Stories by Joanne Manaster

The generally mischievous pair on youtube who film their antics in extreme slow motion using a digital high-speed camera, capable of shooting over 10000 frames a second, the Slow Mo Guys, were invited by GE to visit their labs in New York to film some fascinating techniques with their speciality cameras.

As the year winds down, I’m pleased to share the google hangouts on air I’ve done with SciAm, some in collaboration with my venture with co-host, Jeff Shaumeyer, Read Science!

I read a post at Nature yesterday about the severe cutbacks the Planetary Sciences Division at NASA (headed by Jim Green) has had to make recently due to reduced funding.

I just viewed an advertisement released last month from Russian Standard Vodka that claims its product is ‘The Convergence of Science and Nature’.

I just ran across a promotional video for homegenizers, mixers, and emulsifiers for the laboratory from a company called IKA, which sells products around the world.

Many times I wondered this myself, and while I had the attention of the youtube infamous Hank Green of SciShow, I asked him in correspondence last year: “One last thing, while I have your attention.

I only recently came on the so-called science hijacking of Seventeen Magazine’s #ManicureMonday scene thanks to a heads-up by David Wescott and some accidental internet meanderings.

“Film is a powerful way to tell stories. … The right story, told well, can be engaging, informative, and memorable.” —Sean B. Carroll The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is adding four new films to its award-winning catalog of short science documentaries for the classroom.

I am having quite the space-filled weekend! Today, we just had a hangout with astronaut Chris Hadfield and now I’m packing up to head to Cape Canaveral to watch an ATLAS V rocket send the next Mars Orbiter, MAVEN, to space!

If you are on the internet and have not heard of recently retired Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield, commander of ISS expedition 35, then I suspect you are using the internet all wrong.

Graduate school in biosciences is tough. We know that. Four, six, even (heaven forbid!) eight years of your life dedicated to diving deeply into a research project can leave one, well, a bit “loopy” sometimes and you just need to blow off steam.

As I share this with you, it is the International Day of the Sloth, 2013. Back on October 5, 2013, my twitter feed was already quite busy, full of well wishes for my birthday, (which I share, coincidentally, with astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson and cosmologist, Sean M.

That mesmerizing installation of light and illusion using 3D projection mapping and robots, Box, that I shared with you last week, left me a bit unsettled.

Most everyone who follows me on social media is aware I have a weakness for two animals: otters and sloths. I’m happy to promote efforts that encourage conservation and well being of these animals.

With only 3% of NASA employees currently at work during the government shutdown, the status of continuing work for the upcoming MAVEN orbiter launching to Mars to analyze the Martian atmosphere mid-November has been uncertain.

Watch, and have your mind bent, blown, and boggled. Astounding. Appropriately, this video ends with the Arthur C. Clarke quote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” If you’ve recovered from your state of awe and want to learn more about this performance, I’ve grabbed a couple of descriptions directly from the website “Bot [...]

Media entrepreneur and DIY filmmaker, Boonsri Dickinson , who also has a degree in Chemical Engineering, has created a short scifi film using Google Glass with some help from her iPhone!

Who has not caught themselves singing along to Queen’s number one hit “Bohemian Rhapsody”? Perhaps we’ve made up words when we didn’t know them!

I am so pleased to announce that renowned animal scientist and autism expert, Temple Grandin, and her co-author of her latest book, “The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum“, Richard Panek, will be our guests on another collaborative Scientific American/Read Science!

On the Periodic Table of Videos, Rob Stockman, a researcher who works to understand neurotransmitters, explains to us how sarin and other nerve gases work to disrupt bodily functions

I am very pleased to announce that the SciAm community will be graced by the presence of one of the most well-known naturalists, Edward O. Wilson, an eminent biologist, researcher, and theorist who is the world’s leading authority on ants.

This video depicts NASA’s Curiosity rover observing Mars’ two moons, then shows one moon passing in front of the other. Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars, are thought to be asteroids captured in Mars’ gravitational field.

Creative science teachers who allow their students to make science history, science stories and science activities their own are, in my opinion, the greatest asset to furthering science knowledge for civilization.

Mars Curiosity Rover has captured our attention from the time it launched in November 2011 to the time it landed on August 5, 2012 in a very dramatic landing to now.