#science-communication

#science-communication

The problem of how migrating birds and homing pigeons navigate still remains unsolved in spite of intensive research efforts in the past few years. Over twenty years ago, Gustav Kramer suggested that in order to fly from an unfamiliar place to a geographically distant home site, a bird would need information analogous to a map (on which to read its own position and that of home), and a compass (to choose the appropriate direction indicated by the map). It is now well established that both migrating song birds and homing pigeons (on which much of the experimental work is done) have up to three types of compass-based on the Sun's azimuth, star patterns and the resultant of the Earth's magnetic field , but the nature of the map remains elusive ... [T]he big remaining mystery surrounding the magnetic compass, is how the bird's sensory system detects the Earth's magnetic field.

Like many people in this field, I've been fascinated since I was a kid. I think I was five or six when my parents gave me this massive book with a black cover and pictures of the planets. It was like an atlas of the Solar System. I remember being mesmerized by Jupiter and its moons. I'd stare at the page and memorize the masses and radii, then rush outside with my little telescope to find Saturn or Jupiter.

Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina became one of the deadliest storms ever to hit the U.S. After sweeping along the Gulf Coast, wreaking havoc in Louisiana and Mississippi, the massive storm ultimately led to 1,392 fatalities, according to the National Hurricane Center. Katrina's destruction centered on the city of New Orleans, where failing levees and floodwalls left most of the city underwater and displaced nearly all of its residents, some of them permanently.

NASA is really interested in how our bodies react to long-duration space flight. So, we do a lot of tests, such as measuring our blood pressure or seeing what our organs are doing with ultrasound.

The disconnect between importance and attention in American culture presents a significant challenge for the STEM community, highlighting the need for engaging narratives.