By Sam Flatow
So, here we are: back to the evolution debate in Texas. It’s kind of upsetting. Just the fact that we are still talking about this issue is upsetting. Just the fact that we are still talking about “still talking about” this issue is upsetting. This argument between theory and fact is upsetting on a personal level because I’m a HUGE fan of theories. The Theory of Relativity is pretty neat, but I’d have to say that Germ Theory and the Atomic Theory are really …

For anyone who doubted whether the new administration would be savvy of the importance of science in America, Obama’s inaugural speech provided a great sense of hope. Ann Marie (the Executive Director of TalkingScience) and I watched the inaugural ceremony with a crowd of women (and even a few men) who packed into The White House Project‘s brunch at Caroline’s comedy club on Broadway.

Virgin Galactic had 10 tickets up for grabs for their future astronauts, and yours truly is one of the lucky recipients of one of them! I feel like I’ve just bitten into a Willie Wonka bar and found a golden ticket. I’ll take lots of photos for TalkingScience Space Cadets, of course.

By Ted Kinsman

Science Photography often takes place outside the light that is visible to the human eye. In this image the light is far infrared. Special cameras lenses involving bizarre materials like Germanium are used.

By Ted Kinsman

I was asked by a medical textbook author to take a few pictures of hollow rattlesnake fangs that were the inspiration for modern medical syringes. Easy to get fresh rattlesnake heads, just call up the biggest supplier of rattlesnake meat. Located in Georgia, the company shipped me several fresh snake heads for a few dollars.

By Ted Kinsman

Many times a research paper will be published that will show a unique scientific experiment. I was reading a technical paper on fluid flow where the research was done with one color light to measure the thickness of the soap film for flow analysis. I modified the experimental setup to use white light, thus showing different thickness of a soap film as different colors.

By Ted Kinsman

For many years, I have photographed perfect snowflakes. I do not live in the best location to photograph snowflakes, since I live near Lake Ontario in New York. Our most common (98% of the time) snow is lake effect. The lake effect snow is a jumble of little fast forming crystals and is as far from photogenic as snow crystals can get.

By Ted Kinsman

While working on the rattlesnake fang project I mentioned to a friend about the snake heads in the freezer. He offered me a full snake! It turns out that if you own a home in the hills outside of Santa Barbara in California you often keep rat traps to help keep the rats out of your house.

This “unconference” was was unbelievably cool. Scientists really do get a bad rap for being geeky, and one could understandably fear that a meeting of science online groupies might wind up being a gathering of socially inept researchers who have an odd twitch, resemble Frankenstein a bit, and blog from dark corners of their labs because no one will talk to them at a bar. Not so!

By Sam Flatow
Medicine is an interesting field. In fact, it seems to be the only field which stays stagnant no matter what scientific advances have been made, and it seems that the exorcism is back.