Category Archives: Science around the world

Science around the world

Jon Spaihts: Hollywood’s go-to science fiction screenwriter on the importance of science in filmmaking

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Jon Spaihts

Hollywood’s go-to science fiction writer.

Jon Spaihts is the screenwriter of The Darkest Hour, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and the upcoming Passengers and The Mummy. The one-time physics student and science writer has become one of the go-to writers for hard science fiction and space epics in Hollywood. He is currently working on a remake of Disney’s classic, The Black Hole and is writing Marvel’s forthcoming movie Doctor Strange.

Jon also features in today’s OSAM blog: Behind the Science of Hollywood

Here Jon speaks to Alex Jackson on collaborative work with scientists on film, the importance of science in filmmaking and finding the right balance between scientific practice, current knowledge and future developments with the demands of fine storytelling.

What experiences of working with scientists in the screenwriting process, do you have?

Much of the collaboration I’ve done with scientists is related to projects still in development – so there’s only so much I’m allowed to talk about them.

For example, I’m currently working on a remake of Disney’s classic, The Black Hole. It raises critical questions about robotics, artificial intelligence, interstellar travel, singularities, quantum mechanics, and string theory. Quite a to-do list! We’ve convened a panel of remarkable scientists to help us think through the scientific issues.

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MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis on 3D Printing and the DIY Spirit

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"3D Printing is a tinkerer's dream and it’s the DIY Holy Grail to make something that creates things."

“3D Printing is a tinkerer’s dream and it’s the DIY Holy Grail to make something that creates things.” Image courtesy of MakerBot.

Bre Pettis is the CEO of MakerBot, a company that produces 3D printers, which he co-founded in 2009. Pettis also co-founded the Brooklyn hacker collective NYC Resistor, where MakerBot technology was first created, tested, and proven.

In 2006, Bre started the popular “Weekend Projects” video podcast for Make: Magazine, where he taught millions of viewers to make things from pinhole cameras to bicycles to hovercrafts. He also introduced the blog at the popular online handcrafts marketplace, Etsy. Prior to both endeavors, Bre was an art teacher in the Seattle Public Schools system.

In 2012, Bre was honored with the Disruptive Innovation Award from the Tribeca Film Festival, for “creating an entire ecosystem for desktop 3D printing.”

Since its launch in 2009, MakerBot has positioned itself in the 3D printing community as a leader in DIY production. Co-founded by former public school art teacher Bre Pettis, MakerBot facilitates the dreams of tinkerers and the curious minded with nothing more than corn-based plastic and an idea.

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World Wildlife Fund’s Dr Brendan Fisher on improving fish diversity and conservation agriculture in Mozambique

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Dr. Brendan Fisher is a research scientist at the World Wildlife Fund. His research and fieldwork lie at the nexus of conservation, development, and natural resource economics. Brendan is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed articles on topics such as poverty, human welfare, ecosystem services and biological conservation, and the co-author of two books, Valuing Ecosystem Services (Earthscan, London, 2008) and A Field Guide to Economics for Conservationists (Forthcoming, Roberts and Company). 

He is a Fellow of the Gund Institute at the University of Vermont and a Fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) at the University of East Anglia.  He was recently a Rockefeller Bellagio Fellow working on relationships between the ecological conditions of coastal regions, gender inequality and childhood health.  When he’s not working he spends most of his time hiking, skiing, and enjoying the Vermont outdoors with his wife and three children.

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Emily Anthes discusses how biotechnology is shaping the future of our furry and feathered friends

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American science journalist and author Emily Anthes with her dog, Milo. Image Courtesy of Nina Subin.

American science journalist and author Emily Anthes with her dog, Milo.
Image Courtesy of Nina Subin.

Emily Anthes is a science journalist and author. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Scientific American, Psychology Today, BBC Future, SEED, Discover, Popular Science, Slate, The Boston Globe, and elsewhere.

Her book, Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech’s Brave New Beasts, is out in paperback today published by Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It received the 2014 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books. 

Emily is also the author of the Instant Egghead Guide: The Mind (St. Martin’s Press, 2009).

Her blog post, “When a deaf man has Tourette’s,” was selected for inclusion in The Open Laboratory 2010: The Best of Science Writing on the Web.  

Emily has a master’s degree in science writing from MIT and a bachelor’s degree in the history of science and medicine from Yale, where she also studied creative writing. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her dog, Milo.

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Chief Scientific Adviser to the European Commission discusses evidence-based policy and nurturing and supporting a European scientific culture

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"The policy world very much mirrors what we do in science today." Image: (c) European Union

“The policy world very much mirrors what we do in science today.” Image: (c) European Union

Professor Anne Glover joined the European Commission as Chief Scientific Adviser to the President in January 2012, and is the first person to hold this position.

In this role she advises the President on any aspect of science and technology, liaises with other science advisory bodies of the Commission, the Member States and beyond, coordinates science and technology foresight, and promotes the European culture of science to a wide audience, conveying the excitement and relevance of science to non-scientists. She also chairs the recently established Science & Technology Advisory Council of the President.

Prior to her current appointment she was Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland from 2006-2011. Professor Glover currently holds a Personal Chair of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Aberdeen. Most of her academic career has been spent at the University of Aberdeen where she has a research group pursuing a variety of areas from microbial diversity to the development and application of whole cell biosensors (biological sensors) for environmental monitoring and investigating how organisms respond to stress at a cellular level.

Professor Glover holds several honorary doctoral degrees and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Society of Biology, the Royal Society of Arts and the American Academy of Microbiology. Professor Glover was recognised in March 2008 as a Woman of Outstanding Achievement in the UK and was awarded a CBE for services to Environmental Science in the Queen’s New Years Honours list 2009.

When Professor Anne Glover finished her five-year term as Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland, the biologist was lauded for not only raising the visibility of science in Scotland and the UK, but for further increasing the role of scientific evidence in the policy-making process.

These fruitful five years led her to the challenging and geographically diverse role of Chief Scientific Adviser to the European Commission (EC), which she leaves after three years in the position, at the end of 2014. As the first ever scientist to be tasked with the responsibility of independently advising politicians and policy-makers governing more than 500m people across 28 member states, this was no easy assignment.

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Naked Neuroscience: Dr Hannah Critchlow reflects on educating the public about Neuroscience

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Hannah Critchlow: Educating people across the globe on the values of neuroscience.

Hannah Critchlow: Educating people across the globe on the values of neuroscience.

Dr Hannah Critchlow is a neuroscientist with a background in neuropsychiatry. She currently strips down the brain with the BBC broadcast Naked Scientists. Using radio, on-line channels and live events she designs, produces and presents a neuroscience-focused, interactive multimedia experience for the public.

In 2014 Hannah was named as a ‘Top 100 UK scientist’ by the Science Council for her work in science communication. In 2013 she was named as one of Cambridge University’s most ‘inspirational and successful women in science’. During her PhD she was awarded a Magdalene College, Cambridge University Fellowship, and as an undergraduate received three University prizes as Best Biologist. She previously worked as Strategic Manager for Cambridge Neuroscience and on secondment with the British Neuroscience Association.

Hannah’s choice of career stemmed from working as a nursing assistant at St Andrews Psychiatric Hospital. When not being enthused by all things brainy, Hannah spends her time splashing about by the river and living the houseboat dream.

For neuroscientist Dr Hannah Critchlow, the last 12 months have been pretty special. If being named one of Cambridge University’s most ‘inspirational and successful women in science’ late in 2013 wasn’t surprise enough, what was to follow was in her words, even more “gobsmacking.” Just days later, while in New Zealand for Christmas, Dr Critchlow was recognised by the Science Council as one of the top 100 UK scientists for her work in science communication.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson on Cosmos and integrating science in popular culture

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"science matters in our lives for us to be better shepherds of not only our civilization, but the world." Image courtesy of Patrick Eccelsine/FOX.

“Science matters in our lives for us to be better shepherds of not only our civilization, but the world.”
Image courtesy of Patrick Eccelsine/FOX.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space and a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History.

A popular American astrophysicist, author, science communicator and educator, Tyson hosted the science educational show NOVA ScienceNow on PBS for five years. He received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Harvard University and a doctorate in Astrophysics from Columbia University in 1991. After spending a number of years doing post-doctorate work at Princeton University, Tyson landed a role at the Hayden Planetarium.

He is the author of several best-selling books, including Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries and the Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet. In 2001, US President George W Bush appointed Tyson to the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry. He also served another commission three years later to examine US policy on space exploration. In 2004, Tyson was awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest civilian honour bestowed by NASA. He also hosts his own podcast and radio show StarTalk.

“Cosmos is truly intended for anyone with a beating heart. I haven’t checked recently whether zombies have beating hearts, but if they do – I’ll take them too,” barks Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, with exalted hilarity.

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Oscar-winning visual effects mastermind behind Gravity, talks Physics lessons, NASA imagery and defining the art of CG ‘weightlessness’ in space.

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Tim Webber

“It could have fallen flat as a fairly unusual film, largely focused on one person in space. We thought it may be a tough film to sell to the public”.
Image Courtesy of Framestore.

Tim Webber is a visual effects supervisor  who has worked on an array of critically acclaimed blockbusters. He joined British visual effects company Framestore in 1988 and has been the driving force behind the company’s push into digital film and television, developing Framestore’s virtual camera and motion rig systems. He has worked on The Dark Knight, James Cameron’s Avatar and was second unit director on the Hallmark production of Merlin. He has most recently taken charge as Warner Brother’s VFX supervisor on Alfonso Cuarón’s space epic, Gravity. He won the Bafta Award for Best Special Effects and the Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects.

Tim Webber has become one of the most talked about people in film in recent months. In the past, he has been an ‘unsung hero’ of visual effects, who has wielded his magic on many memorable cinematic scenes. From his previous Oscar nod on Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight in 2008, to creating the CG baby in Children of Men with Gravity’s director Alfonso Cuarón ; Webber has been a visionary, who until recently, has shied away from the spotlight.

Thrust deservedly into the limelight with last night’s Oscar win (Best Achievement in Visual Effects) and the previous month’s Bafta success for space epic, Gravity, Webber and the influential team of visual effects artists from Framestore have taken filmmaking to a whole new level. Yet Webber, who had a passion for Maths and Physics at school, before completing a degree in Physics at Oxford, still finds the attention and acclaim surprising.

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Google Chrome’s security lead on STEM, women in technology and fighting cyber crime

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An ambassador for women in technology and STEM education.

An ambassador for women in technology and STEM education. Image courtesy of Brandon Downey.

Parisa Tabriz is Google Chrome’s security lead. She has worked on information security at Google for more than 6 years, starting as a “hired hacker” software engineer for Google’s security team. As an engineer, she found and closed security holes in Google’s web applications, and taught other engineers how to do the same.

Today, Parisa manages Google’s Chrome security engineering team, whose goal is to make Chrome the most secure browser and keep users safe as they surf the web. In late 2012, she was selected by Forbes as one of the 30 under 30 pioneers in technology. When she’s not hacking, she likes to make things (art, food, miscellaneous DIY projects) or escape Silicon Valley to go hiking and rock climbing in the mountains.

“Good code is marked by qualities that go beyond the purely practical; like equations in physics or mathematics, code can aspire to elegance,” author Vikram Chandra recently exclaimed in an article in the Financial Times.  In an environment where statistics in US education make for grim reading in the numbers of young people, especially women, that are going into programming and computer science, this “beautiful art form” needs to be embraced – and fast.

Column inches have been filled with critics condemning the state of technology education in the US and all the while increasingly more jobs are now reliant on computer and coding across all sectors. A 2010 report from both the Association for Computing Machinery and the Computer Science Teachers Association found that more than two-thirds of US states had little or no literacy in computer science at secondary school level. It is a problem, which the report suggests, has left the US “woefully behind in preparing students with the fundamental computer science knowledge and skills they need for the future.”

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Buzz Aldrin: Space policy, cooperative efforts to Mars and the need to inspire future generations

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Buzz Aldrin is a retired US Air Force pilot, a former American astronaut and the second person to walk on the Moon, on July 21, 1969. He was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history.

A global space ambassador. Courtesy of the Buzz Aldrin Archive

A global space ambassador.
Courtesy of the Buzz Aldrin Archive

Upon returning from the moon, Dr Aldrin was decorated with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest American peacetime award.

Since retiring from NASA and the Air Force, Col Aldrin has remained at the forefront of efforts to progress human space exploration. On November 16, 2011, Dr Aldrin was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honour, along with the other Apollo 11 crew members, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins, and Mercury Seven astronaut, John Glenn, for their significant contribution to society and exploration.

Dr Aldrin has also written eight books including the New York Times best-selling autobiography, Magnificent Desolation, released in 2009 before the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. He has released best-selling illustrated children’s books, two space science-fiction novels and his most recent book Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration was published by the National Geographic Society in 2013.

“To realize the dream of humans on Mars we need a unified vision. We need to focus on a pathway to the prize.” These were the strident historic words articulated by Buzz Aldrin in July 2009 at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s John Glenn Lecture Series for NASA’s 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.  Five years on, and having very recently celebrated his 84th birthday, Dr Aldrin’s enthusiasm, ambassadorial work, resolute attitude and ideals are no less subdued.

Exciting developments in space science are coming thick and fast and showing notable progress. It is however, US President Barack Obama’s objective of a manned mission to Mars in his lifetime, preceded by a robotic landing on a real orbiting asteroid, that remains a most ambitious follow on to lunar robotic surface control by the US and the occupation of a jointly designed International Lunar Base.

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