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Science of TRON

Listen to audio from the "Science of TRON" panel, featuring director Joe Kosinski, producer Sean Bailey, and science consultants Sean Carroll & John Dick. Learn More

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Science on Tap: Time Travel

Posted by The Exchange on 01/18/2012 | 0 comments

“You think that the past is fixed and the future is up for grabs, but as far as the laws of physics are concerned they are equally real,” said Caltech’s Sean Carroll with a mischievous grin that seemed to suggest that he could actually see every brain in the room processing his words, accelerating to keep up.

On January 11, The Science & Entertainment Exchange held the second installment of its ongoing series Science on Tap at the Formosa Café in West Hollywood. The latest topic: From Eternity to Here: Time Travel for Beginners. Professor Sean Carroll wowed as the night’s one and only speaker in an interactive banter over beer on the nature of time, spaghettification (as a technical term), and why time travel is absolutely possible – in fact we do it every day … slowly forward.

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Environmentalism for Kids: The Lorax Hits Theaters in March 2012

Posted by The Exchange on 01/05/2012 | 0 comments

On March 3, 2012, Dr. Seuss’s famed book The Lorax will come to the big screen. The trailer, released a couple weeks ago, gives a glimpse into the expanded adaptation. The film version of The Lorax follows Ted, a young boy on a mission to find a living tree for the girl he likes. It is a journey that leads him to the Once-ler (and some trouble with Thneedville’s villainous owner). The trailer opens up Thneedville to show residents pumping plastic bushes and driving large one-wheeled SUVs, not to mention the barren treeless landscape outside the town’s walls.

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Time Flies: The Psychology of Time

Posted by The Exchange on 12/30/2011 | 0 comments

It’s almost time for another year to roll around, and with the New Year right around the corner, this is a great time to talk about time. Maybe 2011 went by in a flash for you or maybe it dragged on slowly – but have you ever stopped to wonder why time can feel as though it’s sped up or slowed down? 

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The Exchange December Update: Look What We've Been Up To!

Posted by The Exchange on 12/29/2011 | 0 comments

Don't miss our updates! Sign up to receive The Exchange's newsletters by entering your e-mail address in the sign up form, located on the top right of the website!
 

The season of giving is upon us, and in the spirit of the holidays we would like to thank our volunteer consultants who give their knowledge and time to The Exchange. As screenwriter Samantha Corbin-Miller put it:

The Exchange has proven to be an invaluable resource for me as a writer. I am constantly blown away by their ability to find knowledgeable, engaging medical professionals who are willing to take time out from their life-saving work to help make my scripts more authentic and accurate.

- Samantha Corbin-Miller, Writer/Producer

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Creative Science

Posted by The Exchange on 12/22/2011 | 0 comments

Imagine you’ve been working on a problem for days, maybe even weeks, but you can’t seem to figure it out. Your brain is working over solutions constantly but you feel stumped. So, you take a break. You walk down the street to the nearest coffee shop but as you’re walking home, sipping your drink and watching cars drive by, the solution rushes into your brain. That’s it!

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Holiday Gift Guide for Science-Lovers

Posted by The Exchange on 12/21/2011 | 1 comment

It’s that time of year again, and if you’re scratching your head without a clue as to what to get that science-loving person on your list, have no fear! The Exchange has rounded up some gift ideas perfect for that chemistry student, physics professor, or your favorite science consultant (hint, hint). This year, The Exchange staff will be rocking “Stand Back, I’m Going to Try Science” t-shirts, trimming our office space with Petri dish ornaments and sipping hot cocoa out of a caffeine molecule mug. From mathematicians to physicists, we’ve got a gift idea for everyone. Plus, if you're in the Washington, DC area, you can stop by the National Academies bookstore for an Einstein finger puppet or virus necktie! Let us know which science-themed gift you’d love to get this holiday season in the comments!

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Memories: It’s All in Your Head

Posted by The Exchange on 12/16/2011 | 0 comments

Memories are consolidated from short-term to long-term in the hippocampus.Forgetting is as simple as walking through a doorway – that is the finding of a new study that experimented with memories and ways to walk through a home. Researchers asked participants to complete a simple task (exchanging one object for another) in either the same room or by walking through a doorway to another room. The result: people asked to complete the task in the other room were two to three times more likely to forget what they were supposed to do.

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Light-Up Neurons Are Fireworks in Your Brain

Posted by The Exchange on 12/08/2011 | 0 comments

File this under “science we’d love to see onscreen.” Researchers at Harvard University genetically altered neurons to light up as they fire. Imagine, for a minute, your brain covered in bursts of light, like a fireworks show under your skull. 

The researchers altered brain cells with a virus containing a gene from a Dead Sea organism. The gene produces a protein that, when exposed to an electrical signal, fluoresces. The virus introduces the gene to the brain cells, which are cultured in a lab, causing the cells to produce the protein, which lights up as the neurons fire.

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Scientific Movement: The Art of Science and Dance

Posted by The Exchange on 12/07/2011 | 0 comments

It is time to put your dancing shoes on, get on the dance floor, and pretend to be a hydrogen atom. Or would you rather be a carbon atom? Those were the two choices at the 1939 American Chemical Society meeting in Baltimore where a group of Maryland chemists decided to stage a “chemical ballet.” The performance told the story of a scientist who tries to synthesize radioactive benzene from acetylene with the aid of an atom-smasher complete with four hydrogen atom dancers, two carbon atom dancers, and the dance of ethyl alcohol. You cannot deny the allure of dancing atoms, which is perhaps why science and dance tend to collaborate. 

"The Matter of Origins" performed by Dance Exchange.

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Gaming for Science Solutions

Posted by The Exchange on 11/30/2011 | 0 comments

Gamers, we have a solution for anyone who nags you about the hours you spend glued to your computer or TV screen. Just tell them, “It’s for science!” Okay, maybe that tactic is far-fetched for World of Warcraft or Call of Duty, but if you are playing Foldit, an online game where players compete to build protein structures, you might be legitimately contributing to science.

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