Working at the Cal Academy, I have spent a good amount of time in our aquarium, particularly our main setpiece, the giant Philippines coral tank. I must admit I have wondered if the sheer diversity and density of life in our tank actually represents what you would encounter here in the Philippines. Having done several dives …
I'm excited to finally be able to share the news about a new podcast I will be co-producing called "Object Oriented: Digital Learning in Collections-based Museums." I am honored to be co-hosting the podcast along with my friends Barry Joseph, head of digital learning at the American Museum of Natural History, and Eve Gaus, head …
The Hyperlapse app seems pretty cool. But the latest iOS already includes a timelapse function in the camera. So what’s the big deal? A lot, apparently, as you can see from comparing the two videos of the same subject that I shot with the iOS timelapse function and Hyperlapse, respectively. In this case, I chose to …
A few weeks ago, the Academy's Digitization Team scanned some tiny objects for myself and our TechTeens, using our awesome Gigamacro camera "Maggie." Of course, they have lots more work on their plate starting to produce high resolution images of our 45 million specimens and providing images for our upcoming "Color of Life" exhibit. Check …
A few weeks ago, I learned that the California Academy of Sciences had obtained a pair of Google Glass, Google’s early adopter attempt at creating augmented reality eyewear. Since I’ve done a lot of work and thinking in virtual and augmented reality before, I was pretty excited to get my hands on these glasses. My …
We've got three, adorable baby penguins on display starting today at the California Academy of Sciences. They've been kept in quarantine for a couple of months as we get them ready to be on public display. You can learn more about how we do that in this short video. I got to check out …
The awesome Emily Graslie of the Field Museum of Chicago posted on her Instagram feed this simple but profound statement on the recent vandalism of the Mosul Museum by ISIS: "Imagine if all our display cases – like this one – were empty. As custodians of one of the great natural history museum collections in the world, The Field …
This past weekend I organized staff and volunteers from across my museum to present science to the ~5,500 attendees at the AAAS Family Science Days in San Jose. Family Science Days is an annual two-day showcase for scientists and science that takes places in a different city every year, to coincide with the annual meeting …
Thursday, February 12th marks the three year anniversary of my work leading the Digital Learning efforts at the California Academy of Sciences. It's been an incredible ride so far. I've been fortunate enough to work with an amazing team of educators, tech experts, and scientists at the Cal Academy, starting with my first manager Puja …
Last week's "Science Today" video focuses on a topic near and dear to me : communicating science to the public. There's some great quotes from scientists, educators, and even science comedian Brian Malow on the importance of communicating science in ways that work for modern audiences, whether that be online or in-person. Watch this short …