I recently posted about a great project in New York City called the Biobus. In August, the Biobus, in conjunction with the awesome science advocacy and investment group the Science House, will commence an ambitious program to distribute high-quality microscopes to schools around the world (free!), encouraging students to share and compare their discoveries online.
The MicroGlobalScope project will involve the students in your class collecting samples of microscopic organisms, from sources such as puddles or pools of standing water, leaf litter and other locations where microbial life can be found. Students will bring the samples back to their classroom to examine under the microscopes and identify with the help of their teacher and the microscopy resources provided.
An important aspect of MicroGlobalScope is collaboration and communication through the MicroGlobalScope website www.microglobalscope.com. Here students will blog about their activities and upload photographs, to share with their international peers.
How do the microorganisms in a drop of pond water from the Northeastern U.S. compare to those found in Brazil, or in Bangkok? The project is designed for students 10-12 years of age. Teachers interested in participating (10 schools will be chosen for the pilot) are encouraged to apply here.
Too bad Discover waited such a long time to put this March story online. Anyway, a really great profile of Harvard’s monk-like reader and writer of the genome, George Church. It’s written by Ed Regis, a guy who’s been following cutting-edge synthetic biology work from the beginning.
James King, a designer/artist with a scientific bent, has a good article in Seed magazine on the various “flavors” of synthetic biology — a great, accessible introduction to what’s happening right now. Nice work!
Below is video James made for his “Cellularity” project, exploring the scientific notion of “aliveness.”
I’ve decided that free diving is the extremest of extreme sports. This is world-record-holder Robert Trubridge from New Zealand, diving through the Arch in the Red Sea in 2007. Alec Wilkinson wrote a very good piece about the sport’s top women athletes in the New Yorker last summer — abstract here.
Origami hang gliders soar on “wind” from your hands. More details here.
At a recent science fair at my kid’s preschool, 4- and 5-year-olds were just as pleased with these super-easy paper “helicopters.” So much cheap/free science that kids are naturally excited about!
The 19th annual FIRST national robotics championship was held in Atlanta last week, with teams from Redondo Beach, CA; Milford, MI, and South Windsor, CT taking top honors. More than 500 teams from 30 countries competed. FIRST founder, inventor Dean Kamen, presented awards to winning teams, joined by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. (Obama, Kamen says, “gets it.”) Bill Gates also sent a video addressed to the competitors.
The competition is widely recognized not only as a powerful tool for motivating kids to pursue studies and careers in technology, but also as a way to inculcate values of self-confidence, respect, and teamwork. For those involved, says Kamen, it’s exciting, it’s fun, and it helps to break down stereotypes about science being something that white guys do. In an interview, Kamen told me, “FIRST is about changing kids’ attitudes about what’s possible. The robot is nothing more than a vehicle to connect kids to the serious community in this country that creates all the wealth and literally keeps the planes in the air and the trains on the tracks. They come away from the experience wanting to figure out how to make the world a better place and how to become successful.”
My friend Rich Press, a photographer, has posted a great set of photos he shot at the New York area regional finals a few years back that really capture the spirit of the event. Here’s one.
Yes, it’s total military propaganda. But it’s also a pretty innovative approach to getting people — young people especially — excited about science. LabTV, a component of the National Defense Education Program’s website, focuses on scientists and engineers working in the U.S. Dept. of Defense, giving teachers, students, and science geeks a look at what’s happening in one of the most well-funded R&D organization in the world. Weekly episodes are archived and cover technologies from robotics to fuel cells to advanced tissue engineering, the subject in the video below, about regular old inkjet printers hacked to print new skin for burn victims. The basic technology is similar to that being commercialized by a company I covered for Inc. magazine last year, San Diego-based Organovo.
The New York Times has a nice article and great set of photos on voluntary, apparently sane modern “recluses.” Who have beer and computers and stuff. (This guy brews his own for trade.)
