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 …
My colleagues in the Cal Academy's Digitization Team, Anne and Codie, have graciously scanned these beautiful images of coffee beans for me , using our fancy GigaMacro super high-resolution camera system (which I'm calling "Maggie" from now forward.) This was a test to show how the public can get a better understanding of the various …
One of the important responsibilities we have at the California Academy of Sciences is archiving the vast treasury of scientific specimens that we maintain, over 45 million specimens at last count. Much of those collections remain hidden behind well protected walls and shelves, inaccessible to the general public, and only available by special arrangement to …
Before he was one of the best San Francisco Giants of all time, which Hall of Famer was one of the best players in the Negro League? What waterfall in Soma is dedicated to a civil rights leader? What church in SF is named after a jazz legend? Think you know the answers? Here's an …
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 …
I'm excited to announce that the application is now open for teen programs at the California Academy of Sciences. So if you are a Bay Area teen or you know one, have them check out all the awesome programs we have available, including: Teen Science Game Jam: A one-day game design challenge happening on Sunday April …
On Saturday the California Academy of Sciences hosted a successful “nature hacking” playshop on Saturday with Mitch Altman (pictured above) of the SF hacker space Noisebridge! Fourteen awesome teens engaged in fun electronics hacking using the Arduino micro controller, LEDs, transistors, sensors, motors, and more. Mitch gave a quick and entertaining introduction to electronics and computing …
I'm incredibly excited to share the news that this April, I will be participating in the California Academy of Sciences' 2015 research expedition to the Philippines. I will be there as part of the educational outreach team on the trip, documenting what our researchers are doing there, connecting with local educators, and sending reports and …
Geocaching is one of those nerdy activities I have been hearing about for years, but never really tried. Last week, we were doing a staff retreat involving exploring a nearby neighborhood, which included a geocache component. I took that as my chance to finally give geocaching a go. I did only a few of the …