42 Lounge: Nerds in Downtown Milwaukee

As a science blogger, I love to talk about all things science related with like-minded people. I had my spots in Philadelphia, which was my home for the last 6 years .. until now. I've moved to Milwaukee, and one of my main concerns is making sure I can find places where I can geek out about space, Iron Man 3, and the latest video game.  Luckily I've found a great place to hang out at the 42 Lounge in downtown Milwaukee.

Watching live video game matches like Starcraft at a bar is heaven.

The great thing about places like 42 Lounge is that it has a nerd theme. Video games, tabletop games, and general science and tech talk rule the day - along with alcohol of course! Speaking of drinks, there are some great geek themed drinks from this list - my favorite so far is the Pokemon drink Lavender Town Syndrome (Hpnotiq, Vodka, Grenadine, Sprite).  

Check out the videos below for an interview with 42 Lounge co-owners Tony and Lynn Nilles, as well as a tour of the bar itself.

This post also appears at TWIB.

Teachable Moments In Science: Kiera Wilmot

Photo via WikiMedia

Science is fun! Part of the fun is failing, failing again, and pushing a hypothesis forward or rejecting it based off of evidence. This involves a ton of mistakes - some of which are more dangerous than others.  We need to learn how to turn reasonable mistakes into teachable moments.

16 year old Kiera Wilmot of Bartow High School mixed toilet bowl cleaner and aluminum foil on school grounds without supervision, resulting in a small non-harmful explosion. She was expelled for violating the school code of conduct, and faces felony charges of "possession/discharge of a weapon on school grounds and discharging a destructive device." The gory details, including the full police report, are located on the Miami New Times website.

Kiera Wilmot, via Miami New Times

The real problem is with the school and the police. When a kid makes a mistake that's not severe, it can be easily turned into a teachable moment. How about suspension instead of expulsion, with the requirement of a lab assignment based on the very experiment that was tried by Kiera? How about requiring a presentation by her to the class and/or principal to show mastery of the subject? This solution combines a reasonable punishment with additional academic work to help Kiera learn the proper way to conduct experiments. It also gives the adults involved another way to gauge her understanding of the scientific method. The penalties should go up for repeated offenses, up to and including expulsion. 

For more about how scientific curiosity helps us all win, check out my post Curiosity Kills the Gap.

This post also appears on TWIB.

Speedrun Through Your Favorite Sci-Fi Movies

If you love science, you probably also love science fiction (sci-fi) movies.  Sometimes you just don't have the time to watch the entire movie, but you need a quick fix. I found a great YouTube user account - 1A4Studio - who does beautiful hand drawn versions of sci-fi flicks that are only one minute long. They are very well done and hilarious - you'll definitely see your favorite scenes!  

40 seconds into Star Wars A New Hope is a marvelous reenactment of the Obi Wan - Darth Vader fight. 26 seconds into the Matrix you see Morpheus doing the STOP TRYING TO HIT ME AND HIT ME stance during the dojo fight. 40 seconds into Back to The Future shows George McFly knocking the stuffing out of Biff with a well-timed Mortal Kombat uppercut.

If you can't see the videos below, please click here.

This post also appears on TWIB.

Curiosity Kills The Gap: Helping Kids with STEM

This week's White House Science Fair is another great example of presidents using the White House to push a scientific agenda. Levar Burton, one of the co-hosts of the event, often repeated Obama's saying that you should be invited to the White House whether you win an sports championship or a science fair. Not only is it great to see young scientists celebrated on a national stage, but you also get super adorable photos like this:

Levar Burton and Bill Nye The Science Guy help interview three young budding scientists

It's a beautiful scene, isn't it? It's one that needs to replicated in cities and towns across the country. Not only do we owe it to the future generations to be scientifically literate, but we need to avoid being among the bottom of developed countries for math and science. The gap needs to be eliminated.

Philadelphia does a better job than most cities when it comes to promoting science. I've previously covered the Philadelphia Science Festival, which turned the heart of the city into a big playground of ... bugs and stuff. The George Washington Carver Science Fair (yes, the website sucks ... Facebook is somewhat better) gives elementary and high school kids a chance to show off their science skills, with judges from the community (like my friends the Black Tribbles). But even with these resource, the everyday school experience of a significant amount of students is devoid of the science resources that are needed for success. The situation is even worse with other cities that don't have fair at all.

All in a day's work at the Philadelphia Science Festival

When most people think science resources, they mention labs, circuit boards to wire, hydrochloric acid to burn things, fetal pigs to dissect, etc.  These are all important, but they are secondary to the truth issue. The most important part is making sure that kids have the space to be curious and creative. This is extremely important because kids with all the resources in the world will waste them if they don't have a spirit of curiosity. Similarly, kids with nothing have and will continue to change the world of scientific discovery because they were allowed to poke around, fail, and fail again in their creative pursuits.

Panelist at the WURD Speaks: Blackout event in Philadelphia. From L-R - Robert W. Bogle, President & CEO of the Philadelphia Tribune; Brigitte Daniel, Executive Vice President of Wilco Electronic Systems; Sara Lomax-Reese, President & General Manager of 900AM-WURD; Mignon Clyburn, FCC Commissioner; William Crowder, Managing Director of DreamIt Ventures & Lead Advisor of the Comcast Ventures; Navarrow Wright, CTO Interactive One

I attended an event by Philly's only Black owned talk radio station WURD called Blackout: Reinventing Media in the Digital Age. There was an amazing panel, including FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, that all echoed a similar concern - we need to instill an environment of entrepreneurial spirit, curiosity, and creativity in our kids at a very young age. We live in a time where we can do research on anything that a kid displays affinity towards and help them understand it on a deeper level.  This is how we can kill the gap between have and have not when it comes to science education both within our country, and between our country and the rest of the world.

Smithsonian #TimeNav Event: Tweets & Photos

Below are my tweets and photos from the Smithsonian Air & Space  Museum's Time and Navigation exhibit which opens Friday, April 12th. The exhibit features navigation the evolution of navigation technology from the sea, to the air, to space, and now in our smartphones. Yesterday's preview has more detail.  Check out the photos below!

Smithsonian #TimeNav: Back Seat Drivers

The Smithsonian National Air and Space museum is unveiling a new exhibit entitled Time & Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting From Here to There. The exhibit will focus on navigators - the folks that served as the back seat drivers for many famous pilots, drivers, captains, and others. Exhibits from famous names such as sea Captain Charles Wilkes and pilot Charles Lindbergh will be featured, as well as Mariner 10, the first spacecraft to reach Mercury.

An excerpt from the Smithsonian blog reads as follows:

Today, the navigator as a crew member has largely disappeared from most commercial and military long-distance operations, replaced by microprocessors in the form of GPS and inertial navigation systems, but from the 1930s to the 1980s, the navigator was an essential crewmember on many long-distance commercial and military flights.

Be sure to follow my on Twitter (@ShareefJackson) as I will be live tweeting the media preview this morning from 9am - 11am EST. I'll be using the hashtag #TimeNav. 

The exhibit will open to the public on Friday, April 12th - make sure to check it out next time you're in DC!

Motivate Yourself with a TED Science Talk!

TED (Technology, Education, Design) is a nonprofit dedicated to spreading ideas. TED is known for attracting amazing speakers to deliver short but impactful speeches on various subjects. There have been a few great ones regarding science - check them out below!  They will motivate you to be the best that you can, in 5 - 15 minutes!

Almost all new phones have touch screens instead of physical buttons - the following talk by Katherine Kuchenbecker of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) covers the technology behind these screens, and how it can be driven forward.

This next talk by Freeman Hrabowski covers his success with a diverse STEM program a President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

The final TED talk is by Elon Musk, who is one of the most fascinating innovators around. He developed the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that's currently running resupply trips to the International Space Station (ISS).  While he's bored with that, he's doing small things like founding PayPal or designing fully electric performance cars under his Tesla Motors company. Whew!

STEM Equality: The Fiscal Argument

Chelsea Clinton (yes, daughter of Slick WIllie) wrote a fascinating piece on STEM in the Huffington Post. She not only recognizes that others have not been able to have the resources that she grew up with, but she makes a fiscal argument for diversity in the workplace.

If women matched men's employment rates in America, GDP would rise by 5 percent, according to Booz & Company. With the U.S. Department of Commerce expecting STEM jobs to grow 17 percent between 2008 to 2018 -- compared to just 9.8 percent for non-STEM jobs -- excluding women from the pipeline hurts American companies in search of the best high-tech talent. Economic expansion hinges on both halves of the workforce receiving the tools needed to drive innovation..

This is a point that is often missing from discussions of diversity, and not just limited to the sciences .  Diversity is not just a "feel good" thing,  It has realistic implications and serves as the only way for our country to keep up with the rest of the world.  Every year that the US finishes near the bottom of  the country lists for math and science, I think about stats such as this.

Check out the rest of the article here!

Adafruit: Learning Electronics The Fun Way

Adafruit, the brainchild of Limor Fried for teaching electronics, has debuted a wonderful cartoon called Circuit Playground. Being an electrical engineer, I love seeing simplified attempts to describe the complexity behind the things that everyone uses - everyone plugs in a lamp!

The video below describes what current actually as - a flow of electrons. Most electronic devices have a suggested rating for amps (normally listed as A) in honor of scientist André-Marie Ampère. Amps is a measure of the amount of electrons that flows per second. Too little amps and the electronic device won't function.  Too many and it'll fry!

If you can't see the video below, click here.

Credits:

• Ladyada – Limor Fried
• Andre-Marie Ampere – Collin Cunningham
• ADABOT – Collin Cunningham & Phil Torrone, Puppet by Annie Fresh, design by Bruce Yan
• Music: Tom White & Collin Cunningham
• Intro animation – Bruce Yan
• Written, filmed, edited, directed and produced by – Collin Cunningham, Limor Fried, Phil Torrone and the Adafruit team

Women In Chemistry Documentary = Awesome

I had the pleasure of attending a screening of the Women in Chemistry documentary (trailer shown above) by local NPR affiliate WHYY in Philadelphia. This amazing documentary profiles eight women that have changed the course of chemistry and science in general.  Afterwards, we were treated to a Q&A moderated by Maiken Scott  with two of the women profiled in the video - Uma Chowdry and Mary Good. I asked a question a;bout getting kids engaged that don't have a support system that pushes science.  Both Mary and Uma told me to start with the problems that students are facing, and design solutions while focusing on the math and science aspects.  This is a winning idea!

The full list of profiled women is below:

• Nancy Chang, cofounder and former CEO of the biopharmaceutical firm Tanox;
• Uma Chowdhry, retired senior vice president and chief science and technology officer of DuPont;
• Mildred Cohn, first female president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology;
• Mary L. Good, former president of the American Chemical Society, undersecretary for technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Bill Clinton, and recipient of the Priestley Medal;
• Kathryn Hach-Darrow, cofounder of the Hach Chemical Company and the only woman to receive CHF’s Pittcon Heritage Award;
• Paula Hammond, David H. Koch Professor in engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
• Stephanie Kwolek, former research associate at DuPont and inventor of Kevlar; and
• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder, chairman, and managing director of Biocon Limited.

The full hour-long documentary is embedded below - checked it out.

Another Successful Landing by SpaceX's Dragon

The Dragon spacecraft, by private company SpaceX, has successfully left the International Space Station and splashed down for landing in the ocean!  These missions will continue for the next few years and eventually manned space flight will return to US soil. Check out this panorama of the inside of the craft!

NASA indicates that the following experiments were returned to earth:

• Investigations included among the returned cargo could aid in food production during future long-duration space missions and enhance crop production on Earth. Others could help in the development of more efficient solar cells, detergents and semiconductor-based electronics. 
• Among the returned investigations was the Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures (CSLM-3) experiment, which also launched to space aboard this Dragon. CLSM-3 studies how crystals known as dendrites form as a metal alloy becomes solid. The research could help engineers develop stronger materials for use in automobile, aircraft and spacecraft parts. 
• Dragon also is returning several human research samples that will help scientists continue to examine how the human body reacts to long-term spaceflight. The results will have implications for future space exploration and direct benefits here on Earth. 

The Intersection of Science, Race & Media

A few of us got together in a Google+ hangout to talk about the intersection between science, race & media. We filmed the video below as a response to a Loop21 Twitter chat on race & media in which there was very little discussion about science.  

The group features Dr. Caleph B. Wilson, Dr. Danielle N. Lee, journalist Jamila Bey, and myself. Unofficially known as the Dark Sci, we plan on pushing the conversation forward regarding the communication of science to a broader audience.

If you can't see the video below, please click here.

About That Meteor ...

While the rest of the world was worried about an asteroid that had no chance of colliding with the Earth, a meteor actually entered the atmosphere above Russia.  Thank god it did not impact the ground, but the sonic boom still did plenty of damage. Most of the damage was due to shattered glass that injured over a thousand people. Since light travels much faster than sound (think about thunder and lightning), people saw the meteor streaking through the air and were shocked when the massive sonic boom came later, shattering windows and causing alarms to trip. That's what we know.

But before we knew this, we had no idea if there would be more injuries, or even fatalities.  Yet people still flooded social networks with their "cool" and "amazing" photos and memes. I won't link to any here.

I am strongly against posting images of something that we don't yet know the outcome of.  I noticed the same thing - people posting images of things with offensive captions and memes - even dwhen we knew of massive fatalities. This occurred during other natural disasters such as  the Haiti earthquake, the Indian Ocean tusnami, Hurricane Katrina.

I realize that we are living in a real time news world, but I think we should at least give some time when the damage assessments are out before pictures are shared.

For further reading, New Scientist has a great post on the basics of asteroids, meteroids, meteors, and meteorites.

Obama Hanging Out, Talking Science of the Union

President Obama highlighted science in this week's State of the Union, and he also answered questions during a Google+ hangout today. Talk about taking science and technology to a new level!

One part of his speech caught my attention:

"Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer’s; developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs; devising new material to make batteries ten times more powerful.  Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation.  Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race."  

The height of the Space Race was the goal to land a man on the moon in the 60s. That's five decades ago! It's a shame that we haven't reached that level of R&D. It doesn't necessarily have to be for one solid goal as it was for the space race, but we do need to invest in our own infrastructure to build the next generation of scientists   This covers everything from schools to neighborhoods to making college affordable.

Obama also referenced this during his Google+ hangout when he was asked if his daughters take interest in science. He spoke about how they need the encouragement from the system - parents, schools, other students - so that they know that they can achieve. Increased levels of investment can make sure that this will happen.

And of course, the President is doing this while talking live ... over the interwebs ... to regular citizens ... tech overload.

Melissa Harris-Perry & Doc McStuffins Rock The House

There was a great segment on diversity in science on the Melissa Harris Perry show this weekend.  Topics include the Doc McStuffins Disney cartoon which promotes women in science, and the involvement of the Girl Scouts with STEM.  The guests include Dr. Aletha Maybank, Anna Maria Chavez, Christianne Corbett and Danielle Moodie-Mills. 

One quote that stuck out for me was As Mooide-Mills says , "Be visible and be fabulous!" There are many times that minorities that are underrepresented in science get discouraged because they don't say examples of people that look like them teaching in their schools or being popularized by the media. And those that are - such as Neil Degrasse Tyson - can be seen as "exceptions". The visibility of women and Blacks within science well help us all push things forward. That's one of the reason why I created this site

More about the We Are Doc McStuffins movement is covered in this MSNBC piece.

If you find yourself singing Doc McStuffins' "Time For Your Checkup" song, don't blame me - it's infectious!

If you see the video below, please click here

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Michelle Obama also made a key point that scientists are not unreachable goals that are only intended for those with the resources - everyone should be able to achieve it.

If you can't see the video below, please click here.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The March for Diversity in Science Pushes On

City Town Info has created a nice infographic concerning women in science. While some numbers regarding income and representation may be bleak, there is positive news - more and more young women are becoming interested in science careers. The challenge is keeping this interest fresh by keeping science interesting throughout the crucial elementary and high school years.  We need to make sure that scientists are shown as role models, such as those that I posted about at the end of last year.

Courtesy of: Citytowninfo.com

Telescopes: Can You See What I See?

The Hubble Space Telescope has been delivering us images from deep into space for years. It's soon to be successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), will be launched "later in the decade". The length of time required for testing is very important. The Hubble launched with flawed mirror technology that led to several expensive fixes while in orbit.

An example of NASA technology influencing things that we may use in our everyday life is below. From NASA:

For example, the optical measuring technology developed for the Webb, called "wavefront sensing" has been applied to eye health and has allowed improvements in measurement of human eyes, diagnosis of ocular diseases and potentially improved surgery.

The most powerful space telescope ever built, the Webb telescope will provide images of the first galaxies ever formed, and explore planets around distant stars. It is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

Check out a video on the Webb telescope by astronomer Tony Darnell below. If you can't see the video, click here.

Source: NASA via @LaurenAlloyce

The Challenges of Science on the Web

The Science Online conference was held this weekend in Maryland.   I wasn't able to attend, but NPR held a fascinating Science Friday show on the state of science in this world of blogging, social media, and traditional websites. 

I created my blog to deal with two problems that I've seen with science reporting online: 1) it's too jargon heavy and doesn't focus on the common user and 2) it's grossly inaccurate. The following exchange between host Ira Flatow and Bora Zivkovic, blog editor at Scientific American deals with this:

ZIVKOVIC:  When you're straight-out science reporting, there's really no need to include or allow inclusion of opinions that are completely unscientific.

FLATOW, Host: But we live in an age, at least in the United States, where some people, now, in the last few years, possibly politically oriented, say that, you know, science is just another matter of opinion, you know.

ZIVKOVIC: Yeah, that's their opinion. That doesn't mean that opinion is correct, either. Because unlike other opinions, scientific opinion has to be backed up by empirical information, by empirical data, and it's a self-correcting - at least long-term - self-correcting endeavor. So an individual scientist may have biases or opinions, but science as a whole is a way of knowledge that actually is trying to represent nature as it really is.

You can stream the show on NPR or download it here.

For more about Science Online, check out their Flickr album, #scio13 Twitter hashtag, and overall website.

Want To Be In Orbit? Run

During a Q&A between a Canadian classroom and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station (seriously, just think about how awesome that is), one kid asked a question that I used to wonder a lot.  At the 13:30 mark, he asks: 

"Why does the space station have to travel so fast"?

As a kid  could understand moving at a high speed to leave the Earth, because I could never launch my Hot Wheels into orbit no matter how hard I threw them.  But why would you need the speed when you're already in space? Don't you just float and hang out?

Chris gives a great answer.  The space station stays in orbit only because it's going fast - 500 km / minute to be precise!

Chris then gives the example of jumping off of a roof. Obviously gravity brings you back down.  The faster you run on the roof, the further you'll travel forward but gravity will still bring you down.  

Now, imagine that you were able to run as fast as the space station - 500 km / min. You'd fly off the roof, and as gravity begins to bring you down the Earth would be curving below you.  This is essentially what being in "orbit" means - your'e going fast enough that you cancel out the "pull down" effect of gravity .

All of Earth's satellites are in free fall   An added bonus is that if you are inside of an object in free fall, you are weightless - hence why Chris is floating about in the video below.

If you can't see the video below, click here. Remember to skip to the 13:30 mark to see Chris answer this question.

Source: NASA YouTube Channel