Showing results for "The Media Book" in Science & Technology

Discover some of the many contributions women, people of color, immigrants, and people with disabilities made to space exploration. From an engineer in the control room to a mission specialist that went on four space flights, these heroes are transforming how we think of space.

Tech is everywhere! Learn more about the innovators who created the technology world. These innovators are women, people of color, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community who are ready to be recognized.

In the past and present, Black people have developed new products and created new processes in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Their work has addressed problems such as medical and healthcare inequality and the negative impacts of climate change. Celebrate the people who have made great achievements in STEM, including PlayVS founder Delane Parnell, astronaut, doctor, and engineer Mae Jemison, and environmental justice leader Peggy Shephard.

Sloths spend most of their lives in trees, and until recently, scientists didn’t know very much about them. But Dr. Rebecca Cliffe was determined to discover their secrets. To find out more, she fitted sloths with special backpacks containing a device to track their activity. She learned how to climb trees in the Costa Rican jungle so she could take sloth hair samples and test their DNA. And she’s helped create sloth crossings and plant trees to ensure the sloths aren’t trapped in shrinking territories. Along the way, she earned the nickname Dr. Sloth.

Have you ever dreamed of going to outer space? When Sally Ride was a little girl, she watched on TV as astronaut John Glenn launched into space. Twenty years later, she became the first American woman to go to space. Ride had loved science since she was young. Some of her teachers thought she was wasting her time studying science, but she went on to earn her PhD in astrophysics anyway. When NASA's astronaut training program opened to women, Ride quickly applied. Some people thought women couldn't handle space flight. But Ride worked hard and proved them all wrong.

Do you like to gaze at the stars? So did the young Stephen Hawking. Eventually, he turned his fascination with the night sky into a career of trying to figure out how the universe began and how it works. As a child, Hawking loved the stars and he loved math class. In college, he studied physics and cosmology, or how the universe came to be. But then he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease that shuts down the nerves that control muscles.

Have you ever used your imagination to solve a problem? When Albert Einstein was young, he was fascinated by the way magnetism made a compass work. As an adult, he used thought experiments to solve some of the universe's greatest mysteries. Einstein loved to think about math and science. He worked for a while at a patent office, but his mind wasn't focused on inventions. Instead, he thought about the universe. In 1905, Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity solved questions that scientists had grappled with for hundreds of years.

When Minecraft creator Markus Persson was young, he wasn't very interested in the games themselves. He was more interested in the programing instructions in the computer's manual. By the time Persson was eight years old, he was writing code for his own computer games. When he was 18, Persson landed his dream job as a video game programmer. In 2009, he designed Minecraft in a single weekend. In the game, players use blocks to build whatever they choose. Persson wanted to let players use their imaginations, and the idea paid off.

Ernest Everett Just was not like other scientists of his time. He saw the whole, where others saw only parts. He noticed details others failed to see. He persisted in his research despite the discrimination and limitations imposed on him as an African American. His keen observations of sea creatures revealed new insights about egg cells and the origins of life.

Do you think science is fun and exciting? Bill Nye does. In fact, he wanted to become an astronaut, but NASA rejected his applications. Instead, Nye has spent his career helping other people understand science and showing them how cool science can be. Nye went to college to become a mechanical engineer, and he got a job working for an aircraft company. But soon, he began focusing more and more on a career in comedy. Eventually, he got his own popular TV show called Bill Nye the Science Guy.