The Art of Communication

Written by Sarah Treadwell – BMSIS Science Communication and Education Affiliate. Shock rippled through the space community this past February 6th when it was announced that JPL would be letting go 530 of its employees. Of course, first my heart goes out to people going through such difficult circumstances. However, upon hearing this news, it gave me reminiscent feelings of a reaction to a similar shocking announcement; occurring just months before I set sail as an on-board communicator on the […]

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Why Space Exploration Matters

By Sarah Treadwell – BMSIS Science Writer Recently, several aerospace companies and billionaires have sent their own rockets up to space. The debates started before lift off… What is the definition of astronaut? What counts as “going to space”? The conversations were fast and furious, with many expressing frustration of billionaires using their money on what seemed as joy rides, rather than spend it on other Earth based causes. With all of the new recent launches, a long standing question […]

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Outreach: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Astronomy

BMSIS Young Scientist Sumeet Kulkami gave a talk at the British Council’s “Cafe Scientifique.” Read his reflections below. I started with a brief history of the development of Artificial intelligence, and highlighted the difference in how a regular computer algorithm works as opposed to a machine learning algorithm, using the popular Towers of Hanoi toy. I also talked about how the development of computing power and AI was best reflected in how they conquered two games: chess and GO respectively. […]

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Outreach: Inspiring the Younger Generation

Blue Marble Space Institute of Science Young Scientist Participants at NASA Ames, Genesis Berlanga and Stephanie Meursing, conducted an outreach workshop with four and five-year-old students at Stanford Madera Grove Childcare Center which was facilitated by their instructor, Vanya Chandra. We spoke about planetary science, geology, our X-ray diffraction work, and spectroscopy work at NASA, in support of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover and the CheMin instrument. The activity included talking about rocks, rover instruments, and passing around various […]

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Outreach: Society lives by faith and develops by science

BMSIS Young Scientist Grishma Gupte led an outreach event at the University of Mumbai, India. The Young Scientist Program (YSP) of BMSIS gave me the opportunity to promote science in the society. On 25th February, 2018 I conducted an outreach event for students of a certificate course in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Mumbai. The topic of my presentation was Astrobiology, and it consisted of various aspects ranging from the basic definition of life to exoplanets. I always […]

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Outreach: Wikipedia ‘Hackathon’

Omer Markovitch, BMSIS scientist, recently organized a Wikipedia hackathon event and shares his reflections below: “Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia” is a major source of knowledge. As it is often used by both specialists and non-specialists as an initial source of information, we recently held an informal Wikipedia meeting talking about its place in the scientific community and how we can contribute. Members of the Otto’s research group from the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry at the University of Groningen, The Nethelands, […]

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Outreach: Building Spaceships in Red Hook

BMSIS Young Scientist Liz Miller led an outreach event at the Red Hook Public Library in Red Hook, New York. Beginning with a scale model of the solar system, the children built spaceships with the idea of trying to reach different planets. The activity culminated with a competition to see how far they could “fly” their spaceships. This combination of arts, engineering, and science helped teach about the solar system and space travel. Liz’s engagement was part of her communications […]

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Bringing a Taste of NASA to Marjorie H. Tobias Elementary School

BMSIS Young Scientist Christina Cheung led an outreach event at Marjorie H. Tobias Elementary School in Daly City, California. Christina’s engagement was part of her Communications requirements for the BMSIS Young Scientist Program. BMSIS is continuously committed to engaging the public in the wonders of Space Exploration and the Earth System. Our Young Scientist Program continues this tradition by engaging local communities around the world. Read Christina’s impressions below: Being a part of the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, […]

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Christina Cheung Selected as NASA Outreach Lead

Young Scientist Christina Cheung is now serving as the Space Biosciences Outreach Lead at the NASA Ames Research Center. She is ramping into this duty slowly, as her primary duties for the next few weeks will be supporting the Fruit Fly Lab-2 experiment which is due to launch on SpaceX-11 in mid-May. Following this mission, she will be working half time on Fruit Fly Lab and half time as the Outreach Lead. Christina Cheung received her Bachelor of Science degree […]

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Outreach: Life Beyond Earth?

BMSIS Young Scientist Fernando Barazzetti led an outreach event at Getulio Vargas School in Florianopolis, Brazil. Fernando’s engagement was part of his Communications requirements for the BMSIS Young Scientist Program. BMSIS is continuously committed to engaging the public in the wonders of Space Exploration and the Earth System. Our Young Scientist Program continues this tradition by engaging local communities around the world. Read Fernando’s impressions below: As part of the requirements for graduating in BMSIS, I took a bit of […]

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