A winding discussion about neuroscience, technology, and mouse mazes.
Snakes and other beasts: A “How-to” chat with wildlife photographer Marius Iancu
You never know how long a chat with Marius is going to take.
Interview with Mark Scherz, the discoverer of the gecko that sheds its scales
It turns out there is more to the story.
Explosives scientists answer questions in online interview
Los Alamos is always blowing stuff up. The Lab burst into the public consciousness 70 years ago with the biggest explosion known to humanity—the world’s first atomic bomb. Since then, Los Alamos has continued to lead the nation in explosives science and engineering. Now, some of the researchers working there went to answer questions on Reddit. Here are some of
Alan Alda’s important message for science communication
Most of us know Alan Alda for his iconic portrayal of Hawkeye Pierce, the sharp-tongued but kind-hearted field doctor from the series M.A.S.H. But Alda is increasingly involved in science communication, being a visiting professor at the Alan Alda Centre for Communicating Science, at Stony Brook University in New York. This is a recent interview with him, about science communication. This
Why are women written out of history? An interview with historian Bettany Hughes
“Cleopatra was a poet and a philosopher, she was incredibly good at maths [..] but when we think of her, we think: big breasted seductress bathing in milk.” Dr Bettany Hughes argues that women have been largely written out of history and this seems to be a recurring theme. Bettany Hughes, an English historian and author discussed with English Heritage about how women
Interview with Dr. Thomas Watters, from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
We recently got the chance to talk to Dr. Thomas Watters from the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Watters is a Co-Investigator on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, and discussing lunar tectonics with him was highly insightful: ZME: Your background is in geology and tectonics, how was the transition to planetary sciences? How is studying geology on extraterrestrial bodies different? Thomas Watters:
Interview with Christopher Russell, principal investigator of NASA’s Dawn Mission
Christopher Russell is the head of the Space Physics Center at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) at UCLA, and he also leads the NASA’s Dawn Mission team. Dawn orbited Vesta in 2011 and 2012, offering valuable insight not only about the two minor planets, but about the solar system itself. Professor Russell took the time to discuss some of
Q&A with Dr. Ijad Madisch (ResearchGate founder)
Ijad Madisch a Harvard trained virologist and computer scientist was on his way to becoming a medical professor, but in 2008 he put a halt to his career as a medical researcher to embark on an even greater challenge: changing the way scientists connect.
Scientist interview: Michael Mann [meteorology / climate change]
A few days ago, we wrote an article about our featured researchers – outstanding men and women in their field, who recently published highly interesting studies. Today, we’re talking to Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor of Meteorology at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). His voice is one of
Scientist interview: Dirk Lachenmeier [negative effects of food, tobacco and alcohol]
A few days ago, we wrote an article about our featured researchers – outstanding men and women in their field, who recently published highly interesting studies. Today, we’re talking to Dirk Lachenmeier, a certified food chemist, toxicologist, head of the official alcohol control laboratory and co-head of the nuclear magnetic resonance laboratory at Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Agency, Karlsruhe, Germany. Here’s
Scientist interview: Culum Brown [biology/fish]
A couple of weeks ago we were telling you about a study which showed that not only do fish feel pain, but they also multi task and even have cultural traditions. We liked it so much, that we included Culum Brown, the study leader, in our list of featured researchers. He was kind enough to take the time and talk
Scientist Interviews: Marie-Eve Naud [Astrobiology]
A while ago, we were telling you about the discovery of a huge exoplanet – a gas giant, found just 155 light years away from Earth. The head researcher behind that study was Marie-Eve Naud. Her main research field is the detection and characterization of exoplanets, with a focus on astrobiology. She was kind enough to talk to us and shed some
Scientists interview: Rainer Krähenmann
Dr. Rainer Krähenmann is a Project Leader at the Neuropsycho-pharmacology and Brain Imaging Department of Psychiatry at the University Hospital for Psychiatry in Zürich, Switzerland. He is interested in researching the neural correlates of both altered and pathological states of consciousness. Currently, he is involved in an fMRI study investigating the functional networks of hallucinogen-induced states of consciousness. His research
Interview with researcher Simone Kuhn about video games and the brain
A while ago, we published an article about a study which showed that playing video games improves spatial orientation, memory formation and strategic planning. You can read our article here and the full study on Nature, but here’s the gist of it: researchers made subjects play Super Mario 64 for 30 mintues a day over a period of 2 months, then studied their brains