ing climate change.
Mike Steele – Mike is interested in the large-scale circulation of sea ice and water in the Arctic Ocean and loves making new discoveries that will change the world around us. Focusing on the effects of ice retreat and ocean warming, Mike hopes to answer how much of this is due to currents, and how much is caused by climate change.
Memory: Past Meets Present Sept. 20, 2014-Feb. 16, 2015 What did you do yesterday? What do you remember from last year? What memories guide your decisions and actions today? How do we remember? Why do we forget? Learn all about the science of memory in our exhibit Memory: Past Meets Present. We are able to learn because we are able to remember. We learn abstract facts, we learn new skills, and we learn from experience. Our memory—our memories—make us and shape us. But what have we learned so far about the three-pound organ in our heads that makes this all possible? Come and learn how we have gone from looking at the brain and neurons to looking at chemical and electrical pathways. Then trick your brain with two of our memory demonstrations. Learn how distance changes what you see and what you remember. Then explore how our brains remember faces – can you remember who you saw? This exhibit series is funded by a grant from The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
Exploring Our Solar System With Local NASA Scientists September 2013-Februray 2014 This exhibition features the research of UW’s Erika Harnett and the Space Science Institute’s Josh Bandfield. These researchers’ vastly different work may someday lead to the exploration of Mars. Erika looks at Solar Storms while Josh uses Infrared images to map the moon and Mars. Meet The Scientists Josh Bandfield – “I’ve been interested in science pretty much forever. After high school, I was living with my parents and going to a community college. So here I am, college freshman, and all the classes are full – except geology. And it turned out that geology is pretty much the most awesome thing ever. I realized that the people studying the planets aren’t astronomers, they’re geologists. I finished my geology degree and started an internship doing planetary geology at Arizona State, which led to grad school, which led to the University of Washington and NASA and Mars rover missions and everything else. A lot of my research is basic stuff – there’s a planet out there that’s different than our planet and we have some big basic questions that we’re trying to figure out: What is Mars made of? What is its climate like? Where can we land a rover?” Erika Harnett – “I’ve always been interested in science and space and what’s beyond Earth. When I graduated from high school I wanted to send people to Mars. Towards the end of my physics degree, I got some very bad advice – that I should choose something more practical. After studying hazardous waste containment, I decided to start over. I started my PhD in geophysics and ended up doing computer modeling by accident. I realized that I really, really loved it because I can create any world I want to in my computer. I want to make it safer and easier for humans to explore the solar system. And solar storms are one of the hazards we have to worry about.”
Chemists: Catalysts for Change October 23, 2011 – February 11, 2012 Seattle researchers are doing something really big. The “holy grail” of big in the chemistry realm. And that’s very desirable to most of us since creating less waste, fewer toxins and more energy efficiency in chemicals and fuels is high priority in this savvy, environmentally conscious community. Looking at more efficient, inexpensive and environmentally friendly ways to make chemicals and fuels, this national network of scientists is headquartered at the University of Washington’s Center for Enabling New Technologies through Catalysis (CENTC). What exactly is catalysis? Simply put, it changes how a chemical reaction happens. This process can speed up a reaction, it can make new reactions possible and can allow different starting materials to be used. The chemical that causes these chan