Happy Pi Day!

March 14th commemorates everyone's favorite irrational number and mathematical constant. Of course, pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, and this ratio plays an important part in geometry, physics, engineering and more. Read on to see a few ways you can join in the fun — the possibilities are infinite!

Introducing Fringe Puppet Theatre!

We here at Science love Fringe. We also love Red Vines (almost as much as Walter Bishop). So, of course, the next logical step was to merge the two -- and invite all of our Fringe fans to play along.

Introducing Red Vines' Fringe Puppet Theater: we give you the puppets, you grab some Red Vines from the grocery store and then you film your favorite scenes from Fringe. Then you send us a video link and we feature it on our Fringe on Science Channel Facebook page!

Before you get started, you should know we're working on our own video. Actually, we've enlisted the help of one of Fringe's biggest fans, Ian Larson, son of one of Science's employees. He spent all weekend cutting, pasting, and filming his favorite scene from Fringe, Season 1 -- it's the one where the bank robber gets stuck in a wall, dies, and then Walter cuts off his hand. These are photos his mom took of him hard at work.

We'll be featuring his video shortly, but also wanted to give YOU the chance to get in on the fun. You can download, print and cut your puppets from the large picture image below. Then, film away! We'll take all of the submissions (unless they contain foul or inappropriate language) and feature them on Facebook. So start puppeting NOW! 

When you're finished, tweet us a link to your video OR leave us a link in the comments below...you may even receive a little somethin' somethin' from us as a "thank you" gift...hint, hint.

Here's the big image. Simply click the photo. It'll show up in a new window and you can print it for your puppting needs!

Data + Design

So I'm a bit of a design geek. And there's a boatload (scientific term) of great infographic stuff out there in the world just now. I stumbled on to this site a little while ago and thought it would be worth a post here.

This is part of the Data + Design Project that Visual News has been gathering up/working on... a lot of fun (and smart) stuff for your walls... click here for the latest salvo.

 

A Future with Superhumans

Fun with simple animation and interviews!

The same folks who brought you How to Survive a Robot Uprising present the latest thoughts from New York Times best-selling author (and Robotics PHD) Daniel H. Wilson.

Enjoy the distraction while your brain will still permit it.

 

To our 500,000 SCIENCE Fans: We made this video for you!

 It's not every day we reach a big social media milestone. So, in honor of reaching 500,000 Twitter followers today, we made this video. It's filled with 10 of our inside jokes (your likes and dislikes) that we hear about most on our social media platforms. Enjoy!

 

 

And if you're not already following us on Twitter you can click here. If you're not already following us on Facebook, click here.

 

I Heart Guts

I ran in to these guys this past weekend at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in downtown DC. Hilariously awesome.

Anyone who can make a pancreas look playful and/or cuddly is a winner in my book...

SCIENCE Staffers Do DC

This post was written by SCIENCE Project Manager Laurie Haughey.

Faster than you can say house made Limoncello, the entire Science staff left a day and a half of brainstorming brilliance to head for the Hill...Capitol Hill. Studies show play is as important to our physical and mental health as getting enough sleep, eating well, and exercising. So passing right over that sleep component, we went directly to eating well and exercise.

Welcome to the First Annual Competitive Culinary Capitol Hill Science Channel Adventure. Our Culinary guides met us at the top of the Eastern Market Metro Escalator and proceeded to take us on a walking historical tour of Capitol Hill jammed packed with fascinating facts. Did you know there have been 8 other United States Capitals, including York, Pennsylvania? That there was once 21 family farms on Capitol Hill? And who knew there is only one working gargoyle in all of Capitol Hill?

Divided into three teams, we competed to see who was paying the most attention and which team was most observant, as we made our way to three different restaurants. The Geeky Spods were first to spot carriage step. Mother Finnegan's All Star Band found the ghost mural and The Merry Morphs...well they laughed a lot.

By the end of the day, we had feasted on Indian food, Salvadoran and Italian, were completely stuffed AND had discovered the answer to one of life's biggest questions. Does heaven exist? Yes. Yes it does. It's in the form of Tiramisu at Lavagna's.

At Science Channel we believe great ideas come from anywhere. Our two-day onsite/offsite (oddly that actually does make sense) included not only production and development execs, but also assistants, finance, legal and HR. We also consider our viewers an integral part of the SCIENCE creative team. So please keep sending us your ideas.

Einstein said creativity is contagious. Pass it on.

PS: Since I know you Question Everything, the other 7 US Capitals were Philadelphia, Baltimore, Lancaster, Princeton, Annapolis, Trenton and New York.

Asteroid Mining: The Get-Rich-Quick Scheme of the Future (or Today!)

On Tuesday morning, in an event at Seattle's Museum of Flight, there's going to be a little announcement by a company called Planetary Resources that might completely change everything. And I mean everything — the world economy, the balance of power among nations, the very course of human civilization. It conceivably could launch a technological version of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, rolled into one. And it could make at least a few men on Earth almost unimaginably rich — far, far wealthier than anyone has been since the Chinese started using cowrie shells as money 3,200 years ago. What's this all about? Like that guy who advises a young Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, "I just want to say one word to you, just one word...Plastics," I'm going to whisper a magic word in your ear. Actually, two words: Asteroid mining.

Silver & Light

 Yes, this is absolutely a science post. And here's how I'm justifying it:

"This video is all about chemistry, process, experimentation and invention."

But it's also something bigger and much cooler than that. I find it hard not to watch this and think of it almost like a call to arms... for whatever it is you want to make or do or discover. Here's a description of what these guys are up to:

"This project was created with the same spirit that America was founded on. Our intentions are to connect everyone in America through the lens of this camera and social networking sites. We can't do this without you. We want to tell your story and show your city or town through photographs of you, and people you know. As we travel around America looking for people and places to shoot you will be able to keep track of where we are going and help us decide where we go next. Join us in our journey by liking our facebook to get yourself photographed by us."

Check it out (watch it full-screen) and follow the progress via the links below. Enjoy.

twitter.com/#!/silverandlight

facebook.com/pages/Ian-Ruhter-Photography/159583283699

ianruhter.tumblr.com/

Forested Buildings May Save Us from Alien Scrutiny (and Our Own Stupidity)

If you were an extraterrestrial scientist studying planet Earth, the signature achievement of its human inhabitants probably wouldn't be the Great Wall of China or the Pyramids or the Panama Canal. No, the thing that would impress aliens the most would be how, over the past 8,000 years, people have cut down about half of the lush green forests that once covered much of the planet's land mass. The problem is that it probably would impress the aliens as one of the stupidest things they'd ever seen. Forests, after all, provide humans with everything from building materials to medicines, and, perhaps more importantly, serve as massive carbon dioxide filter.

So, perhaps in an effort combat future alien scrutiny, I present to you the hot new architectural trend: green skyscrapers. You may be thinking: "What's the big deal?" But I'm not talking "green" in the figurative, sustainable-building-materials-and-solar-panels-on-the-roof sense. I'm talking literally green -- in that these towering urban high-rises would be filled with trees as well as people. In fact, judging by the looks of some of the designs, there may be more vegetation than human inhabitants.