Science Wednesdays: Our Fragile Planet

Sir David Attenborough

In Attenborough’s Life Stories, “Our Fragile Planet”, Sir David Attenborough reflects on the dramatic impact that we have had on the natural world during his lifetime, such as the disappearing rain forests and coral reefs, endangered species such as the blue whale, manatees, sea otters, chimpanzees, and orangutans.

American Experience: Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

In 1957, decades before Steve Jobs dreamed up Apple or Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, a group of eight brilliant young men defected from the Shockley Semiconductor Company in order to start their own transistor business. Their leader was 29-year-old physicist with a brilliant mind and the affability of a born salesman who would co-invent the microchip -- an essential component of nearly all modern electronics today, including computers, motor vehicles, cell phones and household appliances.

Question Your World: What’s the Deal with the Phrase “Sleep on it?”

sleep

You don’t have to be Jerry Seinfeld to ask questions about the sleepier parts of your life. The average human spends nearly a third of their life sleeping! While you’re busy catching z’s, your brain is busy working on other tasks! Everything from healing your body to creating your memory structure happens while you’re off in dream land. Want to know more about sleep - one of the most important parts of your life? Listen to the Science Museum of Virginia’s “Question Your World” Radio report.

Hot Jobs in Nanotechnology

VCU Nanotechnology Lab

This is the first of 2 stories featuring Nanotechnology where we will explore how working small and thinking big can launch new careers. Learn more about the rapidly emerging field of Nanotechnology at VCU in this Science Matters video. Next, we will shadow two High School teachers, Nano Fellows at the MathScience Innovation Center, who are using Nanotechnology to engage and better prepare students for the 21st century workforce.

Science Wednesdays: Understanding the Natural World

Sir David Attenborough

In “Understanding the Natural World,” Sir David Attenborough shares his memories of the scientists and the breakthroughs that helped shape his own career. He also recalls some of his more hair-raising attempts to bring new science to a television audience: standing in the shadow of an erupting volcano as lumps of hot lava crashed around him or being charged by a group of armed New Guinean tribesmen.

Question Your World: What do Looms and Laptops have in Common?

loom and laptop

If you’re reading this you must be using some sort of computer. Most of us have an idea about the origins of our modern computer units, but sometimes explaining the lineage of these machines leads only up to the first design. The big question is - how did we get all the way to a computing machine? We could not have gone from fire or the wheel straight to iTunes, right? What’s responsible for the giant leaps and bounds in technology that make our life what it is today? The process of science, that’s how! Watch the Science Museum of Virginia's "Question Your World" video to learn more about how we got from the Loom to the Laptop.

Science Wednesdays: Rise of the Drones

NOVA Rise of the Drones

Drones. These unmanned flying robots—some as large as jumbo jets, others as small as birds—do things straight out of science fiction. Much of what it takes to get these robotic airplanes to fly, sense, and kill has remained secret. But now, with rare access to drone engineers and those who fly them for the U.S. military, NOVA reveals the amazing technologies that make drones so powerful as we see how a remotely-piloted drone strike looks and feels from inside the command center.

DNA: A ‘New’ Crime-solving Molecule?

Justice and DNA

Anyone who has ever watched “Law and Order” or “CSI” knows: obtaining and analyzing DNA evidence features prominently in many of its fictional criminal cases. But leaving such TV dramatizations aside, over the last two decades, DNA evidence has come to play an increasingly routine and important role in the U.S. law enforcement and justice systems. Technological innovations within science and social policy have both played a role in this process. 

Question Your World: New York to Tokyo in 45 Minutes?

Lynx Orbital Craft

So, who’s up for grabbing lunch in Tokyo today?

Yes, Tokyo, Japan. Well, today this may not be a possibility, but scientists are working on new plane designs that could make this lunch date a distinct possibility. XCOR, a rocket engineering firm, has announced the design of a new suborbital plane called the Lynx. This vehicle would be able to take passengers from New York City to Tokyo in just 45 minutes. Pretty amazing, right? This plane would launch into the sky and reach about 60 miles above the Earth’s surface. This would place the passenger above almost all of our atmosphere. Listen to the Science Museum of Virginia’s latest Question Your World Radio Report below to learn more.

Science Wednesdays: Ice Age Death Trap

mastodons

In the Rocky Mountains, archeologists uncover a unique fossil site packed with astonishingly well-preserved bones of mammoths, mastodons, and other giant extinct beasts. The discovery opens a highly focused window on the vanished world of the Ice Age in North America.

One hundred thousand years ago, on planet Earth, huge sheets of ice surge and retreat. Now, a stunning find in an ancient lake promises a glimpse into this exotic Ice Age realm and at the fantastic creatures that ruled the land: ancient elephants like mammoths and mastodons; giant bison; sloths and camels.