Read Science!

Conversations about Science Communication and Communicating Science

Oct
18

Episode 26 : “Molecules” Edition, with Theo Gray & Nick Mann (audio)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 18 October 2014

Published on Oct 16, 2014
Streamed live on 16 October 2014.

In this episode we talked everything molecules: organic and inorganic chemistry, honey & high-fructose corn syrup, pigments, sodium ducks, and knitted sheep butts. Our guests were Theodore Gray, author, and Nick Mann, photographer, of the beautiful, informative, and entertaining book Molecules : The Elements and the Architecture of Everything.

Visit Theo Gray’s apps website : http://apps.theodoregray.com/.

To like “Read Science!” on Facebook : http://facebook.com/ReadScience.

Sep
27

Episode 25 : “Kitchen Science Lab” Edition, with Liz Heinecke (video)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 27 September 2014

Streamed live 25 September 2014.

For this episode, we not only Read Science, we Make Science! Our guest was Liz Heinecke, the Kitchen Pantry Scientist and author of Kitchen Science Lab for Kids. We talked about engaging kids and their parents with science through hands-on science fun in the kitchen–and outdoors, for the messier experiments.

In a “Read Science!” first, we had several live demonstrations from Liz’s book, in Liz’s kitchen, with two cameo appearances by Liz’s daughters to demonstrate the fun. We made green slime, litmus paper with beet juice, and demonstrated the effects of air pressure with a hard-cooked egg. Join us for the fun!

Visit Liz’s “Kitchen Pantry Scientist” website : http://kitchenpantryscientist.com/.

To like “Read Science!” on Facebook : http://facebook.com/ReadScience.

Sep
27

Episode 25 : “Kitchen Science Lab” Edition, with Liz Heinecke (audio)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 27 September 2014

Streamed live 25 September 2014.

For this episode, we not only Read Science, we Make Science! Our guest was Liz Heinecke, the Kitchen Pantry Scientist and author of Kitchen Science Lab for Kids. We talked about engaging kids and their parents with science through hands-on science fun in the kitchen–and outdoors, for the messier experiments.

In a “Read Science!” first, we had several live demonstrations from Liz’s book, in Liz’s kitchen, with two cameo appearances by Liz’s daughters to demonstrate the fun. We made green slime, litmus paper with beet juice, and demonstrated the effects of air pressure with a hard-cooked egg. Join us for the fun!

Visit Liz’s “Kitchen Pantry Scientist” website : http://kitchenpantryscientist.com/.

To like “Read Science!” on Facebook : http://facebook.com/ReadScience.

Sep
10

Episode 24 : “Sally Ride” Edition, with Lynn Sherr (video)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 10 September 2014

Streamed live on 9 September 2014.

Today we had a lively discussion with Lynn Sherr about her outstanding biography, Sally Ride : America’s First Woman in Space. We talked quite a bit about the sexist barriers that Sally (and Lynn Sherr, herself) help to break down in the early 1980s, listened to stories, and tried to understand what a different time it was when Sally joined NASA in 1978, and what a different place the USA was back then.

To “like” us on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience .

Sep
10

Episode 24 : “Sally Ride” Edition, with Lynn Sherr (audio)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 10 September 2014

Streamed live on 9 September 2014.

Today we had a lively discussion with Lynn Sherr about her outstanding biography, Sally Ride : America’s First Woman in Space. We talked quite a bit about the sexist barriers that Sally (and Lynn Sherr, herself) help to break down in the early 1980s, listened to stories, and tried to understand what a different time it was when Sally joined NASA in 1978, and what a different place the USA was back then.

To “like” us on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience .

Jun
24

Episode 23 : “Marketing the Moon” Edition (video)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 24 June 2014

Streamed live on 24 June 2014.

Marketing and public relations aren’t our usual subjects on “Read Science!”, but in this episode they very much WERE rocket science, when we talked about the new book Marketing the Moon : The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program, with its authors, David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek.

To make a colossal program like Apollo get off the ground, it took the backing of the American people. To gain public support and trust, NASA took the unprecedented step of doing their work very openly, with lots of outreach and educational activities, and “”news releases, not publicity releases”. It’s a fascinating, never-told-before story. You’ll be glad you listened!

To “like” us on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience .

Jun
24

Episode 23 : “Marketing the Moon” Edition (audio)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 24 June 2014

Streamed live on 24 June 2014.

Marketing and public relations aren’t our usual subjects on “Read Science!”, but in this episode they very much WERE rocket science, when we talked about the new book Marketing the Moon : The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program, with its authors, David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek.

To make a colossal program like Apollo get off the ground, it took the backing of the American people. To gain public support and trust, NASA took the unprecedented step of doing their work very openly, with lots of outreach and educational activities, and “”news releases, not publicity releases”. It’s a fascinating, never-told-before story. You’ll be glad you listened!

To “like” us on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience .

Jun
24

Episode 22 : “My Dog Knows Physics” Edition, with Chad Orzel (video)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 24 June 2014

Streamed live on 20 June 2014.

Joanne and Jeff had a lively discussion centered on what dogs, bunnies, and squirrels have to do with general relativity and quantum mechanics, with our guest Chad Orzel, author of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog and How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog.

To “like” us on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience .

Jun
24

Episode 22 : “My Dog Knows Physics” Edition, with Chad Orzel (audio)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 24 June 2014

Streamed live on 20 June 2014.

Joanne and Jeff had a lively discussion centered on what dogs, bunnies, and squirrels have to do with general relativity and quantum mechanics, with our guest Chad Orzel, author of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog and How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog.

To “like” us on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience .

May
07

Episode 21 : “Zoonoses” Edition, with David Quammen (video)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 7 May 2014

Zoonoses, or infectious diseases that can pass from animals to humans, are commonplace and a danger to public health; the list of zoonotic diseases includes Ebola, influenza, SARS, MARS, HIV to name only a few. They are also the subject of David Quammen’s book “Spillover : Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic”, and the series of short videos produced by The Weather Channel, called “The Virus Hunters”.

In this RS! hangout we had our usual lively and wide-ranging discussion about these diseases, how to write about important scientific subjects without sensationalism, and all the other things that might come up in that conversation.

We recorded this episode in collaboration with Scientific American, and we are grateful to them for their support and most excellent production help. (Btw, Google’s autoswitching of the camera wasn’t working again, so our producer was doing it all by hand, and did a splendid job!)

To “like” us on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience.

May
07

Episode 21 : “Zoonoses” Edition, with David Quammen (audio)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 7 May 2014

Zoonoses, or infectious diseases that can pass from animals to humans, are commonplace and a danger to public health; the list of zoonotic diseases includes Ebola, influenza, SARS, MARS, HIV to name only a few. They are also the subject of David Quammen’s book “Spillover : Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic”, and the series of short videos produced by The Weather Channel, called “The Virus Hunters”.

In this RS! hangout we had our usual lively and wide-ranging discussion about these diseases, how to write about important scientific subjects without sensationalism, and all the other things that might come up in that conversation.

We recorded this episode in collaboration with Scientific American, and we are grateful to them for their support and most excellent production help. (Btw, Google’s autoswitching of the camera wasn’t working again, so our producer was doing it all by hand, and did a splendid job!)

To “like” us on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience.

Apr
22

Episode 20 : “Your Inner Fish” Edition (video)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 22 April 2014

Streamed live on 22 April 2014.

In this episode we talked with paleontologist, author, and television presenter Neil Shubin, author of “Your Inner Fish : A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body”; and scientific illustrator Kalliopi Monoyios, who illustrated “Your Inner Fish”. We talked about the discovery of the Tiktaalik fossil by Shubin’s team (and saw a neat cast of its skull), most every scientific discipline you can think of an how they’re related, and the importance of art in science and science communication. We probably mentioned teeth, too, because who can talk about fossils without mentioning teeth?

We recorded this episode in collaboration with Scientific American, and we are grateful for their support and most excellent production help.

To “like” us on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience.

Apr
22

Episode 20 : “Your Inner Fish” Edition (audio)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 22 April 2014

Streamed live on 22 April 2014.

In this episode we talked with paleontologist, author, and television presenter Neil Shubin, author of “Your Inner Fish : A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body”; and scientific illustrator Kalliopi Monoyios, who illustrated “Your Inner Fish”. We talked about the discovery of the Tiktaalik fossil by Shubin’s team (and saw a neat cast of its skull), most every scientific discipline you can think of an how they’re related, and the importance of art in science and science communication. We probably mentioned teeth, too, because who can talk about fossils without mentioning teeth?

We recorded this episode in collaboration with Scientific American, and we are grateful for their support and most excellent production help.

To “like” us on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience.

Mar
20

Episode 19 : “Sci-Comm Power Couple: Jennifer Ouellette and Sean M. Carroll” edition (video)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 20 March 2014

Streamed live on 13 March 2014

We started our 2014 season conversing with a science-communication power couple : Jennifer Ouellette and Sean M. Carroll, who happen to be married to each other. The books providing discussion material were Jennifer Ouellette’s Me, Myself and Why: Searching for the Science of Self, and Sean Carroll’s The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World. As usual, we ran out of time before we ran out of conversation.

We recorded this episode in collaboration with “Scientific American”, and we are grateful to them for their support and most excellent production help.

Mar
20

Episode 19 : “Sci-Comm Power Couple: Jennifer Ouellette and Sean M. Carroll” edition (audio)

Posted by jnshaumeyer on 20 March 2014

Streamed live on 13 March 2014

We started our 2014 season conversing with a science-communication power couple : Jennifer Ouellette and Sean M. Carroll, who happen to be married to each other. The books providing discussion material were Jennifer Ouellette’s Me, Myself and Why: Searching for the Science of Self, and Sean Carroll’s The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World. As usual, we ran out of time before we ran out of conversation.

We recorded this episode in collaboration with “Scientific American”, and we are grateful to them for their support and most excellent production help.