Stories by Joanne Manaster

My colleague at the University of Illinois, chemical engineer Bill Hammack, also known as The Engineer Guy, has been busy creating a new series of videos and was seemingly off the radar on youtube–but never fear, he is back!

Today on YouTube we see a showdown between two science greats, with an additional big scicomm name included for good measure! I’ve written about Epic Rap Battles of History previously about the immensely entertaining Einstein vs.

Imagine you are a 5th grader while watching this video. Would you love it? If it caught your interest, as it did mine, you are in good company. This is the winning entry for the 2014 Flame Challenge put on by Alan Alda and the Center for Communicating Science.

I ran across this hyperlapse video of Singapore the other day: It got me thinking of a few other cities given the hyperlapse treatment, like Dubai: So I wondered, “What exactly is hyperlapse and how is it done?” I found a brief description at Know Your Meme website: “Hyperlapse Photography is a filmmaking technique that [...]

It’s no secret, I’m a space geek. And the other non-secret is I love when a good space travel book is turned into a movie. Astronaut Gene Cernan is known for being “The Last Man on the Moon” as he was the last man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 17 mission.

How does a mouse build a burrow, and do genes help control this behavior? This was a question asked by members of the Hoekstra lab at Harvard.

David Quammen, according to his website is  ”an author and journalist whose twelve books include The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr.

Today, Chris Hadfield shared in social media a previously released video, Chris Hadfield’s Snapshots from Space! “Throughout his ISS mission, CSA Astronaut Chris Hadfield has been taking some of the most incredible photos of Earth ever seen.

I am very pleased to announce that Neil Shubin, author of “Your Inner Fish” and host of a PBS program by the same name, currently airing over the past several weeks, will be joining myself and co-host Jeff Shaumeyer for a chat in another SciAm/Read Science!

Visit theperfect46.com, and it looks like any business web page. The Perfect 46 purports to be a company that uses the power of genomics, the information stored in the entirety of your DNA–your genome–to determine if you are with “the one” for you.

I am always thrilled when a science themed book wins the General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize. Some of my favorites from previous years include the following: 2011 Siddhartha Mukherjee “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer” 1998 Jared Diamond “Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” 1995 Jonathan Weiner “The Beak Of [...]

Lucy Cooke, the mastermind behind Slothville, a recognized National Geographic Explorer and award winning videographer and TV producer, has a new book, The Power of Sloth, coming out in the UK today.

Nothing makes me happier than reading a really good science book. After that, I am fairly pleased when some of my favorites are adapted for TV to reach those less likely to pick up one of those gems.

There is something about a ROOMBA, the robotic floor cleaning device, that inspires us to put things atop of them for a ride for our entertainment, including babies, cats in shark costumes, and my favorite, prairie dogs!

I’ve had my head in the middle of a great deal of preparing coursework for my students and somehow managed to miss this series of videos in the NOVA’s Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers–all about Bill Nye!

I am very excited to announce the next SciAm/Read Science! collaboration. My cohost, Jeff, and I will feature two guests who are well known independently for their work in science communication, but together make a formidable power couple (of sorts)!

Tonight’s TV line-up has science enthusiasts quite excited. Of course I’m talking about Cosmos as presented by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, produced by Seth MacFarlane (of Family Guy fame) and written by Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan’s widow and co-creator of the original series.

Back in April 2013, The Weather Channel announced it was unveiling several new very short series of cross-platform videos on topics that diverge from the weather.

I’ve been traveling quite a bit recently and the drone of the plane engine is a major annoyance. While I have a pair of noise dampening ear buds which are much more comfortable and produce better sound than the default iPhone earbuds, I have been wavering about purchasing a pair of active noise canceling earphones [...]

It’s not every day that students get an opportunity to research the latest in science innovations, combine a creative communications activity, and have the chance to win up to $2000, meet Bill Nye, and attend the largest science and engineering festival in the world!

I never tire of nighttime timelapse and startrails videos. Sunchaser videos produce some of the best around. Their latest is another trip out to Joshua Tree.

“Imagine being able to watch as Edison turned on the first light bulb, or as Franklin received his first jolt of electricity.” -Particle Fever: With One Switch, Everything Changes.

Another great webcam joins the plethora of animal cams! Who can get enough of peeking in on animals as they go about their day? At seaotters.com/live , the world’s first HD live stream of CA sea otters in the wild catches otters at Elkhorn Slough, the largest tract of tidal salt marsh in California outside [...]

Some of you may have noticed that my recent social media posts have originated from Abu Dhabi in the UAE. I am here for the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, the largest gathering on sustainability in the Middle East.