kcollins
Posts by this author
June 6, 2011
The humpback whale - 25 to 40 tons of pure majesty in motion. That's how most of us would describe these compelling, formidable animals if we were lucky enough to observe them as they languidly follow their migration routes. Noted conservationist Nan Daeschler Hauser is indeed one of the lucky…
June 3, 2011
The human hand - four fingers and a thumb. When we lose it due to injury, we've lost something that truly makes us human. That's a key reason why the Pentagon's "Revolutionizing Prosthetics" program, a $100 million multi-disciplinary effort in science and engineering is so important. It is working…
May 30, 2011
If there is one piece of advice that marine biologist and Nifty Fifty Speaker April Croxton would give young students aspiring to pursue a career in science it would be: Don't narrow down your career choice in science too early. "Science is so vast an area, encompassing so many disciplines, some of…
May 27, 2011
Bees represent some of the most resilient, adaptable and enterprising insects on earth. Not only that, they pollinate about one-third of all the food we eat. So when honey bees began dying or disappearing at alarming rates in the U.S. and around the world more than four years ago, scientists such…
May 23, 2011
It is well after 1 a.m. on May 11, 2010. Karen Kosiba, a post-doctoral scientist for the Center for Severe Weather Research (CSWR) in Boulder, CO, takes a breather in her Doppler on Wheels weather research vehicle in Perry, Oklahoma, a rural town 60 miles north of Oklahoma City. She and her…
May 20, 2011
Like the stars she studies, Nifty Fifty Speaker and astrophysicist Maura McLaughlin has reached some lofty heights in her young career as she works to shed further light on the Universe and the physical laws governing it, including Einstein's theory of relativity. Maura is an assistant…
May 16, 2011
Nifty Fifty Speaker Carl Zimmer is often called one of the nation's most astute, informed and lyrical science writers. Specializing in communicating about the wonders and mysteries of evolution, biology and neuroscience, Carl Zimmer - in such books as The Tangled Bank, Parasite Rex, and Soul Made…
May 13, 2011
Like a detective on the hunt, researcher and Nifty Fifty Speaker Sarah Fortune is trying to figure out how Mycobacterium tuberculosis - the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB)
- is able to defend itself so well against drug treatment and the body's immune
system.
The challenge is a daunting…
Published Science Journal Authors at Eight Years of Age? It Happened in the Blackawton Bees Project!
May 9, 2011
What would you say if a group of primary school children achieved the unprecedented task of having their school research project accepted for publication in an internationally recognized peer-reviewed science journal?
"Unbelievable," you would probably retort. But that's what happened when a cadre…
May 6, 2011
Meet physicist Andrew Zwicker who is working to raise the status of plasmas in science education. A plasma physicist by training, Andrew is Head of Science Education at Princeton University's Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) where he spends much of his time introducing high school students,…
May 2, 2011
Meet Nifty Fifty evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro who spends her days peering into the past. Her work in the emerging research field of ancient DNA takes her on a fascinating journey through time - collecting and studying the genetic samples of giant mammoths, saber-toothed cats, mastodons,…
April 29, 2011
Since leaving her native Saudi Arabia to pursue her dream in biotechnology, Hayat Sindi, a nanotechnology researcher and bio tech entrepreneur, has already reached some prodigious milestones in her young career, such as:
--Overcoming formidable cultural and personal obstacles to become the first…
April 27, 2011
When Alan McCormack began his career in education several decades ago as a seventh-grade science teacher in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., he tried everything he could to enhance students' interest in the concepts of science.
"I first thought I could be successful automatically just by following techniques…
April 25, 2011
The Space Shuttle lifting off and headed for the nether regions of space, although a majestic sight, is one of the most grueling and critical parts of the space mission because of all the raw power and energy expended by the craft.
NASA astronaut John Mace Grunsfeld knows the experience well. He's…
April 22, 2011
Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Natalie Angier has spent her entire career
translating complex scientific research information into engaging, stimulating
prose that the average person can understand.
In fact, says Marcela Valdes of Publisher's Weekly: "She is the kind of woman you
wish you'd…
April 18, 2011
We've all seen (and used) them: seemingly endless amounts of plastic and Styrofoam material for shipping and packaging everything from televisions and computers to toys and mail parcels. But we often never think about the impact those reams of bubble wrap and blocks of foam will have on our…
April 14, 2011
In her quest to study the fundamentals of climate change, prominent geochemist and
climatologist Kim Cobb has sailed on six oceanographic research voyages and led five caving expeditions to the rainforests of Borneo.
Her challenge: working out of her primary research base in the tropical Pacific,…
April 13, 2011
Meet Nifty Fifty speaker Ben Dubin-Thaler.
With a refreshing measure of ingenuity, Ben Dubin-Thaler is proving that some of
the most exciting lessons in science can occur outside the classroom - in a bus.
That's the Cell Motion BioBus, a self-powered, fully-equipped mobile microscopy
lab that Ben…
April 8, 2011
Roberto Kolter, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard's
Medical School, believes that microbes, bacteria in particular, have gotten a bad
rap. "Oh sure, occasionally a nasty one like Salmonella or E. coli gets through
and causes trouble," he says, "but for the most part…
April 6, 2011
Meet Larry Bock, the founder of the USA Science and Engineering Festival, interviewed by engineering.com
What do you think is important celebrating science and why we should celebrate science?
April 4, 2011
As a young student growing up in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Charles (Chuck) Vest
remembers taking endless aptitude tests in school - all of them indicating that he should become a journalist, a psychologist or a historian. Engineer was way down on the list, test results always revealed,…
April 1, 2011
How does the brain create and perceive music? More specifically, what goes on inside the heads of musicians when they're in the groove composing a song or improvising with their instruments or voice? These questions have long intrigued researcher Charles Limb, and to find answers he's turned to…
March 30, 2011
Meet CTO of Host Sponsor Lockheed Martin interviewed by Engineering.com at the 2010 USA Science and Engineering Festival.
Why do you think getting American's excited about science is important? What do you think we can do about it? What about science do you find exciting?
March 28, 2011
Meet Nifty Fifty Speaker Catherine Mohr, Nominated by FIRST.
She began her career as a mechanical engineer, working many years developing alternative-energy vehicles and high-altitude aircraft. But a mid-career change set Catherine Mohr on a different path for which she is known today:…
March 25, 2011
Hod Lipson is noted for bringing biologically-inspired approaches to the study of robotics - all in an effort to answer what he believes to be two great challenging questions in engineering: "First, can we design machines that can design other machines, and second, can we make machines that can…
March 21, 2011
If researcher Angela Belcher has her way, electric cars of the future will be
equipped with lightweight, inexpensive batteries that can store enough electricity
to make driving such vehicles even more practical. Also on her laboratory "to
do" list: developing tougher electronic material so that…
March 18, 2011
Watch a little about Microbes from the Fall 2010 USA Science and Engineering Festival.
The average science student knows that microbiology is the study of bacteria and other microorganisms, especially those that cause disease and other threats to health.
But what the public often does not…
March 16, 2011
Check out Bill Nye the Science Guy being interviewed by Engineering.com at the USA Science and Engineering Festival and discussion about the space policy today.
March 14, 2011
For David Bolinsky - the co-creator, with his talented team, of the highly-acclaimed computer animated science film, The Inner Life of a Cell - the plunge into the wonders of medical animation began at age four when he went to see the movie Fantasia.
From that moment, he was hooked.
"That did it…
March 11, 2011
She has developed some of the world's most famous robots - humanoid
creatures like "Kismet" (a robotic head that has been widely featured in
international media) and "Nexi," a mobile dexterous social robot that learns from
and interacts with people in an intelligent, life-like and sociable…