2005 winner (House fly) by Charles Krebs

2001 winner (Fresh water rotifer feeding on debris) by Harold Taylor

2002 winner (Cross Section of Rat Cerebellum) by Thomas J. Deerink

2007 winner (Transgenic mouse) by Gloria Kwon

See more at Nikon Small World Competition

Katrina Edwards is a professor of biological sciences and Earth sciences in USC College. She is also the director of the National Science Foundation supported Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations in Los Angeles.

1.  What do you love about science and why? 

Science is what explains everything around us in the natural world.  I like to know how things work and why things around us are the way they are.  Science provides the answers.

2. What got you interested in science?

Flying.  Im a pilot and I spent a lot of time as a child and young adult in airplanes.  This got me curious about how landforms were created and maintained, which got me into the geosciences.  

3. What could we be doing to encourage science literacy and a positive image of science in our societies?

Explain how cool science is!  I grew up thinking I wanted to be a famous ballerina.  Science is so much more enthralling and FUN.  I’m glad I missed my initial calling. 

4.  What are 3 favorites on your bookshelf/watch-list right now?

• Far North: Sci-fi about a northern apocalypse.  Scary and real.  
• Never Cry Wolf.  All time favorite - both the book and the movie.  Totally relate on all levels.
• Social Distortion, Ring of Fire.  All time favorite.  Hey, got to have some fun right? 

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Susana Salazar is a data analyst, programmer, and mathematician. In addition to her left-brained endeavors, Susana is a fine art painter specializing in portraits. 

1.  What do you love about science and why? 

I use mathematical sciences every day at my job. The thing I love the most about math, and other sciences alike, is the challenge of figuring out exactly how creative ideas and questions may be answered within the logical constraints of the mathematical framework. I use mathematical models & statistical models every day in order to get real business answers and in order to get real results. But creating those models takes a large amount of creative effort. Science is the medium through which my creativity can transform a business. 

2. What got you interested in science?

I recall always being interested in science. I've always enjoyed the challenge of finding an answer and I've always enjoyed expanding my knowledge. With that said, I remember being a high school senior attending "Math Day" at UCLA's Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics (IPAM). After hearing professors present their very cool research, I knew science would continue to play a role in my life. Research presented included online security & encryption/decryption processes, special effects for the film industry, models depicting crime spread in a city, and many more research projects - all which rely on mathematics in their core. 

3. What could we be doing to encourage science literacy and a positive image of science in our societies?

In order to encourage science literacy and a positive image of science in our society, we have to do two things: recruit the best teachers and teach science in creative ways starting at a very early age. We must have teachers that are extremely talented, knowledgeable, and passionate about the subject they teach. If we increase the incentives to teach science, graduates at the top of their class will choose to teach more often than the current rate. Science education must start at a very early age and it must be done in a creative way. Throw out the geometry textbooks (well... maybe just set them aside), and make a student's first lesson in class a challenge to draw two intersecting circles with only a compass and a straight-edge. Then add other restrictions to their challenge. So that eventually, they have the visual representation of a geometric proof. 

4.  What are 3 favorites on your bookshelf/watch-list right now?

Three favorites:

"The Physics of Superheroes" by James Kakalios, This book describes what would have to be true, given our physical laws, in order for superheroes to actually be able to do what they do in their comic books. How is that not a must-read?

"The Elements" by Euclid. The elements can be considered the first textbook of geometry. I love it because it's a prime example of "knowing your basics". No fluff. No extras. Euclid simply uses a straight-edge & a compass for all his geometric proofs.

Star Trek- which is on my "Netflix Bookshelf". For its time, Star Trek was truly revolutionary. It's fun to watch old episodes and see which of their ideas actually came true in real life. 

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The Fifth Feeling: Episode 1 - watch more funny videos     

Informed by Nature advisor Clifford Johnson, wonderfully creative theoretical physicist at USC, just sent me this hilarious little video series, written and directed by his friend Amy French. It’s a spoof of a science show, detailing how the flavor known as umami is linked with human happiness (commissioned by Umami burger, a restaurant chain.) It’s funny, but not meant to be serious science.

This wacky video reminds me of a more serious concept that’s been on my mind a lot over the past several years: I think humor is an undervalued way to get people into science. Or anything, for that matter. Not only can science be used as a tool for humor (Umami science) but funny can be used as an inroad to understanding complicated issues. Think back to 2009 when the LHC in Geneva first started smashing protons and people were afraid of a mini black hole developing and destroying the universe. Who covered the pseudo-controversy magnificently? Jon Stewart. I’m not kidding. Check out this video: it’s got info, it’s got context, it’s got balance. You’ll laugh and only afterwards will you realize you’ve suddenly gotten informed.

So, in the case of the Jon Stewart video, if you “get” the jokes you’ve not only informed yourself, but you get the feeling that you exist in a social group of other people who also “get it.” If not, I think it makes you want to “get it,” which is what we’re trying to do with science communication in the first place: motivate people to get informed.

Using humor to communicate science is not just a Jon Stewart thing. Science cartoons like PhD Comics are well-known in the science blogosphere, Florida Citizens for Science started an annual Stick Science Cartoon contest, and humor is now being used in institutions as a serious tool to teach and communicate science more effectively. Curators at NEMO, a green, ship-shaped science center in Amsterdam, hire docent-comedians who walk around and use humor to get kids into the exhibits. And, in 2011, NSF sponsored a panel at the AAAS annual meeting titled "The Science of Comedy: Communicating with Humor."

What is it about humor that makes tough science palatable?

When you laugh, it’s involuntary. You smile. You gasp irregularly, make noise, and sometimes your tear ducts activate. And, then come the endorphins, feel good chemicals that prove laughter really is great medicine. Some scientists think that laughter is a tool that evolution has honed to allow us to signal to others that we share the same values and beliefs. In that way, laughter would strengthen the bonds in our social groups, which allow us to listen and learn more effectively.

So, in the case of the Jon Stewart video, if you “get” the jokes you’ve not only informed yourself, but you get the feeling that you exist in a social group of other people who also “get it.” If not, I think it makes you want to “get it,” which is what we’re trying to do with science communication in the first place: motivate people to get informed.

Mya Stark was raised as an actor and trained as a writer. Later she directed some films and edited a magazine. Now she co-curates public art gallery Mastodon Mesa, and and works as a consultant in nonprofit management for clients including The Cinefamily.

1.  What do you love about science and why? 

 I love science. If I could, I would kiss it and marry it. First step though, I love the natural world. For example, grass. Have you ever really looked at that shit? With the sun shining through it and all?  Damn.  At times it's nearly impossible to get out of the yard without dying of joy.

Science, is the technique that lets us experience that beauty in ever greater breadth and depth. The more you delve into the details of what things are made of, and the more wide-ranging stuff you discover about different forms of life and how they live, the more dizzying the beauty becomes.

2. What got you interested in science?

I'm grateful that I was raised in a home where my dad was an engineer, so I learned from an early age what science actually is (just a way of learning about stuff, not something remote and "hard") and I got things like a microscope and all the books I could read from my parents. They would do things like take me to summer classes at the Zoo and the Natural History Museum which I loved.

3. What could we be doing to encourage science literacy and a positive image of science in our societies?

I think we need to begin with kids, with the stories we tell kids. Starting very simply with encouraging curiosity. I think that it's a very empowering thing to teach children how to do -- "You can make your own theories about what you see going on around you in the world, including human behavior, and your thoughts are just as valid as anyone else's observations." This can apply to surviving high school just as well as it does to making spaceships go.

4.  What are 3 favorites on your bookshelf/watch-list right now?

In Praise of Plants, Francis Halle. I grew up obsessed with animals, but never really got much into plants. A few years ago I read this book, which is not only a great introduction to these fascinating life forms and their solutions to the same problems we animals deal with (feeding themselves, avoiding predators, etc) -- But it also vividly gives you the feeling of what it's like to live life as a plant. Favorite quote: “Animals are confused plants, turned inside out like a glove, with infolded leaves and roots in their digestive tract. Plants are fantastic animals, their insides turned out, bearing their entrails like feathers.” 

This delightful video of Jaak Panksepp's rat-tickling research. I share it with everyone I know and laugh every time. And it also led me to look deeper into Dr. Panksepp's pioneering work in the field of affective neuroscience and the 7 primary emotions: Seeking, Rage, Fear, Lust, Care, Panic/Grief and Play.  

Acquiring Genomes: The Theory of the Origins of the Species, Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan. Lynn Margulis (Carl Sagan's first wife) was an incredible microbiologist, it's a shame she never got as public of a pulpit as Carl to extol the "billions and billions" of cells she knew so intimately. This book flipped my lid and changed the way I look at the world as a whole: simply put, she challenges the idea that "survival of the fittest" is a contest to be won by competition, and points out the myriad examples of survival and evolutionary progress by cooperation in nature.

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David Ng is a geneticist, science literacy academic, writer, and faculty based at the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia. You can find out more about his dabblings at http://popperfont.net and you can follow him on twitter @ng_dave.

1.  What do you love about science and why? 

I love science because it is both awesome and relevant.  In fact, I even have a t-shirt that expresses part of that equation. 

Most awesome is that sensation you feel when you discover something - whether it is for the first time ever, or whether it’s in the sense that it’s novel only to you.  That feeling, that corporal buzz, that lift in your metaphorical heart, is simply intoxicating.  It’s why I often think that science is really just a very special form of creativity.  It might use a different palette of tools, and it might consider the concept of beauty in an unconventional way, but it’s a creative endeavor nevertheless. 

I also love science, because I feel quite passionate about its importance in everyday life.  This is less from a “technology let’s us do cool things” angle, but more from a “thinking critically angle.”  We sort of live in a time where we are constantly bombarded by information, and yet we are, quite frankly, horrible at making sense of it.  

Part of the problem, is that this isn’t actually your fault - not all of it anyway.   Turns out, the information you receive is mostly coming at you in a compromised manner.  Its quality is usually very poor, its validity often questionable, and its depth is always lost in favor of brevity.  Furthermore, the topics that media is good at feeding you are often things that you know about already, or alternatively are also often things that might not even be consequential in the grand scheme of society: celebrities, cats, unicorns, those sorts of things.  Then, there is the notion that the information you’re getting might also be coming at you in sneaky ways.  Here, we can refer to the wealth of neuroscience research that has inadvertently revealed to all how best to trick you into choosing irrational things.  In essence, information is complicated and more often than not, deliberately designed to make you think a certain way.  And we fall for it.  Indeed, there’s even some evidence to suggest that we might even be biologically built to fall for it.  It’s funny, but even the statement on my t-shirt is an example of all of these nuances.

All to say, that now, more than ever, is it absolutely crucial to be able to think “scientifically.”  Quite frankly, the things that make science awesome are as good as it gets for providing a framework for making good decisions.

2. What got you interested in science?

This is hard to pinpoint, but I often attribute it to a childhood moment and an act of looking up, at the giant underbelly of a blue whale, the largest animal on the planet.  This being one that was suspended in air at the Natural History Museum in London.  In fact, I remember thinking it was the most massive thing possible, no doubt reflecting my own childish perspective.  It such a visceral memory and it paved the way for just being curious about the natural world.

3. What could we be doing to encourage science literacy and a positive image of science in our societies?

I think the best way to encourage science literacy is to really let it be known that science is a form of culture.  That is, being scientifically literate equates to a general familiarity with science culture.  If we do this, then it becomes clear that precise definitions of science literacy are hard to nail down, because it could be about the technical facts, or the process of science, or how discoveries lead to cool or useful or frightening things, or that the community is as interesting and diverse as any other community.

I really do think it’s important for everyone to wrap their head around this “science culture” concept, because this diversity simply means that there could be many different ways of introducing and integrating science into anyone’s sense of personal identity.

4.  What are 3 favorites on your bookshelf/watch-list right now?

I’m actually working on a book myself, and I definitely have my own favourites to inspire me.  Generally speaking though, because my own lab is quite active in this regard, I like books and media that have been expressly written for those not vested in the sciences (i.e. not preaching to the choir).  Here, there are two books in particular that I think do this very well: 

Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything,and also…

Douglas Adams’ and Mark Carwardine’s Last Chance to See.  

They’re science books, but they’re so fun to read that often you don’t even realize that you’re learning stuff! For a third book, I can recommend Shel Silverstein’s, The Giving Tree.  I can’t think of a better piece of work that illustrates the strange and challenging relationship humans have with nature.

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Kanad Das is a polymer chemist and program manager of SPARK, Stanford University School of Medicine. SPARK aims to“help academicians overcome the obstacles involved in moving research innovations from bench to bedside.”

1.  What do you love about science and why? 

 I love science because it lets me understand the world around me. Being a scientist is fulfilling because of the 'aha' moments, when one result or one way to analyze some data crystallizes your understanding of a problem. Let me give you an example: I was learning about chemical bonding for the first time and was reading my text book in bed. I read about bond valency, and let out a deep breath. That moment, I understood the true difference between the oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon in my breath versus those exact elements in the blanket. I was hooked. It made me want to learn more and I decided to study chemistry.

2. What got you interested in science?

My family was full of scientists. My dad respected Nobel Laureates more than Presidents, claiming that science was a pure pursuit of knowledge. That always resonated with me, finding peace and joy in a career. 

3. What could we be doing to encourage science literacy and a positive image of science in our societies?

That's a really hard question. America is not really a place of innovation anymore. Ambitious young kids know they can make a lot more money at a hedge fund than they can as a scientist. I think the key is to show people that science can make a difference, making the subject matter more human. For example, it's fantastic that we found the Higgs Boson. It's likely the discovery of the century. But maybe we could also explain to people how their lives have been improved due to the technology that came about as a result of the search. In that way, people could see that science is really about the journey and not the destination. There will always be unanswered questions, curious scientists, and new ways to understand the universe. 

4.  What are 3 favorites on your bookshelf/watch-list right now?

• Recent Nature issue about the discovery of rocky planets around a star. Wow. Just wow. Think of the implications! 

• A video by Clay Christensen about inventors and their hardships. It's much, much harder to create than it is to criticize. Nice to see someone else agrees with me.

• I  try to watch Ted talks whenever I get a chance and there's wifi around. They're almost always brilliant and I always walk away know more and inspired. I'm really impressed with what they've done, it's the coolest thing on the web. And the fact that I just typed that probably just sealed my status as a huge nerd. I'm ok with that. 

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Hurricane Sandy is Even More Impressive from Space – Betsy Mason at Wired Science

(Fantastic picture gallery of Sandy from Space)

The #Frankenstorm in Context – Andy Revkin at NYT

“…It’s easy to say, as some climatologists have, that “climate change is present in every single meteorological event.” As you’ll hear below, some climate scientists are telling me this event is precisely what you’d expect following a summer in which much of the Arctic Ocean was open water. But there remains far too much natural variability in the frequency and potency of rare and powerful storms — on time scales from decades to centuries – to go beyond pointing to this event being consistent with what’s projected on a human-heated planet…”

Did Climate Change cause Hurricane Sandy? – Editors at SciAm

“…The hedge expressed by journalists is that many variables go into creating a big storm, so the size of Hurricane Sandy, or any specific storm, cannot be attributed to climate change. That’s true, and it’s based on good science. However, that statement does not mean that we cannot say that climate change is making storms bigger. It is doing just that—a statement also based on good science, and one that the insurance industry is embracing, by the way. (Huh? More on that in a moment.)…”

Dictionary of Hurricane Sandy – Popular Science 

“Storm surge: …Storm surge by definition is the atypical rise of water generated by a storm that is not attributable to astronomical tides (the combined effect of storm surge and water level rise caused by the tide is known as “storm tide”). Surge is mostly attributable to the storm’s cyclonically rotating winds driving water toward the shore rather than by air pressure (that’s a common misconception)…”

Also, as an addendum, read my sarcastic 2011 piece How to stop a hurricane (good luck by the way) at SciAm (included in Best Science Writing Online 2012) :

“…Ok. We can’t slow its turning winds, we can’t lower the surface water temperature, we can’t wipe out its eye, and we can’t dry it out. How about we prevent evaporation of the tepid water in the first place. This solution was suggested back in 1966 and again in 2005—just pour some oil or other surfactant around the cyclone, and the water would be trapped below the slick. But, alas, most substances separate into pools and evaporation persists in the spaces in between. Has anyone tried to just cover up the water with plastic wrap? Now we’re getting desperate. How about–if we really want to control the destructive powers of a cyclone once and for all—nuke the bastard…”

Image: NOAA/NASA GOES Project via Wired

Mark Changizi is an evolutionary neurobiologist aiming to grasp the ultimate foundations underlying why we think, feel and see as we do. Changizi has also authored 3 popular science books and hosted the Discovery Channel show Head Games.

1.  What do you love about science and why? 

Most people don’t appreciate the beauty and aesthetics in science. Consider mathematics. There are infinitely many theorems “out there” that a mathematician can devote him or herself to solving, but only a tiny fraction of them are interesting, surprising, elegant, gorgeous, awe-inspiring. These latter judgments aren’t themselves part of mathematics. Rather, it requires the mathematician to have an aesthetic opinion -- it is through these choices of which theorems to try to prove that the mathematician becomes artist, just as the artist must select only certain stimuli from an infinity of stimuli to throw down on paper or in a score.

And this applies to science just as well. There are infinitely many science “problems” I could be working on, but one has to remind oneself that not all of them are equally interesting, important, cool, kick-ass, stunning, lovely, etc. Most problems are disasters in this aesthetic sense, and so one keeps digging for the shiny gems, the ones worth spending a couple years or more trying to crack.

2. What got you interested in science?

Since I was a wee one I’ve dedicated my life to the aim of “answering the questions to the universe.” What exactly I meant by that changed over time, but roughly the goal was to answer questions that tapped into one’s life-the-universe-and-everything, spiritualicious, instincts. Carl Sagan was an inspiration to me in those days, emphasizing the “beauty” side of the sciences.

3. What could we be doing to encourage science literacy and a positive image of science in our societies?

“Science is useful” is, in my view, one of the least effective ways to get the science message out. Now, science is useful, but there’s no need to emphasize that. That’s boring. The message to kids and adults alike needs to be a more romantic one: that this endeavor -- science -- is not just another area of human activity that feeds back into our cultural and technological growth. Rather, it is an end in itself, like the arts, and like religion for religious folk.

4.  What are 3 favorites on your bookshelf/watch-list right now?

o Steven Pinker’s Better Angels: I’ve been embroiled for the last few years with work on how we have come to be modern humans with writing, language and music. My story in my book, Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man, is unique, and argues that cultural evolution has harnessed us by shaping these new capabilities to exploit evolutionarily ancient brain areas that never evolved for writing, language or music. Pinker’s brilliant book is kind of along these ‘harnessing’ lines, but the question is how cultural evolution turned the violent human animal into a relatively peaceful one.

o Matt Ridley”s The Origins of Virtue: All of Ridley’s books I’ve read are great, and he manages to put forth and shape a grand view or synthesis. I’m especially interested in this at the moment because of my ongoing work over the last couple years on the origins of emotions.

o Mark Levine’s The Jazz Piano Book: Not exactly science, but in light of my work in Harnessed on the origins of music, and being an amateur piano player, this book is eye-opening. And I can’t even say I liked jazz before starting -- I'm a classical music buff -- but learning jazz seems disproportionately helpful in “getting” music.

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Hubble eXtreme Deep Field, NASA's most recent pic of vastness of the universe.

If you haven’t seen this yet, listen up. This is the most astounding picture ever taken. Yeah, it’s kinda nice-looking, like a moody Jackson Pollack splatter or a particularly detailed rendering of the road ahead of Starship Enterprise. But, it’s really a time machine, on steroids. You’re literally looking into the past, all the way back to the Big Bang.

Roughly 5,500 galaxies shine out from the inky black background, and the tiniest dots are some of the farthest galaxies from Earth. These insignificant looking little specks are so far away that light, as speedy as it is, takes 13 billion years to get from it to Earth. So, what we’re seeing in this picture is light that came from these galaxies 13 billion years ago. We’re actually seeing these galaxies as they were 13 billion years ago. Looking back in time. If that isn’t the most remarkable thing you’ve heard all month, then I’ll be damned.

(Oh, and also the bigger galaxies, in all their disparate shapes, sizes, and colors are pretty great too. We’re only one tiny dot of a planet inside one arm of just one of those things, remember? Pale Blue Dot, and all that.)

Read more about Hubble eXtreme Deep Field here.

Danny Carmichael moved to Los Angeles to pursue environmental work, and for a time interned at the illustrious Informed by Nature, helping to curate content for the gorgeous and inspiring website you are visiting right now.  He is currently the Park Forestry Manager at TreePeople, teaching about how we can (and should) all take responsibility for our environment and working with community groups to plan and put on tree planting and tree care events all across Los Angeles to help nature heal our city. He also leads native plant and full moon hikes at Franklin Canyon Park.

1.       What do you love about science and why?

In a culture that seems so defined by impulse and opinion, science is a grounding force.  Keeping science in mind helps to slow the pace of life a bit for me and it injects some reason into an often unreasonable world.  My window into science has always been nature, and once I got beyond a surface appreciation of the outdoors, I was floored by all of the unseen connections--and by how much more everything made sense once those connections became manifest.  One of my favorite quotes is actually a misquote of John Muir, which perfectly encapsulates this idea: "When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world" (the actual quote, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe," just doesn’t flow as well to my ears).  Once I figured this out, science became so much more accessible to me, because I realized that everything I learn opens up a door to something else, and very quickly that learning becomes exponential!

2.       What got you interested in science?

I came to science variously through writing and through the natural world.  I initially wanted to be able to write in more detail about the trees and plants around me, so I began hoarding field guides for trees, which led me to birds, which got me reading books on birding, which eventually got me reading general natural history books, which led me to popular science writing of all sorts, which opened me up to so many of what I had previously termed “boring” subjects.  After a while, I just fell in love with the fact that something I was pursuing for entertainment in my spare time had become a multi-year learning project, and I began pursuing it for its own sake, trying as best I could to fill in the gaps in my science education, book by book, article by article, NOVA episode by NOVA episode.  

3.       What are 3 favorites on your bookshelf right now?

• 26 Scientists, Vol 1 & 2 by Artichoke.  26 catchy little ditties about the lives of 26 scientists.  The brainchild of Timothy Sellers, Artichoke is a band based in LA and if you have the chance to see them, do it.  They are all over the board and lots of fun, but lots of their songs have a scientific bent.

• Can’t get enough of Radiolab and Stuff You Should Know, two podcasts that help to simplify a complex world for the masses.  Funny, informative and accessible to every level of interest.

• Cosmicomics and T Zero by Italo Calvino, two short story collections that use scientific facts as jumping-off points for some supremely inspired, joyous and fun fables.  For the English major in me, Italo Calvino’s endless imagination and brilliantly sharp and witty writing is enough to satisfy, but the challenges that he set himself and his creativity really push it over the edge. He wrote a novel using tarot cards to tell the story; novels about a knight who doesn’t exist, a young baron who climbs a tree and never comes down, a viscount who is cleft in two and both halves go on living; and a novel called If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler, which you just have to read.  HAVE to.  

4.       What could we be doing to encourage science literacy and a positive image of science in our societies?

I think increasing accessibility is paramount.  I didn’t really develop a deep appreciation of science until I began reading popular science works, which did an amazing job of distilling and elucidating very complex topics into accessible and entertaining literature, without oversimplifying the underlying concepts.  The main barrier to science literacy for a lot of people is that understanding and it needs to be a two-way street, but I think within the scientific community, more emphasis ought to be put on effective communication to give the layperson a sense of inclusion and to help them understand how these concepts apply to everyone in their daily life.  

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Klari Reis is a fine art painter in San Francisco, CA. Her creative process merges both painting and science to explore and document the natural and unatural world.

1. What was the last science book or article you read/video or tv show you watched/last discovery you heard about?

I recently read this online article about Julius Richard Petri.

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/issues/2010/february/petridish.asp

2. What about it interested you?

There does not seem to be too much online about him, and not much on Wikipedia.  The author has an interesting statement about the possibility that what we know today as the Petri dish may have also been invented at the same time by two microbiologists in Romania, Andre Cornil and Victor Babes.  Or did these Romanian microbiologists invent them at the same time?

3. Do you have anything to add about your personal view of science?

I work with Petri dishes on a daily basis creating my own experiments in paint, so these little plastic plates (not the glass version) are always of interest.

Molecular Geneticist Amanda Dean RECOMMENDS:

1. Planet Earth and Blue Planet are incredible. How can anyone not be fascinated by science when you watch these shows?

2. What Einstein Told His Cook, by Robert L. Wolke, is an interesting book that reveals the science behind food and cooking. I love it because even if you don’t like to cook, it’s full of interesting tidbits about food, chemistry, math, and nomenclature.

3. What’s the Difference? How to Tell Things Apart That are Confusingly Close, by Marc Tyler Nobelman is a fun little book that tells you the differences between things like dolphins and porpoises, monkeys and apes, and geeks and nerds. It’s a great way to get kids to look at details and think about how things in nature may look the same but have different functions, eating habits, or even live on different continents.

4. I also love the app, Google Sky Map. You point your phone anywhere in the sky and it shows what stars and constellations are there. It’s awesome!

Amanda Dean is a molecular genetics technologist in a clinical lab. Prior to that, she worked in aquatic microbial ecology at The University of Tennessee and Florida International University. Her previous work took her to South America, Hawaii, the Bering Sea, Canada, and the Everglades. She hopes to one day return to life as a trusty shellback.

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Amanda Dean is a molecular genetics technologist in a clinical lab. Prior to that, she worked in aquatic microbial ecology at The University of Tennessee and Florida International University. Her previous work took her to South America, Hawaii, the Bering Sea, Canada, and the Everglades. She hopes to one day return to life as a trusty shellback.

1.What do you love about science and why?

I love that we will never know everything about science, so we’ll never stopdiscovering new things. Years ago, there was an article in a national “news”magazine (the same one that has a Bigfoot article every other month) about a grant that one of my professors had to study some aspect of bats. The point of the article was to make it seem outrageous that he got so much money for his research. My professor found it amusing, but I was thinking, “why not give him the money? Doesn’t everybody want to know everything there is to know about the world?” I know that I do.

2. What got you interested in science?

I’ve always loved animals, but I think it was my family’s passion for the outdoors that fueled it. I would hear stories about my uncle going to Africa or spending months discovering America’s parks, and I would dream of going also. I wanted to see all of the animals in the books that my brother and I would pore over as children. This love of nature propelled me through school and made me one of the few people I know who got to say, “I can’t believe I get paid to do this!”

3. What could we be doing to encourage science literacy and a positive image of science in our societies?

Getting science on the internet and on smart phones is probably the best way to expose most people today to science since our society is about gleaning lots of information in as little time as possible.

Some schools in America have made the science curriculum an elective, which is tragic. The only way many kids and adults today are exposed to science is through TV, so I think that it’s fortunate that science shows today aren’t boring, they engage the audience, and the people on the shows look current and pretty cool. I think there is a more positive image about science now that physicists, oceanographers, microbiologists, and the like are coming out of the closed doors of their labs and going on shows and talking about what they do. This goes a long way in dispelling the mad scientist image and makes it cool to be a nerd.

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Award-winning teacher Jason Crean RECOMMENDS:

1. Right now, my favorite book on my shelf is Daniel Pink's "Drive."  It discusses what really motivates us:  autonomy, mastery and purpose.  This really rings true for me as these are what motivated me to pursue a career in science.  

2. I also have a recent issue of American Scientist that contains an article called "Do the Eyes Have It?"  This is a fascinating look at how having dogs as companions may have helped our species out-compete the Neanderthals. To think that our pet dogs could have helped our ancestors hunt, giving them an evolutionary edge is just such an interesting concept!   

3. My favorite DVD on my shelf is "The Secret of Photo 51."  This details the life of Rosalind Franklin, a key player in the discovery of DNA and the gender politics that was apparent at the time.  It is truly an amazing look at a devoted scientist and woman.  I show it to my students without fail every year. 

Jason Crean teaches biology at Lions Township High School in La Grange, IL, and was a 2010 recipient of the AAAS Leadership in Science Education Prize. Crean also teaches undergraduate biology at St Xavier University, works in the zoological community, and has served as Regional Director of the Illinois Science Teacher’s Association.

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Jason Crean teaches biology at Lions Township High School in La Grange, IL, and was a 2010 recipient of the AAAS Leadership in Science Education Prize. Crean also teaches undergraduate biology at St Xavier University, works in the zoological community, and has served as Regional Director of the Illinois Science Teacher’s Association.

1. What do you love about science and why?

I love biology for so many reasons but mainly because there are always new things being discovered.   Growing up, I was always the kid catching bugs in jars and sneaking animals into the house.  I loved to be outside and found the smallest creature fascinating.  It was all about discovery for me.  My parents fostered this with frequent zoo trips to see living animals and the nature museum to see fossils and preserved specimens.  As I continued to high school, I knew a career in biology was for me and did whatever I could to learn more about the natural world.  I really think we need to help foster these experiences for our students and allow time for the teachable moments that come from their questions.

2.       What got you interested in science? 

My love for animals is what got me hooked on science as a kid.  I had many pets including the usual dog but also tortoises, fish, small mammals, and more.  My parents helped to support me in this, albeit begrudgingly!  To this day, as a biology teacher, I use animals as a motivator to get kids interested in science as nothing beats a living, breathing example that can be seen and touched.  Nothing beats watching a student interact with a gecko for the first time, or predict what fur colors the classroom chinchillas will produce. 

3.       What could we be doing to encourage science literacy and a positive image of science in our societies?

I think we need to make science more accessible by connecting it to the real world every chance we get.  We need to show that it's useful by showing people that it is all around them every day.  For example, when I teach genetics, I show my students why cats exhibit the colors they do, why some dog breeds are deaf, why some dogs have different color eyes, and other examples that they may have come in direct contact.  This makes science real to them and answers questions they may have already had.

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MIT Media Lab’s Seth Hunter RECOMMENDS:

1. I keep a few of the “Wooden Books” series near my desk for quick inspiration - especially Li, Dynamic Form in Nature by David Wade. Discovering these books was wonderful because they are great gifts as well.

2. There is a wonderful book by Daniel Shiffman, an artist at NYU just published a book called “The Nature of Code” The examples he provides touch on many algorithmic approaches to generative code that took me years to discover. For further reading see “The Computational Beauty of Nature” by Gary William Flake and “The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants” by Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz. 

3. For more contemporary discussions I have been reading essays selected by John Brockman. On the Edge.org website is a list of summer readings: http://edge.org/conversation/summer-reading-2012 that include collections I’ve enjoyed recently: Future Science, Culture, and the Mind. 

Seth Hunter is a PHD candidate in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT’s Media Lab. Seth uses software design, video, and sound to help users interact with digital content in more meaningful ways than with the traditional  mouse-and-screen interface.

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Seth Hunter is a PHD candidate in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT’s Media Lab. Seth uses software design, video, and sound to help users interact with digital content in more meaningful ways than with the traditional  mouse-and-screen interface.

1.  What do you love about science and why?

Science is the source of a lot of generative metaphors for artists, designers, and engineers. I think that is because it’s a compelling approach to understanding how things work even if you don’t understand all the details. If you take powerful ideas like evolution, the big bang, and complexity and apply these metaphors to our individual processes, sometimes the results are fantastic. 

My daily practice is a hybrid between an artist, scientist, and technologist. I design and build interactive systems with computers with behaviors and aesthetics sometimes inspired by the natural sciences. But this is difficult to do alone, so it helps to be at a place that has the collegial atmosphere of a scientific community. Part of the reason why I wanted to go to MIT is that scientists and engineers open bigger doors that artists for other people to open and build on. Now I want to design open source platforms with powerful generative metaphors for other artists.

2.  What got you interested in science?

Sherry Turkle asked us the same question in a seminar at MIT where she presented essays from her book “Falling for Science”. The book is organized into essays by well know scientists whose fascination began with physical artifacts like gears, legos, bikes, and sand castles, each one an example of how love for science can start with love of an object. 

My abbreviated story is: telescopes, microscopes, cameras. Each object has an intimate relationship with its owner - we look through it and it reframes the world. Each object presents the possibility of a new aesthetic experience of how things work. In my work I wanted to see if I could write programs to generate structures like the ones I had seen behind the lens.

3.  What more could we be doing to encourage science literacy and a positive image of science in our societies?

It starts with our approach to education. I find Seymour Papert’s constructivist approach to learning extremely compelling. Children learn with their hands and bodies by trying things in their environments and constructing their own individual notions about how the world works. Rather than tell children the sky is blue, I think we should take them outside and ask them what color it is each day. We may learn as much from them about how we construct knowledge. If children learn that the same approach they have learned to make sense of things is used in the sciences, the literacy will extend from their natural curiosity and experimental approach. 

It’s also the responsibility of educators to design computer systems that are focused more on creative possibilities than turning the world into a game. Games encourage students to work within the constraints of the system rather than discover and build their own worlds. Digital media is shifting from a consumption to production - and children’s digital literacy will be intimately linked with their scientific literacy. If parents participate with children in choosing digital software tools like Scratch, Star Logo, ToonTastic that encourage them to build their own digital representations, the computer will become a source of inspiration instead of an escape from reality.

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Patricia Olynyk employs microscopy and biomedical imaging technologies to explore life at the micro and macro levels. Recent projects for the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C, and the Art I Sci Center’s California NanoSystems Institute at U.C.L.A. challenge our “occularcentric” tendencies.

1.       Tell us about your most recent encounter with science.

I’ve recently been reading about light pollution and just produced an artwork for UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) Gallery entitled: Dark Skies The International Dark Sky Association (IDA) defines light pollution as: any adverse effect of artificial light including sky glow, glare, light trespass, light clutter, decreased visibility at night, and energy waste.

Light pollution obscures the stars in the night sky from urban environments, interferes with astronomical observatories, disrupts ecosystems and in general has adverse health effects for humans and animals alike.  New research shows that constant exposure to low light levels compromises the immune system of not only nocturnal animals but also humans. Scientists say this shows the unexpected impact human expansion and light pollution have on life.

2.       What about it interested you?

Dark Skies, an astronomical metaphor, refers to remote places free of hazy city light, but also suggests sailing into dangerous or difficult territory. I like the implication of perception that extends deep into time and space, resulting in a kind of clarity of vision and with this, deep insight. The extended view offers the promise of new knowledge.

There's creativity in engineering, in math, in the planetary sciences, but the experience of art is unique and distinct from other kinds of experiences. Art-making is its own distinct territory and knowledge base and Dark Skies provides and opportunity to merge research and creative work in new ways.

3.       Do you have anything to add about your personal view of science?

 At present, there is a growing interest in scientific visualization and imaging, (especially forms at the nano scale) by artists for the purposes of re-presentation and reinterpretation of scientific data within a broader cultural context, and also through the lens of critical aesthetics.

Discourse related to cross-disciplinary creative work that exists at the intersections of art, science and technology has been influential to my thinking and production for over ten years, especially the more humanistic encounters with the life sciences and mathematical sciences.  I am particularly interested in how images exist within and between multiple spaces and how they are encountered by so called “disciplinary specific trained experts” and the lay audience.

Award-winning teacher Michael Lampert RECOMMENDS:

1. I like Richard Feynman's book, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman.  I like this guy and heard him speak once when I was at Berkeley.  I admire the ability to work so hard, not necessarily by genius, but simply to get it done by looking at all the possible combinations.  And I admire his art intertwined with his equations and how he saw them in colors.  I have my physics students read this to get a true picture of what physics is.

2. I enjoy the outdoors and personal struggle, the account of Captain Scott's ill fated journey to the South Pole inspired me ever since I saw it as a theatrical play as a child.  It made me want to go there, which I did several years ago and wrote a blog about launching ozone balloons in the Springtime.  I encourage others to see this continent and read the incredible stories of Shackleton and Scott.  Knowing how strong mankind really is never ceases to amaze me.

3. In my desk I keep a copy of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King's “I Have a Dream” speech.  I grew up in DC.  My parents witnessed that time and I have seen first hand the struggle the African American community has overcome since then.  A person with a gift of speaking like Dr. King comes around once in a few hundred years, I need to be inspired from time to time and re-reading these words does it for me. 

4. I also keep the Audubon book on birds my father gave me long ago, because he meant so much to me.

Micheal Lampert teaches physics, microelectronics, and astronomy at West Salem High School in Salem, Oregon and was the 2009 recipient of the prestigious AAAS Leadership in Science Education Prize. Lampert’s students learn by teaching; they go into elementary schools and teach other children basic science, solidifying their own knowledge at the concept level.

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Micheal Lampert teaches physics, microelectronics, and astronomy at West Salem High School in Salem, Oregon and was the 2009 recipient of the prestigious AAAS Leadership in Science Education Prize. Lampert’s students learn by teaching; they go into elementary schools and teach other children basic science, solidifying their own knowledge at the concept level.

1.  What do you love about science and why?

I have always felt that science, and in particular physics, is really nothing more than art. It is beautiful, it is imaginative, its reality touches the soul in unexplained ways.  So I enjoy science as I enjoy life itself.  

 As a teacher I try and convey that truth to my students and design lessons that bring science and art together. I enjoy the equations; I like to write them as if they were music. I admire passion and creativity and open my classroom to kids at all hours as they pursue science. Our experiments include crazy things like building a watermelon ripeness evaluator; constructing Cosmic Ray detectors; or racing home built solar Lego cars as we learn about renewable energies. Studying science lets you play and create, and this is what I love about science.

2.  What got you interested in science?

I recall in second grade when we came in after recess on a very hot day. We built paper fans and started to fan ourselves excessively as we moaned about the heat to our sub. Instead of scolding us, she said, you know, when you fan yourself the energy you use causes your body to warm up. I kind of sat there stunned.  I did not think about that. When third grade came around we had to do a report on birds. I hated it. I could not draw or speak.  My father bought me the Audubon book on birds. I flipped through it amazed at the drawings.  The next day I worked hard on my report and finally drew a bird. I was thrilled. In seventh grade I had an accelerated course in science, ISCS it was called, it allowed you to go at your own pace. I loved that class, I came in after school and did all the experiments, even the one where we stuck ice in the goldfish tank to lower their respiratory rate.   

Then in college it finally hit me.  The physics professor was also a drama teacher.  The first day he randomly selected four kids from the audience, they had to go into the back room and practice a physics play.  At the last ten minutes of class they came out in dress and did this bizarre scene.  The crux of it was when the damsel in distress had to be rescued.  All that had to be done was to lift a suitcase and lay it flat on the lab bench.  No matter how hard the hero tried he could not lay it down flat.  Inside was a spinning gyroscope.  The professor’s point was how strange the world was that we must think to understand it.  I was hooked on science.

3.  What more could we be doing to encourage science literacy and a positive image of science in our societies?

I have been teaching at the frontlines of scientific change for twenty years now. Science is one of the topics that kids truly love! They do have a positive image of science already. They do watch NOVA, they do come to class wanting to know about black holes, they want to learn, they are just not getting what they need at school.   

With just a few structural changes in schools, a new vision with fair and reasonable funding, I really feel I could markedly improve science teaching across America. It begins by having a master science teacher in each high school that coordinates all the activities available for kids to learn science. Presently all high schools across America appoint an Athletic director, yet for some reason we are remiss in not having an Academic director. Imagine if we had someone scheduling the next science bowl match, or getting the bus to bring the kids to the science museum, or hiring sixteen assistant coaches to help in each subject area of science. We would see a change immediately, not just in student achievement but in society's perception of the joy and fun of science. 

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At The Buzz, we celebrate science, featuring interviews from scientists, tech innovators, teachers, artists, businesspeople, and anyone else that finds science useful and perhaps inspiring in their daily lives. Everyone has a different story. By investigating our disparate encounters with science, perhaps we can do our part to illuminate how integral science is in human culture and how useful and inspiring it is to the entire human race. Science feeds our curiosities, cures our diseases, and substantially improves our quality of life (and has done so for centuries.) Science is worth celebrating.

Want to contribute? Email me at casey@informedbynature.org.

Informed by Nature.org is an informal science education non-profit, with projects dedicated to advancing science literacy, education and advocacy through web development, new media, social networking, and classroom outreach. Visit our Programs page for details, our Learn page to add great science media to our catalog, our Facebook page to connect, our Volunteer page to pitch in, or our Donations page to chip in.