My Secret Life - Climbing

My latest guest post for PBS NOVA's Secret Life of Scientists blog is now online. This week's episode features Architectural Engineer Emily Whiting talking about her research and and her passion for rock climbing.

You can read the post and watch the episode here.

In this month's post, I look at Climbing Great Buildings.

My Secret Life - Friendly Numbers

My latest guest post for PBS NOVA's Secret Life of Scientists blog is now online. This week's episode features Synesthesia Researcher Steffie Tomson talking about her research and and her own experience of the condition.


You can read the post and watch the episode here.

In this month's post, I ponder the friendliness of numbers!

My Secret Life - Animals at Play

My latest guest post for PBS NOVA's Secret Life of Scientists blog is now online. This week's episode features engineer and product designer Judy Lee talking about her love of design and how she's sharing that love on TV.


You can read the post and watch the episode here.

In this month's post, I look at how animals can demonstrate they're playful side.

My Secret Life: Flying Snakes...not on a plane

New research out of Virginia Tech. has looked at the dynamics of gliding reptiles or flying snakes!


The snakes can "fly" by flinging themselves off their tree-top perches and gliding to another tree or to the ground.

The researchers looked at Chrysopelea paradisi and recorded their gliding patterns on camera after allowed the researchers to create and analyse 3-D reconstructions fo the animals' gliding patterns during the flight.

The results show that, despite travelling up to 24 metres from their starting point, they never reached an "equilibrium gliding" state but neither did they simple plummet to the ground....contd. here.

My latest guest post for PBS NOVA's Secret Life of Scientists blog is now online. This week's episode features physicist and glider pilot Allan Adams talking about his love of being in the air and condensing the history of the universe into 30 seconds!


You can read the post and watch the episode here.







My Secret Life: A teacher affects eternity

My latest guest post for PBS NOVA's Secret Life of Scientists blog is now online. This week's episode features theoretical physicist and jazz saxophonist Stephon Alexander talking about his love of music and how he was inspired to become a scientist.

You can read the post and watch the episode here.

My Secret Life: The Language of Science.....and Wugs

My latest guest blog for PBS NOVA's Secret Life of Scientists blog is now online. This week's episode features psycholinguist Jean Berko Gleason talking about her love of fast cars and how she invented the Wugs.

You can read the post here.

My Secret Life

I'm delighted to announce that I've joined the team  of guest bloggers who will be making regular contributions to the second series of the highly successful 'Secret Life of Scientists'.

Secret Life is part of the long-running and highly successful NOVA series which has run on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States since 1974. Nova has picked up multiple Peabody and Emmy Awards for its work in bringing science to a broad audience in new and exciting ways. It is America's longest-running and most esteemed science programme.

Secret Life presents scientists, not only as brilliant researchers, but also as real human beings with a variety of outside interests. For example, the first series featured an astrophysicist who sailed around the world, a biochemist who participated in the Miss America pageant and an ethnobotanist who dances salsa in the Bronx.

The second series kicks off here with  an interview with Mollie Woodworth, a cheerleader who also happens to be a neuroscientist.