The Story Collider

A Japanese particle physicist struggles to find his place (and learn English) in the American midwest. Teppei Katori is an experimental particle physicist and a lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. His major interest is neutrino physics, especially neutrino interaction measurements on nuclear targets, and tests of space-time symmetry with neutrinos. Currently he works on two neutrino projects: the T2K experiment in Japan, and the IceCube experiment in Antarctica. He is native Japanese, and went to Indiana University for his PhD, then worked as an MIT scientist at Fermilab, near Chicago, USA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Rennie finds it’s great to be editor in chief of Scientific American, but not when all the ingredients of sarin gas are in his office. John Rennie is a science writer, editor, and lecturer based in New York. Viewers of The Weather Channel know him as the host of the original series Hacking The Planet and co-host of the hit special The Truth About Twisters. He is also the editorial director of science for McGraw-Hill Education, overseeing its highly respected AccessScience online reference and the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology. Rennie served as editor in chief of Scientific American (including the monthly magazine, Scientific American Mind, ScientificAmerican.com and other publications) between 1994 and 2009. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a mathematician, Adriana Salerno is used to solving problems, but depression is something else entirely. Adriana Salerno is originally from Caracas, Venezuela, where she received her undergraduate degree in mathematics from the Universidad Simon Bolivar in 2001. The following year she started graduate school in the Mathematics Department at the University of Texas, where she received her Ph.D. in 2009. In the summer of 2007, Adriana was the AMS-AAAS Mass Media Fellow. She worked at Voice of America for ten weeks under the sponsorship of the AMS and filed several stories about mathematics. She joined Bates College in 2009. Her research interests are number theory and arithmetic geometry and she is also interested in communicating mathematics to the general public. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just after beginning a graduate program in neuroscience, Brittany Bushnell gets an unexpected look at her own brain. Brittany Bushnell has a BS in psychology from the University of Washington, and is currently working on her PhD in neuroscience at New York University. She is currently studying the neural basis of amblyopia -- a developmental disorder of the visual system. Outside of work, she takes aerial circus classes and grew up racing BMX bikes with her family. She lives in NYC with her husband Maurice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A chemistry set is the perfect opportunity for Nate Charles Troisi to connect with his engineer father. Nate Charles Troisi is an award winning storyteller and solo performer originally based in Melbourne, Australia and now based in NYC. He's written and directed films and plays, is part of the Australian sketch group 'Middle Brow' and even released an album as 50% of Australian hip-hop group 'Arty Bucco'. He's currently working on his next solo show 'Take Care', which will premiere in New Orleans later this year, and then travel over the pacific back towards his Mother country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When reporters call to cover David Moinina Sengeh's work, that should be a good thing, but it depends on what story they want to tell. David Moinina Sengeh, born and raised in Sierra Leone, is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Media Lab. His research in the Biomechatronics Group is at the intersection of medical imaging, material science, human anatomy, computer-aided design and manufacturing. David is on Forbes 30 Under 30 in Technology for 2013, a 2014 TED Fellow, on the Wired Smart List 2013, winner of the Lemelson-MIT National Collegiate Student Prize, and other awards. David is a cofounder of Global Minimum Inc. (GMin), an NGO that aims to break the cycle of dependence on foreign aid by empowering young inventors to develop tangible solutions to challenges, as well as creative endeavors like his own custom clothing line and making rap music that draws youth towards creativity and away from drugs and gangsterism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tara Lagu's passion for beating her high school rival in the science fair turns into an unusual medical career. Tara Lagu, M.D., M.P.H, is an Academic Hospitalist in the Center for Quality of Care Research and Department of Medicine at Baystate Medical Center and an Assistant Professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine. After graduating with her MD/MPH from the Yale University School of Medicine, she completed a General Internal Medicine Residency at Brown. From 2005-2008, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, where she developed her research interest in the quality of health care in the United States. Currently, her work is focused on improving quality and reducing costs of health care in the United States and, in particular, improving access to care for patients with disabilities. She spends much of her free time thinking about, growing, talking about, taking pictures of, and eating heirloom tomatoes. Her favorite variety is Cherokee Purple. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A surprise email leads a biologist to NASA. Dr Karen James (@kejames on Twitter) is a biologist at the MDI Biological Laboratory, where she combines DNA-based species identification ('DNA barcoding'), with public participation in scientific research ('citizen science') to meet environmental research, conservation, and management needs. She is a co-founder and director of The HMS Beagle Project, a UK charity that aims to retrace the Voyage of the Beagle aboard a tall ship in support of science education and outreach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Erica Ferencik's father left his family to pursue his obsession with finding monogamy in the animal kingdom. Award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and essayist Erica Ferencik is the author of the comic novel, Cracks in the Foundation and the best-selling collection of essays, Hot, Naked and Awake: Notes From the Burning Edge of Menopause. Her newest collection of essays, A Natural History of Boys, is due out in November of this year. Ferencik's novel, Repeaters, a paranormal thriller about reincarnation, has been optioned for film. Her work has been featured in Salon, the Boston Globe and on National Public Radio. More information is available at www.ericaferencik.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

George Church learns a lesson on the power of nature the hard way. George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Director of NIH Center for Excellence in Genomic Studies, and Director of PersonalGenomes.org, which provides the world's only open-access information on human genomic, environmental, and trait data. His 1984 Harvard PhD included the first methods for direct genome sequencing, molecular multiplexing, and barcoding. His innovations have contributed to nearly all "next generation" genome sequencing methods and companies. He has also pioneered new privacy, biosafety, environmental, and biosecurity policies. His honors include election to NAS, NAE, and Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science. He has coauthored 370 papers, 60 patents, and one book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Professor John Dimandja is confused when his class begins snickering on the first day -- until he realizes it's because they weren't expecting him to be black. John Dimandja is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Spelman College. A native of Oxford, Ohio, John grew up in the US, Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo. His professional career includes work as an analytical chemist at the NASA/Ames Research Center and the CDC prior to joining Spelman in 2002. An internationally recognized leader in the field of multidimensional gas chromatography, John has given over 250 lectures around the world in the past 20 years. He enjoys cooking and travelling with his wife Ann, playing the piano (poorly) and golfing, now that his basketball days are over. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Early in her career researching dolphin intelligence Diana Reiss began wondering, "Who is training who?" Diana Reiss, a cognitive psychologist and a marine mammal scientist, is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Dr. Reiss's research focuses on dolphin cognition, communication, comparative animal cognition, and the evolution of intelligence. Much of her work has investigated vocal communication and vocal learning in dolphins using observational and experimental approaches. She pioneered the use of underwater keyboards with dolphins to investigate their cognitive and communicative abilities. Dr. Reiss and her colleagues also demonstrated that bottlenose dolphins and an Asian elephants possess the rare ability for mirror self-recognition previously thought to be restricted to humans and great apes. Her advocacy work in conservation and animal welfare includes the protection of dolphins in the tuna-fishing industry and her current efforts to bring an end to the killing of dolphins in the drive hunts in Japan. Dr. Reiss's work has been featured in hundreds of articles in international and national journals, science magazines, television segments and features, and newspaper articles. Her book, The Dolphin in the Mirror: exploring dolphin minds and saving dolphin lives was published in 2011. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At a checkpoint in Iraq, not knowing if she'll get through, Uzma Rizvi reflects on what it means to be an archaeologist. This story was produced as part of the Springer Storytellers series. Hear and read more at www.beforetheabstract.com Uzma Z. Rizvi (PhD 2007, UPenn) is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Urban Studies at Pratt Institute of Art and Design, Brooklyn, where she teaches anthropology, ancient urbanism, critical heritage studies, memory and war/trauma studies and the postcolonial critique. She often finds herself trying to balance the very ancient with the very contemporary, both mediated by material things. An avid collector of experiences and thoughts, Rizvi travels extensively and utilizes those experiences to inform her research about past societies. Currently she is writing about crafting resonance in the ancient world, and is contending with the global heritage of epistemic laziness. A longtime resident of Brooklyn, she loves walking to work, and lives with her young daughter and husband. Their house is covered with books and shoes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For physicist Brian Wecht, his new baby is the perfect opportunity--to do experiments. Brian Wecht studies theoretical particle physics and string theory and is the co-founder of The Story Collider. Additionally, he is half of the musical sketch duo Ninja Sex Party, in which he wears a ninja costume, remains silent, and plays the piano. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ecologist Jessica Henkel finds the keys to her research truck missing, as it's parked on a remote beach with one of the biggest tides of the season about to come in. Jessica is a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the National Academy of Sciences and a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University. She has a B.A. in English from Stony Brook University and a M.S. in Conservation Biology from the University of New Orleans. Jessica is interested in how environmental and anthropogenic change and habitat degradation are impacting the coastal habitats of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and the communities that rely on them. Her dissertation research investigates the migration ecology and physiology of near-arctic breeding shorebirds that stopover in coastal habitats on the Gulf of Mexico. When not wearing mud boots or waders, Jessica can be found advocating for coastal issues or marching in the Mardi Gras parades of her adopted city of New Orleans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices