I Am A Scientist…

I think this speaks for itself…

Many thanks to Jeff Steinmetz at Urge Productions for the pictures, Anastassia Babanskaia for the styling, and Kat Steinmetz for the make-up. These pictures were taken last year pre-pregnancy; I’m working to get back into the amazing shape I was in when these pics were taken. Note the intentional lack of a lab coat anywhere.

I was Ninterviewed!

First, what an honor to be interviewed by THE Ninja.

Second, how fun! I could have hung out and talked for hours. Everyone needs more Ninja in their life.

Check it out:

Another Nano Check-up!

How are things going? Well, great!

Nano is growing steadily, and according to all markers my pregnancy is progressing without any issues (I won’t say without any hiccups because Nano has those all the time). I’m in the middle of trying to do my usual job of creating science programming while at the same time trying to plan for my maternity leave. The juggling is fun. Really.

I’m also trying to figure out things like what kinds of diapers to buy and where to put the baby’s things, while I try to ignore the fact that I am going to have to go through with labor whether or not I like it. Seriously, I am in denial that this is actually going to happen. Can’t I just have this little guy spring fully formed from my forehead? No? Fine.

We still haven’t decided on a name. There are several contenders, but every time I say them for a while I end up really disliking them. Not good for a name I might potentially be saying several hundred thousand times (at least) over the course of years.

IF you are interested in the progression of things, check out the following videos, which were harvested from TWiT’s Justin.tv feed by gldisater:

Week 33:

Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

Week 34:

Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

Week 35:

Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

5 more weeks to go people…

More Nano!

We are officially into the third trimester!!! The home stretch…

Week 22:
Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

Week 23:
Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

Week 24:
Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

Week 25:
Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

Nano is A’Comin’

Each week since I informed TWIT viewers that I’m pregnant, I’ve done a check-in on-camera to let people follow along with the pregnancy’s progress.One of my regular audience members, known as gldisater in the chatroom, has created highlights from the broadcast on Justin.tv. It’s really neat to look back and see how much things have changed in just a few short weeks.Here are the broadcast highlights in order from the first to the most recent… enjoy!:

Week 12:

Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

Week 17:

Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

Week 18:

Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

Week 19:

Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

Week 20:

Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

Week 21:

Watch live video from gldisater on Justin.tv

And, that’s all so far, folks!

Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour - Life, Language, and Science

One of the books that the TWIS book club read this year was Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle by Dr. Daniel Everett of Illinois State University.

In the book, Dr. Everett tells the story of his years spent in the amazon jungle studying the language of a small tribe of Indians. There are ups and downs, thrills and spills throughout, but the most important part of the story is the language and how it changed the Dr.’s life forever.

You would be amazed at everything Dr. Everett went through in the name of science. I know I was when I read the book.

Even more amazing was getting to speak with him on the Science Hour. See for yourself…

Dr. Kiki Sanford - Demo Reel

I’m a science popularizer and communicator. This reel includes examples of some of my recent work hosting, interviewing, and generally being Dr. Kiki for the likes of the Science Channel, Revision3, PixelCorps, and more.

I am currently looking for representation by way of a manager-type person. And, I am looking for new TV and/or online video host, interviewer, contributor, correspondent, writer, producer-type work. Work being the operative term. As in: paying with the money.

Let me know if you have any ideas or if you happen to be a manager looking for some scientific talent.

This Week in Science Community Brainstorm

This Week in Science has been a labor of my love for ten years. I have enjoyed every one of them, and expect to enjoy many more.

The show has enabled me to meet so many people, and created a community of science minded folks who I hope to count as friends (even though we call them minions).

However, the community could be better. The show and our website are still run based on the old media ways of pushing content out when they should be created with a mind for the community who want to pull the information in. So, we are thinking about how to change our ways, to make even better science content that can contend with what the major publishers are pushing out, and how to foster the growth of a truly awesome science-y community.

It’s actually been a dream of mine for a long time to create a community-driven science media channel based on TWIS. We started to develop the idea with our TWIS-tributions; asking minions to record TWIS-y news stories for the show. But, it didn’t get the response I was hoping for, and so fell by the wayside.

Naomi Most (nthmost on Twitter) brought me back to the idea today (seriously, I think she is data mining my brain), and specifically peaked my re-contemplation with a couple of her comments:

“Ah, but w/ TWIStributions, the show always goes on regardless whether of ppl contribute… If you set up a system of continuous expectation of involvement w/ appropriate reward, superfans emerge.” 

And, this is a crucial point. The community needs ownership and investment for the entire endeavor to thrive. And, so far that is limited.

So, this is where I am. I want to create what Naomi termed an incubator for science reporting through TWIS. I want to rebuild the TWIS website to reflect the community and its many interests, and allow the growth of parallel scientific content in the form of blogs, audio, and video programming. I want to find the science reporting superstars among the minions, and have them call TWIS their home.

Is that too much to ask?

Interested in sponsoring the endeavor?

Have any ideas?

Michio Kaku on Quantum Computing

Thanks to Saleem Khan for this question about quantum computing. Hear what Dr. Michio Kaku has to say about it to Dr. Kiki in this quick segment.

Michio on Bose-Einstein Condensates

Dr. Kiki asks Dr. Michio Kaku a question from Justin Gill about Bose-Einstein Condensates. Twitter provided a great forum for collecting questions for Dr. Kaku.