Joanne

I hope there is not a single person out there who holds their breath waiting for me to add a new post to my website. Really, you have been suffering for more than a month in that case!

In the meantime, of course, it has been April and May which boils down to the end of the semester and end of school year activities. If you are tremendously curious about my comings and goings, I suggest you follow me on twitter or check out my youtube channel!

In case you missed it, I have finally put together an epic series of videos about what the doctor looks for when they order a Complete Blood Cell Count (CBC). To describe this I used delicious cookies created by Not So Humble Pie whom I have introduced to you previously.

Here I am enjoying the scent of a lovely little gingerbread science lady in a labcoat that Ms. Humble so kindly created just for me!

Here I have added my introductory video which happened to be featured on BoingBoing!  I extend my thanks as the video series was mentioned on an Italian blog, Gravita Zero where I was described as  "the science teacher we all wish we had". Very kind words indeed, assuming Google Translator is correct!

 

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This video then links to further videos that discuss each blood cell in more detail. You may explore this as you have time.  All of the videos are collected in a playlist here.

I have added, for your science viewing pleasure, two videos on the Fun Science Videos page, including one describing great microbiologists using LEGOS (awesome), and the Particle Business-Fermilab Tevatron rap!! All I have to say is "Where da Higgs at?"

As mentioned previously, I was interviewed by Bora Zivkovic for the Science Online 2010 follow-up. It is a bit unique in that rather than just writing, I added a few videos, including one where Jonah Lehrer helps explainscience communication using my collection of Barbie dolls. I even sing in one of them. Yeah, not sure why I did that, either! There are also some previously unpublished modeling photos on the page, too!

Speaking of LEGOs, a lovely fellow twitterer, @20tauri, also known in the real world as Maia, who helps with the very fun website BrainPop, has shot a series of photos of some well known "scitweeps" (people who post on twitter with a scientific focus). I am very honored to be among the group! And here I am, @sciencegoddess, with my gummy minions!

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Finally, I can tell you a bit about my upcoming science reading contest for youth! If you are between the ages of 8-18, you might consider reading a popular non-fiction science book over the summer and posting a brief video reviewing it for your friends, family or me! I am doing this in collaboration with Jeff from Ars Hermeneutica/Scienticity Reading Challenge. And, with some generous commitments of donations from a great sponsor, we will be able to award prizes to our winners, which will possibly include e-readers and gift cards to bookstores among other items. I have even gotten commitments from some great authors to provide signed copies of books to distribute to winners as well!

So come back and visit here in about a week for fuller details and links to the finished website. There will be a facebook page and in existence already is a twitter account called @KidsReadScience. And it would be fabulous if you could share this information with other kids, parents, teachers and librarians!

Until next time,

Kindly, Joanne

When my kids were small, I especially liked the large selection of books available in the science genre, including all of the DK (Dorling Kindersley) Eyewitness series, any book by Seymour Simon, The Let's-Read-and-Find-Out-Science, stage 2 by Harper Collins and of course, The Magic Schoolbus series!

Here is a collection of recent books I've collected!

Here are the books and appropriate links to the author's websites featured in the video:

Why Is Snot Green? and How Loud Can You Burp?: More Extremely Important Questions (and Answers) by Glenn Murphy

Felicity Frobisher and the Three-headed Aldebaran Dust Devil by Marcus Chown

Little Moon by Dr. Stuart Clark

Ocean Life From A to Z Book and DVD by Annie Crawley

Engineering the ABC's: How Engineers Shape Our World by Patty O'Brien Novak

Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be by Daniel Loxton

Katie of the Sonoran Desert: Based on a True Story (English and Spanish Edition) by Kate Jackson

 

I hope among this list you can find something appropriate for any child in your life.

This past week I met Jeff Corwin. Yes, the Animal Planet guy. He has a new book called 100 Heartbeats: The Race to Save Earth's Most Endangered Species . I've read it and promise to review it for you. He has a new initiative that you can learn about by clicking on his name above. I'll talk about it more later, too.

He is every bit as funny on stage as he is on his shows. It was a worthwhile trip to sit amongst a throng of college students who grew up on his shows to see him.

This week I also met science author Jonah Lehrer. I will confess my attraction to his brains. No kidding. I love his books and will read anything he publishes. Jonah helped me make a video about science communication, but as that is debuting on Bora Zivkovic's blog "Blog Around the Clock" tomorrow, you'll either have to visit there or just wait a bit before I add it to this site.My interview on Bora's blog will be unique, you'll see.

I did you a favor and linked to the page in Bora's blog that goes to a great video animated in post-it notes! It is so worth the time to watch!

I have a post I'm working on that will indeed be published here in April, during Autism Awareness Month. It will have a personal perspective and I hope it will be informative and helpful to my readers.

Kindly,

Joanne

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science. You can learn more about the project, and who Ada Lovelace is at http://www.findingada.com/

Today, I have chosen to feature Dr. Gordana Vunjak Novakovic, a well known researcher in the field of tissue engineering. According to her website profile, "Gordana obtained a Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering at the University of Belgrade, in her homeland of Serbia. She stayed there as a faculty, raising in the ranks from an Assistant Professor to a regular Professor. Upon moving to the USA, Gordana spent twelve years at the Harvard-MIT Division for Health Sciences and Technology. As a Fulbright Fellow, she became fascinated by the concept of tissue engineering, and emerging technologies for improving and saving human life. She then joined Columbia University in 2005, where her laboratory hosts the Bioreactor Core of the NIH Center for Tissue Engineering.
Gordana's research has been focused on engineering functional tissues for use as models of diseases, in regenerative medicine and studies of stem cells. Gordana published 2 books, 40 book chapters, over 200 peer-reviewed articles and has over 30 issued or pending patents. She is a frequent advisor to government organizations on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and the chair of her NIH study section. Gordana is serving on editorial boards of six scientific journals, and on numerous advisory boards and councils.
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I first became acquainted with Gordana presence on the planent via a book she coauthored with cell culture guru, Ian Freshney, Culture of Cells for Tissue Engineering (Culture of Specialized Cells) . When I realized the coauthor was a woman, I found myself quite thrilled to know there was at least one prominent female researcher in the field of tissue engineering, a topic close to my heart.

Dr. Vunjak-Novakovic so kindly took a few minutes out of her busy schedule to speak with me yesterday.

Gordana, I was wondering if there was anything you experienced as a young girl that caused you to gravitate towards going into science?
"I guess you are born with some kind of curious mind that leads you to science. It is also environment to some extent because when you are really young, exposure to many different challenges and opportunities feeds your imagination and helps you decide how to go one way or another. I was fortunate to have both of these. I always liked experimenting and asking questions and I also had parents who were giving me many different opportunities to go and explore many different possibilities.

I knew what I wanted to do; something very interesting, something unusual and nonroutine but didn't know until I was a junior in high school that it was science. I ended up going into an engineering school and doing bioengineering research.

Now many research laboratories open doors for high school students and undergraduate students and give them an opportunity to get the science of biomedical research and then get inspired this way to pursue it.

I also asked out of my curiosity, how long she had worked with Bob Langer, one of the founders of tissue engineering and learned a lot about her life has been a series of opportunities that moved her from chemical engineering, to biomedical engineering and ultimately to tissue engineering (which is a subset of biomedical engineering). Her openness to new challenges has led to her to where she is today."

I'm interested in knowing about the excitement you find in scientific research.

"It is a lot of excitement! We all work very hard, and this is by choice. What the driver is is the excitement, because you see things in laboratories that are inspirational. So in a very general sense, what I find amazing and inspiring is that you can create conditions in the laboratory that mimic the conditions in an organism and then study processes that happen in our organism in a controllable setting. So this is the art and engineering of imitating nature, so we are creating the conditions for the cells to do their job.

What we see is the assembly of the cells into some functional structure so it can get a little cardiac tissue, which is generating force or get a little piece of bone tissue or a piece of cartilage. The exciting thing is that in all these pieces of tissue, we are looking into developing treatment options for people who are born without tissue, such a babies with cleft palate, or through trauma or surgery have lost some tissue.

If you can make small constructs in which you put the cells in so they are surrounded by other cells in the matrix, I would think that the responses from these cells will be much more realistic biologically. This is how technology is serving stem cell researchers.

I think that is some of the excitement. One more component, especially, is that stem cells and tissue engineering is a type of work where you CANNOT do yourself, just sitting alone at the end of bench. You DO need to work with other people and there are many many challenges and excitement and rewards of talking with people outside your area of expertise. So we have to work with many types of scientists and engineers and clinicians and this exchange of ideas that gives you exposure to knowledge in fields of medicine that you have not been familiar with is another exciting thing. This is the thing that drives you. It is a lot of excitement."

I see you were inducted into the Hall of Fame for Women in Technology in 2008. Congratulations. What piece of advice would you like to share with young ladies considering a career in science?

"I think that they should really try, and like the rest of us who are much older than they are, they should look into the HARDEST problem they can work on.

In graduate school, you are going to work very hard, so it is best if you can work on something that will make a difference. It will make a difference for you because it will be challenging you to be clever and creative, and may make a difference in the people around you. Don't choose something routine and easy, rather, choose something important.

Aiming high in terms of impact of the problems you are studying scientifically and practically are very important things.

The other important thing, is, in general, to think about the general environment and how it impacts you personally and professionally. You need to look for an environment that is supportive of what YOU want to do. It is good to aim for the best school you can get into, but the specific microenvironment, the specific lab, you enter is extremely important because this will determine not only how successful you are, but how good you feel about your work."

That'a beautiful answer and wonderful advice. Thank you for your time!

I enjoyed my brief conversation with her. She even inspired me, and I'm already a big believer in women in science and definitely in tissue engineering as a promise for the field of regenerative medicine.

Gordana has been recently quoted in Elle Magazine in an article about the future of healing skin, so you might want to check that out, too.

BioBusinessTV has a fabulous series of videos about stem cells and their uses in research. You can watch Gordana here talk a little more about her work.

As you can see above, I've switched out the Liquid Nitrogen Gummi Bear video for a new one called "Cats in Sinks: A Science Lesson". I'm sure I can be accused of blatantly manipulating viewers into watching and hopefully learning a little something about science by using a really cute cat in my video. OK, I'm guilty! We all know that cats and the internet are a good combination, but so are cats and science! Such as here in this spoof on the Scientific American magazine (which I love, by the way). Right here on the cover are six different scientific topics retold in a way your cat will understand. The idea for my Science of Cats in Sinks is explained in the video. I really wanted to show the process of inspiration (A random musing--I wonder how many cats can fit in my lab sink?) to sorting out the best way to find the answer (Theoretical vs. Experimental) to making a hypothesis, to collecting data, to doing the math to following up with more experimental data using scientific models. I convinced some random and really, really smart kids to help me out! They had to wrangle the cat since I'm allergic, plus they did the math, too!

Using animals to describe science is not new such as evidenced here by the darling and entertaining book How to Teach Physics to Your Dog by Chad Orzel. Chad runs a blog called Uncertain Principles: Physics, Politics, Pop Culture and features his dog Emmy, who "...likes treats, walks, chasing bunnies, and quantum physics." Don't we all?

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There's a portion of the video where I measure the cat (an irregular object) in three dimensions to calculate his volume. I know full well that the Volume Displacement method would be much more accurate, but I'm not usually into antagonizing cats by immersing them in water. Here is a very cute comic along that line. The comments section underneath the video on youtube has some good suggestions for other ways to accomplish volume measurement as posted by someone calling himself TheHomeScientist.

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Here is some "real" cat science, as presented by The National Geographic Society. They're using DNA testing to search for the origin of the first pet cat. Science provides endless possibilities for understanding the world!

Good news! The Biomedical Engineering Society took first place at U of I's Engineering Open House in the Presentation and Exhibit category. These students are fabulous in so many ways and they deserve this honor!

Tonight I am watching Stephen Colbert because awesome science author Rebecca Skloot (Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) will be on there talking about her book (and yes, I had a successful trip up to Northwestern to get it signed by her, thanks for asking!)

Until next time,

Kindly,

Joanne

As you can see above, with the still capture of me looking like I'm about to sneeze (shakes fist at youtube for giving me only bad choices this time!), is my latest book review. You can't imagine how much I loved watching Jacques Cousteau on TV as a girl or how useful the information I learned from those shows was quite useful while my family lived on Guam.

(The book that was formerly there, I never did post about, but it is a lovely book called The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom  by Graham Farmelo. I have a great affection for that book, and in case you missed it, you can see my review of it here.)

I read Brad Matsen's book, Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King , in just a few sittings as it was so engrossing. I truly had no idea of how much Cousteau had contributed to the world of scuba including helping to design regulators and tanks, and of course his innovations in undersea photography. However, if you don't have time or the patience for this wonderful book, here is a 38 minute talk given by the author. I found it every bit as interesting as the book.

Today, I added a page to my website called Fun Science Videos. Instead of wading through all of my Favorites on youtube, I thought I would compile all of the fun ones in one place as your one stop for some cool videos.

Later this week, I am driving out to see Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (which I discovered I'm listed in the acknowledgements via my name AND twitter name! Very fun!). Even though I've already met her, I just want to be a part of her massive self propelled Book Tour (see if she'll be near you!), and get her signature in my copy! Her book, last I saw, was number  three on the NYT best seller list.  That is very impressive.

This Friday and Saturday is the Engineering Open House at the University of Illinois. BMES, the Biomedical Engineering Society will have some very cool exhibits, so feel free to stop by. I think they will be on the first floor of DCL. Joining them will be the iGEM team with some (hopefully) nice smelling bacteria! Probably fragranced like mint or banana rather than their normal noxious scent. Playing around with the DNA to get bacteria to change their scent is one small feat for the new field of synthetic biology. Our team hopes to accomplish a lot more than that this year!

The special guest for EOH is Deanne Bell. She's a mechanical engineer by training and has lately been on some TV shows for PBS (Design Squad) and Discovery (Smash Lab) she is on to yet another show on DIY. Check out her website for more info. I'm excited because I'm getting on the schedule to grab and interview and chat about her role in encouraging young ladies to consider engineering as a career option.

Until next time,

Kindly, Joanne

There are many ways to approach science and many different options on how one might want to share science with the general public. John Boswell in his project Symphony of Science is trying to capture the expansive beauty of the whole arena of science and the incredible depth of it's philosophy in the form of moving songs "sung" in autotune by great science popularizers. Here is his latest enchanting work:

This project encapsulates the wonder and admiration I have for science. I love focusing on what science has done to earn my affection rather than the many foibles and shortfalls of the methods or the people doing science. I am perfectly aware of these faults and weaknesses. If you care to read about science from that viewpoint, I assure you there are many bloggers who discuss these issues and even offer valid options for amending them.

My friend, Jeff, at Scienticity, who runs a science book reading challenge, once said to me: "Everyone can learn science. It just can't always be taught in five minutes." I believe this to be true, but I also believe that we can shorten the amount of time it takes to learn it, or at least make it seem that time is passing by more quickly by making it more engaging. Personally, I do it by approaching science in a whimsical manner in unexpected ways. I would like to thank author Philip Alcabes for saying a very kind thing about my website and expressing exactly what I am continually hoping I do everyday.

"May science be what Joanne Manaster does at her incomparable website: looking at the world with wonder, asking without dogmatic preconceptions how it works, and accepting that its irrepressible quirkiness makes it impossible to know the world perfectly."

You may read what he DOESN"T wish science to be here.

Every once in a while, I like to take a break from the serious work of science by watching the humor others see in science! I try to collect humorous videos in my "Favorites" on my youtube channel. The Onion and Stephen Colbert offer some of the best looks at science by doing it in sometimes side-splitting ways! Like this one, poking fun at both the field of genetic engineering and at Disney!

For those of you who have just joined me at this website, welcome. This site is about my personal relationship with science. I love to share this fascination with those people in which I sense a glimmer of the same. I won't waste my time trying to convince anyone that they should KNOW science or have to LIKE it. People are free to come and go as they like. My views are, as always, my own. :)

Sitting on my video camera, waiting and waiting to be processed are a few projects.

• Using a scanning electron microscope to look at a gummy bear up close.
• Looking at the ultrastructural properties and elemental components of mineral make-up.
• A book review of a biography of the unequaled Jacques Cousteau
• Thanks to the cats on the internet phenomenon, I have an upcoming video on the science of "Cats in Sinks". Yes, cats can teach us science.
• Also, I am VERY excited to tell you of a great new book I read called The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
• I have a large collection of children's science books that I will also share with you very soon!

Kindly,

Joanne

For those unaware of the big news the world of Barbie, it was recently revealed that one of Barbie's next careers, by popular vote, is that of Computer Engineer! It's a good move as clearly women can be computer engineers, too! Her other career chosen is that of a news anchor. Interestingly, since people are getting more news from their computers and the internet, perhaps the role of the computer engineer is incredibly apropos.

Computer engineer Barbie is not due out until December. It would have been great if she was available this summer as the girl's camp I am a faculty instructor for is offering a section called GLEE, Girls Learning Electrical Engineering. It is aimed to highschoolers and they are making a cellphone! I'm just a bit jealous.

If all goes as planned, I will be at this weekend's Insect Fear Film Festival, (27th year!) helping out with the BUGSCOPE where you can "drive" a high priced, high quality piece of equipment in order to view bugs up close Even if you don't think you will watch movies, there are plenty of other FREE activities to be involved in.

For those of you local or somewhat local, I will be at the University of Illinois' Public Engagement Symposium 2010 at the I Hotel on March 3, 2010 from 3-7pm. The focus is on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) engagement, which is pretty much what I do. So while I am not a University unit in and of myself doing my outreach (and I am neither encouraged nor discouraged by my employing departments), I have many facets of outreach I do in conjunction with the University including GAMES,  Bugscope, tours and (formerly) the Science Olympiad (although I've had to drop my participation in the state level competition this year as I am busy with the other outreach I do).

I saw this as an opportunity to collect my thoughts on what it is I do and find a succinct way to present it to the public! In the spirit of public engagement, I am putting together two separate mini experiment kits to take home.

• The first is to demonstrate the concepts of osmosis and tonicity using gummy bears! The kit will include a pack of mini gummy bears, a vial of distilled water to "grow" a gummy bear and a vial of very salty water to "shrink" a gummy bear and possibly grow salt crystals and of course, instructions.

• The second will be to demonstrate the hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties of mascara and to talk about polymers. It will include paint brushes with mascara applied, a vial of water, a vial of oily make-up remover, cotton pads and instructions.

In either case, the experimenter (hopefully kids) can view my corresponding videos if desired and send me notes on the results of their experiments! I'd love to hear them!

Since I didn't have business cards, I decided to make some in the form of bookmarks. This emphasizes my belief in the importance of reading in order to create a good scientist. You are also less likely to throw them away!

While you are out there, be sure to stop by the iGEM team's table and see what they are doing in the world of synthetic biology!

Lastly, speaking of local, Laura at Chambana Moms kindly interviewed me for her blog. You can learn a little bit more about my philosophy of engaging kids in science, why I am a big believer in encouragement in general, whether young children should watch me destroy gummy bears and some big ideas for the future. If you care to take a peek. Here it is!

Until next time,

Kindly, Joanne

 

A grad student who has worked with my bioengineering class for a few semesters pointed out a visit from a faculty candidate who has a fun outreach! Once I saw what Amy Rowat does, I scrambled to be put on her visiting schedule and joined her for a lovely breakfast.

We talked a bit about her research on the physical properties of the cell nucleus, especially in terms of microfluidics and her interest in the unusual properties of the multilobed nucleus of the neutrophil. As you can see in the image on the left, that the nucleus looks different than the big sphere shaped ones we usually find in a diagram. This shape of nucleus helps the cell change shape and squeeze between the cells that make up the blood vessel.

A neutrophil is the most common white blood cell in the body. It is the first cell to leave the bloodstream and go into the surrounding tissue at the first signs of injury or infection. It is also the main component of pus. Neutrophils are well known for eating invading bacteria and below is a well known video shot in 1950s by David Rogers that shows a neutrophil chasing a bacteria in order to engulf it (also known as phagocytosis)

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Dr. Rowat is currently at Harvard, and along with some colleagues, have presented Christmas Science shows (following in Michael Faraday's footsteps) based on "The Science of Food"! These are interactive discussions and experiments with audience participation about Chocolate and Pizza. This is real, creatively presented science and not the watered down version you might get on TV.  There are no videos but here is her website featuring the outreach. It is just a sampling, but you'll get the idea. This is an example of science outreach done well! I would love to see this in person sometime!

Maybe now you could use a tall, scientific drink after all that talk of food. Boing Boing just featured a great program given at the Exploratorium called The Science of Cocktails. I wish I could have attended that, too! Someone happened to soak gummy bears in vodka to see the results, a bit like I did with the water logged gummy bear on the liquid nitrogen gummy bears video. Take a look and be sure to watch the videos! Two of the videos are fun science tricks you can do at a restaurant and are demonstrated by the author of a book I own called  While You're Waiting for the Food to Come: A Tabletop Science Activity Book : Experiments and Tricks That Can Be Done at a Restaurant, the Dining Room Table, or Wherever Food Is Served (I've had my copy for years!!) 

While you are visiting BoingBoing you might also enjoy a couple of cool videos about chemistry and materials science on BoingBoing's Monday Morning Science Hoax .

Now, onto The Science of Shampoo. I found it via The Beauty Brains . It is by L'Oreal and shows many scientific ways that shampoo is tested for various characteristics. You will need to follow this link to view it. It is worth the detour.

Finally, I am going to point you to a very funny article in The Onion called Science Channel Refuses to Dumb Down Science Any Further Enjoy!

Until next time,

Kindly, Joanne

I've been so excited about this book since I first heard that Rebecca Skloot was writing it!! I was more than ready for a popular book about cell culture called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Imagine the honor when Rebecca asked me to preview an early copy to check for scientific errors! (only found one tiny one!) It is a marvelous read! It is almost impossible to encapsulate how this book has something for everyone and highlights not only the history of cell culture, but the history of ethics in dealing with patients: informed consent, patent rights and more! It is also a story of humanity and family. I loved, loved, loved this book. I only recommend books that touch me, that have good messages and good science and communicate their ideas in an understandable way. This book does all that and more. The writing style is breezy and easy to follow.

I did my book review in my cell culture room for effect and I talk about immortal cell lines. 

A couple of other bits of news. I have joined the University of Illinois iGEM team as an advisor and general cheerleader. Once the team is chosen and the Wiki is opened you will be able to follow our synthetic biology team as they create something amazing from pieces of DNA called BioBricks that are inserted into and expressed in E.coli. This is very amazing. Past projects have allowed bacteria to smell like mint or pineapple, to flash different colors and to develop film. The possibilities are endless! The project will be presented and judged against teams from all across the world at MIT in October. Stay tuned! 

So, you all know of the Nobel prizes, right? Right around the same time, Improbable Research gives out the IgNobels. What fun way for scientists to (hopefully) laugh at themselves. Another way to know that some of us don't take ourselves all that seriously is to be inducted into the The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists! I'm pleased to say I am a member! I'm excited.

And if your hair is less than flowing or completely absent, they have the counterpart called the Luxuriant Former Hair Club for Scientists!

Until next time, 

Kindly, Joanne

One day I was wondering what the difference is between Quick Dry nail polish vs. Long Wearing nail polish? What do they add that's different to influence these properties?

I'll get to those differences in a second. Overall, it is difficult to determine exactly since nail polish ingredients seem to be somewhat proprietary, at least in terms of precise proportions. 

As I was looking into this, I happened to discover that a very fun piece of material used in cell biological labs and a staple of magicians everywhere, nitrocellulose, happens to be the main ingredient. I could not possibly imagine the reason for this, so investigated further.

What resulted is the following video where I explain the flammability properties of nail polish. Not only is nitrocellulose quite flammable, but so are the solvents used to give nail polish the ability to dry quickly-they evaporate quickly precisely because they have a low boiling point and thus low flashpoints! By definition this makes them flammable!

Flames begin at about minute 3, skip to there if you don't want to know what nail polish and pregnancy tests have in common. After that is a silent time lapsed portion demonstrating mass loss of nail polish due to evaporation. Also, it seemed appropriate to add a blooper reel at the end!

Oh look, I'm imitating a chipmunk!

I was hoping to compare the evaporative properties of both the quick dry and the long wearing, expecting the mass loss of the quick dry to be, well, quicker. My results were inconclusive, but I feel I need to design the experiment better.

I thinking that the quick dry nail polish may initially go on in a very thin film, so evaporation can happen more quickly. Many resins and plasticizers would be diminished in order for that to happen. Since resins and plasticizers add to the long wearing property, often quick dry nail polish chips sooner than the long wearing version.

It seems I have a follow up project.

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Now, onto something a bit more serious. In what may be the most unfortunate convergence of events, Fall 2009, and in particular, the course covering my most beloved topic of histology has the dubious distinction of being the arduous semester I've experienced as a university instructor.

• My father passed away. I buried him a week before classes began. The grief was overwhelming and nearly paralyzing,

• I was in charge of another course that I would not normally have simultaneously.

• And in a complicated series of political and administrative decisions based on assigned personnel, I was required to change how the course was run in less than a week's time.
  

Overwhelmed by bewilderment and sorrow, the choices I made for delivering the information were less than optimal for student learning. I take full responsibility on that level. My normal personableness and concern for student learning took a temporary backseat to pressing family matters.

I wish I could take the semester back, and give these students the excellent material this course is known for providing. I feel for them and their annoyance in having to learn the material in a less than excellent manner. The course is undergoing significant changes and will return to top notch shape by Fall 2010. I expect no less from myself as someone whose affection for the material is unparalleled.

On a more cheerful note, tomorrow, I will share with you about a most phenomenal book. If you've resisted getting a popular science book until now, this one is one I think you should make the effort to obtain.

 Kindly, Joanne

For someone who has a side hobby of trying to destroy gummy bears in scientific ways, I like that other people have found sweet ways to display science!

First, a recent find is Not So Humble Pie,  curated by a "typical nerdy biological anthropologist turned stay at home mom and baker of sometimes strange goodies". Look at what she makes!!!

      

I LOVE the creativity and the execution. Lab mice models (PETA cannot be upset about these!) I wonder what she was testing the LD 50 of? And DNA gel electrophoresis cookies! Just amazing. She has petri dishes, a containment suit and a few other common biological models employed including zebra fish and Drosophila melanogaster. Many of us sciency geeks from the Science Online conference have inundated her with ideas for other amazing science cookies. Personally, I'd like to see all 6 different types of blood cells baked to scale!

Don't forget to see her "Science Cookie Roundup" I am such a fan!

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Artist Kevin Val Aelst takes everyday items and gives them a scientific twist. I just fell in love with everything from a QT interval shaped part in someone's hair to an apple bitten out of to demonstrate the globe

 

Who knew mitosis could be so delicious?

          

How can I not love a FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) chromosome map replicated in gummy worms?

And despite the grotesqueness of viewing already been chewed gum (ABC), the digestive tract is quite clever. And don't ask me if gum stays in the digestive tract for seven years, I have no idea. (But I doubt it!)

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Now that you've consumed so many calories just by viewing this post, be sure to exercise them off. Sports is a great way to do that. With the Winter Olympics coming up soon, wouldn't it be awesome if you knew the science behind the games? As you can guess, you are in luck! 

You will want to check this out! NBC has a page called Olympic Science

Overall I think the videos are good, but felt there could be a bit more explanation, including actually DEFINING angular momentum and other such terms, but I'd say this is a good series if you have some basics in your pocket!

 

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For those of you with a more avant garde taste in things, the next photo is definitely edgy. Mind you I am not recommending this to anyone, just sharing an amazing nerdy way to get 32 corset piercings down your back--in the shape of DNA! I can only imagine it would be difficult to sleep or sit with this arrangement, but hey, I totally appreciate the "science" of it!

Are you ready to say "ouch"?

 

I know I wouldn't be one to sport such a thing!

I didn't add a link to this image, but it originally came from a site called 'Deviant Art'. Go there at your own risk. Some of the images are amazing, but may be questionable depending on your sensibilities.

 

Until next time! 

Kindly, Joanne

 

 

 

This past weekend was the 4th annual Science Online conference. It was a marvelous experience and I met so many amazing people, all of whom want to share science with the world!

I wish I could recount all of the people I met, so no one feels left out, but I fear it is nearly impossible. One of the most startling things that happened repeatedly was people coming up to me and saying either "Joanne!" or more tentatively "Joanne?" :) I suppose I'm recognizable by my videos. I was left trying not to look too quizzical when trying to figure out who was addressing me, but always pleased when they would say "I'm "so and so" on twitter" and I had the flash of recognition.

I met and also saw from afar several authors of popular science books. I think I will just list them for simplicity sake:

• Rebecca Skloot, Author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks , due out February 1 with my review right around that time, too!
• Carl Zimmer, author of Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life (Vintage) and other very amazing books on biological topics. I must've told him three times I wanted him to sign my book, but never got around to it. Yes, I reviewed it!
• Tom Levenson, author of Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist , which I have on my kindle (which he signed, right alongside David Sedaris!)
• Michael Specter, author of Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives (Hardcover) and keynote speaker for the conference. I DID remember to get the book signed by him!
• David Dobbs, author of Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral whom I saw but didn't have chance to be introduced.
• Scott Huler, author of the upcoming book  On the Grid: A Plot of Land, An Average Neighborhood, and the Systems that Make Our World Work due out May 11.  I had lunch with him on Saturday (and a lovely bass playing student named Princess) I was thrilled to receive a galley copy of this book!
• Eric Roston, author of The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat who apparently has some inside connection with Michael Faraday and offered to introduce us!
  
• Felice Frankel, whose book, No Small Matter: Science on the Nanoscale, I purchased while there, already pre-signed. 
• Sheril Kirshenbaum and Chris Mooney, authors of  Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future
• Sheril has a book coming up next year called The Science of Kissing. I think that one might do ok! Again, completely missed opportunities for signatures.
• Henry Gee, author of Jacob's Ladder: The History of the Human Genome
• Jennifer Ouelette, author of several books including The Physics of the Buffyverse By the way, her husband Sean M Carroll, has a book From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time which just came out a few weeks ago and is sitting in my pile to read!
• Vanessa Woods, author of the upcoming release Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo
• An author who was supposed to be there but could not make it was Maryn McKenna, whose book Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA is due out in March.
• We also got a book in our gift bags called This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape the Future edited by John Brockman
  

I hope I didn't miss anyone, but surely I did!

Before I go further, let me first point out a great mash-up photo/vid collage done by teacher Stacey Baker who brought several of her high school students who use many new technologies and programs in their science work to share with us at the conference! Their presentation was just fabulous! I love to see articulate, intelligent teens who can teach me something! I will try to post vids of their talks as I find them. You will be as impressed as I was.

You might look at this picture and wonder, who is that incredibly fortunate fellow to be surrounded by all of us ladies? This smart man is Russ Cambell, communications officer for Burroughs Wellcome Fund in North Carolina (did you know that NC has a very high number of science bloggers? I learned that this weekend!) He knew a good opportunity when he saw it. Surrounding him, from left to right are Darlene Cavalier (science cheerleader), Kirsten Stanford (Dr. Kiki), Rebecca Skloot (author mentioned above) and myself. Make no mistake, the four of us gals are out to tell anyone about science if they are willing to listen!

My Ignite Talk on Saturday night went well, although I was trapped behind a podium and the lighting was not optimal for a video, so I recorded my talk and placed it on youtube. You can watch that HERE It starts off sounding a bit syrupy, but improves as you go along. You are missing the legs and the great red shoes, but maybe in your future is a photo for full effect.

I will work on getting my reminiscence of science popularizers in a format that can be loaded on youtube or on this site. I have a lot to say, so I believe it deserves its own blog post.

I left the conference with plans to return with longer and more involved sessions that will probably be done in collaboration with some of the people I met this year. I have some ideas on a session about creating science videos and one expanding on my "Characteristics of Science Popularizers", possibly discussing international portrayals of science on TV as well.

Hope you found something to your liking to read on this list! I will talk more about my visit to Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in a few days.

Until then,

Kindly, Joanne