The Show About Science

Milo Cress was 9 when he started the Be Straw Free project. Now 17, Milo's research and activism have convinced organizations like Starbucks and the Shedd Aquarium to stop offering customers plastic straws. Milo joins Nate on this episode of The Show About Science to talk about his interests in the environment and conservation, and explains how kids can act to change the world.

In outer space, there are objects so powerful that nothing can escape their gravitational pull. They're called black holes. Bob McNees is a physicist at Loyola University who studies gravity, general relativity, and the physics of black holes. Bob joins Nate on this episode of The Show About Science to talk about quantum mechanics, the work of Stephen Hawking, and of course, black holes.

CryptoKitties is a game centered around breedable, collectible, and oh-so-adorable creatures called CryptoKitties! CryptoKitties is one of the world’s first games to be built on blockchain technology—the same breakthrough that makes things like Bitcoin and Ethereum possible. The creator of CryptoKitties, Dieter Shirley, joins Nate on this episode to talk about creating games on the blockchain. Find out more about CryptoKitties at: https://www.cryptokitties.co/

Verd has been growing food for as long as he can remember, beginning in his family’s backyard garden in Oak Park, Illinois. At age sixteen, he left home to live and work on a communal farm in Austin, Texas, where he stayed for ten years and met his future wife, Jeanne. In 2005, Verd and Jeanne started The Organic Gardener Ltd., a company that creates beautiful and productive organic edible gardens throughout the Midwest. Today, Verd lives on a little farm called Middlefork with Jeanne and family. On this episode, Nate traveled to Middlefork to learn all about organic farming and how kids can grow their own food. Learn more about Verd and Jeanne at http://www.theorganicgardener.net/

Manatees are large marine mammals found in shallow coastal waters near Florida, Brazil, and the west coast of Africa. Manatees are occasionally called sea cows, because, like cows, they are slow, peaceful, and graze on plants. Sheri Barton is a Senior Biologist at the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Florida, where she studies these fascinating creatures. On this episode of The Show About Science, Sheri joins Nate to talk about her research.

Did you know that there are tiny microbes that call our bodies home? These microorganisms live on and inside of us. You can even take a test to learn which ones make up your microbiome. Stefan Green is a microbial ecologist who runs the DNA Sequencing Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Stefan joins Nate to talk about what the microbiome is and why these tiny little microbes are so important for our health.

Jesse Schell is a video game designer and a professor of entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also the creator of “Happy Atoms,” a game that helps kids learn how atoms bond to form new molecules. Jesse joins Nate on this episode to talk about how “Happy Atoms” uses technology like augmented reality to teach kids about chemistry.

When organs like kidneys and livers fail, it can be scary—especially for kids. But the science of regenerative medicine, where new organs are created from a patient's own cells and tissue, is a promising new field in medicine. Dr. Anthony Atala is the Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and he joins Nate on this episode to talk about how new organs can be created in the lab using 3D printers.

Last summer, Nate was walking to the train when he spotted a giant wasp carrying a cicada. Later he discovered that the insect he saw was a cicada killer wasp. These insects will paralyze cicadas with their venomous sting, but luckily rarely sting humans. Blake Newton is an entomologist at the University of Kentucky. He joins Nate on this episode of The Show About Science to talk about these fascinating creatures.

David Shoesmith is a professor of electrochemistry and corrosion science at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He joins Nate on this episode of The Show About Science to explain why metal rusts and how it corrodes. They also talk about an experiment that you can conduct at home to see rust form.