The Science Pawdcast

Season 5 Episode 27: Dogs for Vets, Smart Rust Technology, and The Eclipse with Dan Schneiderman

• Jason Zackowski • Season 5 • Episode 27

Share episode

Send us a text

Wondering how service dogs help veterans manage PTSD? This week, we're exploring this question, sharing a pioneering study from Canada that is sure to impress. We also have some refreshing news about a brilliant smart rust technology, boasting the potential to wave goodbye to water pollutants such as estrogen.

Be prepared for an enlightening conversation with our special guest, Dan Schneiderman, known for his role as the director of the 2024 eclipse. Dan's passion for the maker culture will captivate you as he recounts tales from his childhood, his knack for tinkering, and his grand plans for a unique workshop for high-schoolers. Listen in, and you'll be inspired by his experiences at RMSC's Maker Space and the tale of his Big Face Box invention. Plus, who wouldn't want to hear about Geek Chic Prom?

But the fun doesn't stop there. As we delve into Dan's personal life, you'll hear the touching story of his Katrina rescue cat, Carla, and the profound impact of his daughter on his hobbies.

So, if you're ready for intriguing science facts, inspiring stories, and a dash of humor, this episode promises to deliver.

Dan's links

https://twitter.com/hiteak
https://www.schneidy.com/

Here is the link for Bark and Beyond!
Bark and Beyond!
(use the code BUNSEN to save 10%)

Bunsen and Beaker Links:

The Ginger Stuffie is on presale so check the link here:

www.bunsenbernerbmd.com

Also use the code BEAKER5 to save FIVE bucks off a Beaker stuffie!

Join The Paw Pack to Support The Show!

https://bunsenbernerbmd.com/pages/paw-pack-plus-community

The Bunsen and Beaker Website has adorable merch with hundreds of different combinations of designs and apparel- all with Printful- one of the highest quality companies we could find!

www.bunsenbernerbmd.com

Sign up for our Weekly Newsletter!

Our Spaces Sponsor: Bark and Beyond Supply

https://barkandbeyondsupply.com/

Bunsen and Beaker on Twitter:

Bunsen and Beaker on TikTok:

Bunsen and Beaker on Facebook

InstaBunsandBeaks



Support the show

For Science, Empathy, and Cuteness!
Being Kind is a Superpower.
https://twitter.com/bunsenbernerbmd

Speaker 2:

Hello science enthusiasts. My name is Jason Zekowski. I'm a high school chemistry teacher and a science communicator, but I'm also the dog dad of Bunsen and Beaker, the science dogs on social media. If you love science and you love pets, you've come to the right place. Put on your lab coat, put on your safety glasses and hold onto your tail. This is the Science Podcast. Hello everybody and welcome back to the Science Podcast. We hope you're happy and healthy out there.

Speaker 2:

Chris and I got back from our latest adventure in the summer. We took a couple days and we went to the Badlands of Alberta. It is wild that about two to three hours east of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta there is like desert. I had forgotten how deserty that part of Alberta is. It's called the Badlands. There are really cool canyons to hike. It's so dry. There's cactus. If you can believe it, cactus grow in Alberta, canada. I know for some of you in drier, warmer climates that's nothing, but it's pretty weird for me to see. We had to watch where the dogs stepped and it got really hot. So we had to be cognizant of how hot Bunsen was getting. So our hikes were early in the morning and then we gave the dogs the afternoon off and we got to go to see the dinosaur museum in a coal mine, and I think Chris might talk about that in the family section.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, what's on the Science Podcast? This week? In Science News we're going to take a look at a fancy molecular magnet that's sucking up stuff in water, or has at least the potential to. It's fascinating. In Pet Science, we are going to look at a study from Canada that asked soldiers with therapy dogs how it was helping them cope with PTSD or substance abuse problems. And our guest and ask an expert is Dan Schneiderman. He's the director of the 2024 eclipse in his area, so he's going to be talking all about this amazing event that is coming next year. So the bad joke this is a witty one. You'll have to. It's a thinker. What day is the eclipse happening? Not sure, either Sunday or Moon Day. Okay, I'm with the show because there's no time like science time.

Speaker 2:

This weekend Science News, let's talk about some potential good news in the area of pollution mitigation. So the headline reads smart rust technology is designed to remove pollutants from water waves. And I was like smart rust, what? And the more I read it, I thought it was actually fascinating. Now this rust in the study was able to pick up estrogen. Now you might think what estrogen? What's that is? Isn't that a hormone that females have? And it's true.

Speaker 2:

Humans produce estrogen, as do all mammals, as do all vertebrates and some insects. If you're wondering where estrogen comes from and how it gets to the water, the number one culprit is, like human and animal waste. Estrogen is naturally produced by us and livestock and even our pets, and when that excretions, when our excretions, get into groundwater, that those hormones can go there too, and most of that comes from wastewater discharge or livestock farming. You also may have some drugs. There are some drugs that may leach estrogen into wastewater discharge, and those are different hormonal drug, the other thing that I personally looked a little bit into because I knew that having hormones in the water is probably not great for the things that live in the water. Lots of estrogen, so, like excess estrogen in the water. It disrupts their endocrine system that's responsible for regulating their own hormones and their own physiological processes, like how fast they grow, how they reproduce or the metabolism. It can play havoc with their reproduction system or even their genders. You can get skewed gender ratios with having lots and lots and lots of estrogen in the water, and when we test water, there's way more estrogen in it today than there was historically, like many years ago. So having lots of estrogen in the water not necessarily a good thing, definitely not the levels there are today not a natural thing.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so let's get back to the cool science story. Scientists were able to use iron oxide rust and coat it with a proprietary sticky molecule, and that sticky molecules whole job is to capture hormones like estrogen. Another question might be why rust? Well, here's the genius part of this. If you've got rust with sticky molecules and it's got sticky stickied estrogen to it, how do you get that out of water? Well, you can use a magnet. A magnet can be used to remove the particles that are trapped within the rust and the sticky molecule from water samples.

Speaker 2:

The idea and the hope is that these nanoparticles can clean environmental pollutants and offer a solution for the estrogen pollution. These specific nanoparticles in the study are designed to specifically target and capture estrogen molecules alone, but they did say that just by changing a little bit of what the nanoparticles may bind to, you can start to scoop up a bunch of different types of hormones. This was done in the lab under very small quantities. We're not talking about they're cleaning up a lake, a river or even the ocean. They're studying as a feasible did it work? And the next couple tests are going to be in real waterways with real waterway samples. That's going to throw in everything that you would find in real water. So with these nanoparticles, mess up little live creatures that are swimming around in the water like tiny microscopic organisms or zooplankton or something like that. Anyways, I thought it was really cool that they have a sticky molecule like a sticky hand. Anybody have a sticky hand when they're a little. I love sticky hands and the sticky hand gubified estrogen pollution and they just use the magnet to scoop it out of the water. Very cool. I'm going to keep my eye on this in the next couple of years to see what happens as they move this from the lab to the real world.

Speaker 2:

Pet science news for this week. This week in pet science we're going to be talking about a study done in Canada that looked at veterans and their service dogs. I feel like a broken record where I keep saying that every week there's some study or there's some new evidence that shows pets really help nearly everything. My enthusiasm is always. It's tempered a bit by some other scientists that say, well, the good news articles, the good science always makes it to me through the, you know, like getting tagged, or in science websites. There are some studies that show that some sometimes, when they look at pets with people who have various emotional disorders or are lonely, it doesn't seem to help them at all. So I saw this and I was like oh, I wonder what the conclusion of this study is.

Speaker 2:

First off, the reason why the researchers did this study is that they conceded there's very little knowledge about how veterans experienced their life with their service dog, and that's in relation to recovery from substance abuse. It isn't something that's great to talk about, but a lot of veterans, from what they've had to go through in service to their countries with the military, they develop PTSD and some do develop substance abuse problems because of that. I don't have PTSD. I've talked to people with PTSD and it's not something you would wish on your worst enemy. So, however, they're trying to get the through, the day is not me or mine to judge. So let's take a look at what the study found with service dogs and their people.

Speaker 2:

The study was based on a conversation in fairly structured interviews with Canadian veterans living with PTSD and using service dogs to help them with their recovery or in the process of getting recovery from substance abuse. They looked at four dimensions of recovery in the study community, home, health and purpose. This is the substance abuse and mental health services administrations for dimensions of how you are getting through either seeking help or the recovery process of addiction. Now in the survey they were talking to the veterans of their feelings, so this is based more on the conversation than hard data how they perceive the surface dog either helping, not helping or being kind of a neutral tool to their recovery.

Speaker 2:

The wholesome thing is the veterans saw service dogs as critical support. That is the highest level of support. It's right up there with a sponsor, somebody human in your corner that's cheering you on and keeping you accountable. They perceived the service dog as crucial in all of four dimensions. In these interviews the veterans said they established a very strong bond with their service dog and because of that they had better social capital within their community. They felt more comfortable and confident going into their community than before. A lot of them said they felt safer and more at ease in public spaces. Folks with PTSD can be triggered by sounds or movement. That gets them into that flight or flight response. And having the service dog with them encouraged them to be more active outside their homes and that allowed them to have more connection and connection. Community is the first pillar of that dimensional recovery matrix in the realm of substance abuse.

Speaker 2:

How did the service dogs help their veteran? The veterans outlined a bunch of ways that they were helping. They helped with their physical health, their mental health, their emotional health and, probably most important of all, as a sense of purpose that they had to get up for their service dog. They had to. Their service dog was they didn't want to let their service dog down. I don't want, I would never want to let Bunsen or Beaker down. That's, that's a sense of purpose. My purpose is to do the thing get better. Maybe in the case of these, these veterans, there were some challenges, but they weren't what you think they weren't. The service dog itself wasn't a problem. It was the legislation in their community that caused them to have a sense of disconnection, meaning that they couldn't take their service dog everywhere, or they went somewhere and they were told to leave because of their dog. That really harmed their connection to the community. The conclusion of the study is that veterans reported multiple ways that their service dog supported their life in recovery. That's huge. They just wish there was a little bit more public education and to just ensure that their benefits are fully acknowledged. So if you see somebody with a dog and they're maybe with a dog where dogs aren't normally supposed to go I think we should probably give them the benefit of the doubt. They could be one of these veterans with their service dog.

Speaker 2:

That's Pet Science for this week. Hey everybody, before we get to the interview section, here's a couple of ways you can help the science podcast out. Number one if you're on any place that rates podcasts, give us a great rating. Tell your friends and share it with people who love science and pets like teachers. Number two think about signing up as a member of the Paw Pack. It allows you to connect with people who love our show and it's a way to keep the show free. Number three check out our merch store. We have the Bunsen Stuffie 2.0. There's still some beaker stuffies left that they're adorable as well Warm, cuddly clothes and adorable drinkware. The link is in the show notes. Now on to the interview. It's time for Ask an Expert on the Science Podcast, and I have Dan Schneiderman with me today, who is a Eclipse partnership coordinator. Dan, how are you Pretty good? Thanks for having me, nice. Where are you in the world? Where are you calling into the show from?

Speaker 4:

I'm calling him from Rochester, new York.

Speaker 2:

Oh cool, all right Now. Have you lived there your whole life, or have you moved around the world and then wound up in Rochester, new York?

Speaker 4:

I have been here most of my life, with the exception of living in New York City for two years after college. I grew up here and went to college here, moved away, came back.

Speaker 2:

You lived in New York City for two years. How was that?

Speaker 4:

Loved it a bit stressful. I actually worked in the tech startup industry out there for a little bit. It was something I had to do, at least once. I still have a lot of good friends there. I've been lucky enough to visit even in the last couple of months, and a lot of my walking habits come back. I make sure to hit up some of my old favorite places to eat.

Speaker 2:

Tell me, Dan, I have to know. I've been to New York City once in my entire life with my wife and it was still one of my favorite trips I've ever been on. Tell us one place that's a great place to eat.

Speaker 4:

Einstein's deli, which is right by the. Why am I forgetting the name of the building by the Flatiron building. It's like one block over. So good, the deli just breaks apart in your mouth. They never have a bad line. It's not like the Steege jelly, where it's like no, the prices are reasonable, the food's delicious, favorite place.

Speaker 2:

Nice, okay, as I do not know what a deli would serve. Is it like a sandwich place? Yeah, a lot of sandwiches, soups.

Speaker 4:

I think they even have the stereotypical egg cream, which I never ordered. I just remember always seeing it on the menu.

Speaker 2:

Okay, we'll have to check that place out the next time we're there. I was wondering if you could talk to us a little bit about your training in science. Yeah, so.

Speaker 4:

I technically don't have a formal training in science. I went to college for web design and databases, though I did double major in political science with a focus on science within politics and science and history, oh sweet. So I dove a bit down that path. But most of my science background is from informal experiences Growing up at the Science Museum and Planetarium where I now work, which is a head trip of going to a kid to being a staff member there.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's cool.

Speaker 4:

I remember doing a lot of astronomy and looking up at the stars, doing first robotics as a kid. Being very into science just didn't end up going down that path.

Speaker 2:

So, dan, when you were a young kid, were you enamored with science? You said you had a lot of great experiences with science. Were you a little science kid?

Speaker 4:

I was very much a little science kid, a mix of science and engineering. It was a lot of staying up late at night or sneaking out of the house at night, since I've always been a night owl looking up at the stars trying to engineer a lot of different things either out of Lego or out of Kinect. A lot of taking things apart just so many things to take apart. I remember a lot of old VCRs. Thankfully I was given the right materials then.

Speaker 2:

I was going to say how much trouble did you get into Not in trouble for that.

Speaker 4:

In trouble for creating a duct tape creation off of my bedroom wall, which, admittedly, I need to go back to my parents and still fix it.

Speaker 2:

Oh no, it's like took chunks out of the drywall or something.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it's probably only an afternoon to fix, but it's fine. I was lucky enough that my grandfather was. My grandparents were only five minutes away and he was an engineer. We did a lot of side projects. I remember using a soldering iron for the first time around ninth grade. Yeah, then having him take me out to different science events in the region at some of the local colleges, all of that.

Speaker 2:

I love soldering stuff. I build replica costumes for cosplay, I wire in lights and stuff like that. There's something really cool about soldering your own electronics. It's just so neat.

Speaker 4:

It's so enjoyable and you can create so much. I'm curious what you've been working on, as I've been doing some wearables on the side for years. It's been a couple of years since I've really dived in, but one of the workshops that I'm dying to run some year in maybe not next year but the year after that it's like I want to do a hack your problem outfit for high schoolers teaching them, how to make them soldering the coating.

Speaker 4:

We would have to get total permission to add it electronics and modify dresses and suits. But that would be so much fun.

Speaker 2:

It would stick, like some battery packs, in the pockets or under the frilly bits of the dress. Then you have a little raspberry pie or something to run your electronics, and there you go, they've become so accessible.

Speaker 4:

I remember doing some of this. Our local science museum did a geek chic prom back in 2014, 2015. I was just starting to get into wearables and I decided to end up making three interactive masquerade masks. They had all the electronics in it. It had neopixels, and everything's just become so much easier.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome, dan. This brings me. This is a perfect transition to my next question for you. You're big into this whole maker movement. I am there with you. I'm good at a few things, but I understand what a maker is or the maker movement is. But I was wondering if you could explain that to our listeners, as you would do it much better than I could.

Speaker 4:

A maker is literally anyone who makes anything and then I usually add in, either modifies anything or takes anything apart. There is someone who likes to dive in and not only follows DIY for do it yourself, but can also follow DIT for do it together. So it's a lot of physically making things or digitally making things, all of that. If you've ever repaired a bike, if you've ever made something in the kitchen, if you played an instrument, I would consider you a maker.

Speaker 2:

No, where you work do you have a maker space? Because our school has a maker space.

Speaker 4:

We do have a maker space at the RMSC at the museum, and it's fairly new. But we have a laser cutter, we have a couple 3D printers, we have some sewing machines, some making makies, some basic electronics. I ran a make-a-thon back in the fall putting together devices and bringing the community to help the visually impaired experience eclipses. Once I saw this space, I'm like, oh, there are so many things I want to do here, and I've been doing maker activities even before I start working at the museum, as I've been running the maker fair here in Rochester since 2014. So I'm about to hit my 10th year. For that, oh congrats. And one of the first ways that I got connected to the community was through the museum, where they invited me to have hands-on activities at a lot of their after-dark events. So there are 21 and older events at the museum for which I will say sometimes an adult with one or two drinks in them is very similar to the dexterity of some younger kids.

Speaker 2:

So, I would design these We've been to a couple after-dark science things. I've been asked to come speak at them or bring Bunsen and Beaker and they are a hoot to see. You know, nobody really goes all out, but you're right, after a couple drinks people are quite friendly, especially with the talks.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I think my favorite experience is I have this thing called a big face box. It's basically a Fresnel lens inside of cardboard box lit up with LEDs on the inside, and you put it over your head and your face looks huge.

Speaker 2:

That's amazing what.

Speaker 4:

And I saw it originally out of Japan, and then I ended up making a whole fleet of them to bring to a whole bunch of different events. And then one time when I headed at one of these after-dark events, I had a whole batch threat party where them and take photos, and I mean I still remember that crew that they were traveling with and just having them laugh.

Speaker 2:

Do you have pictures of this? Do you have?

Speaker 4:

I would die laughing seeing this is such a great idea, not of the best threat party, but I can send you photos of I would love some.

Speaker 2:

I would love some, and then we can use it in social media to plug this episode.

Speaker 4:

These things. I had so much fun. It's actually thanks to some friends on my team. After the pandemic, we were like, okay, we want to start bringing these things back out, but what do we do with them? And after being inspired by what the Imagineers did with Haunted Mansion at Disney, with some of the portraits changing faces, we're like, oh, let's just do mobile portraits. And so we made some frames, put everything into that, and now we still have it accessible.

Speaker 2:

So I think I jumped the gun. Dan, can I ask you a really stupid question? Go right ahead Like what's your job? What do you do? I'm so sorry. It just sounds like you have the coolest job in the world.

Speaker 4:

So my official job at the RMSE is the Eclipse Partnership Coordinator. So all. I do right now is just prepare Rochester, the greater region, New York State and even folks across the path for the entire US and even some of my friends up in Canada, for the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse.

Speaker 2:

All right, let's talk about that. When is it happening? Where do you have to be to see this thing?

Speaker 4:

So it's on April 8th 2024. It's a Monday and, time wise, you have to check out your local location. I know we have totality here in Rochester at about 3.20 pm local time. And there's this massive path that starts all the way down in Mexico. It starts in Mazatlan, it enters Texas, missouri, oklahoma, arkansas, moves its way up through the north Indiana, ohio, new York State, and then it goes into New Hampshire and New Invermont and ends in Montreal or just outside Montreal.

Speaker 2:

No way, you know, I heard about this but I kind of like it was come. It was a year away, but I can imagine the planning that goes in to get everybody ready to witness this, like sometimes once in a lifetime thing, you may not come back again like in your area right, like it may never, ever happen again.

Speaker 4:

In my in Rochester we won't have a total silver clips again until 2144.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so you and I are both going to be hella dead when it comes back again. Knock on wood for crisper.

Speaker 4:

It's funny, I've been, oddly enough, working with our local cemetery to do like theme tours related to space and you know they were saying, hey, you know you can watch it twice from there, once in 2024 and then once in 2144.

Speaker 2:

That is some. That is a good dark humor joke right there. It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 4:

It really had me cackling.

Speaker 2:

Is okay, like this is going to be in a hugely populated area, right? Like? If it's a clear sky, is it going to mess up everybody's day, like for the some schmuck who isn't paying attention? Won't they be so confused? What's going on?

Speaker 4:

Hopefully not. So hopefully they'll hear the word, as it's made massive news. The last time it happened here in the US was in 2017. But hopefully the word should get out enough. Otherwise, I mean, if they didn't know, I have heard stories of this happening in previous years of you know. They were like all of a sudden it got dark out, and I mean it's not quite midnight, but it's like an hour after sunset. It's fairly dark. There's a sunset around you. There's a temperature change by about 10 degrees Fahrenheit Keep that in Noticeable and all the animals will be acting differently. Like birds go home to their nest. If there's crickets out, they'll start chirping. It's a little early for us, but I've heard of cicadas start chirping at that time as well. Cows going back to the barns.

Speaker 2:

Imagine still the one guy that wasn't paying attention. I can just imagine how confusing it would be when we'd be like what is going? Yeah Well, hopefully the word gets out. My wife and I are actually seriously considering getting into the path of totality. We missed it in 2017. We actually thought about driving to the States or flying to experience it, because I don't know, like how many times this happens around the world where it's, you know, within driving or flying distance for us, where we live. So that's a good point to think about.

Speaker 4:

It's rare for any given location, but you're definitely going to want to be in the path for this one. Within Canada, one of the best sites is going to be Niagara Falls. It should be right over Horseshoe Falls.

Speaker 2:

No way. You just got to hope for a clear day, because sometimes it's quite cloudy there.

Speaker 4:

In theory it should be sunny that day. At least. It's like 52% chance. At least that's what it's here in Rochester. And then there's microclimate all across Lake Ontario, so we'll see, just drive till you find a clear sky. There are people who do that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, 52% for clear skies. I like those odds, as Han Solo would say Well you know, I'm glad I asked this question. So just mind blowing. Have you experienced an eclipse before like a total?

Speaker 4:

eclipse. I have yet to experience totality. I have seen partial eclipses. So there was one where I am in. I saw 2017, about 70% of the sun being covered, and then in 2021, it was mostly in Canada that there was an annular eclipse, but where I am it was about, you know, between 70 and 80%, but at sunrise, and we actually had people right up against Lake Ontario watching the sunrise partially eclipsed. Oh, that's cool.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we stayed home for the one and where we lived for that 2017 one, I think it was like 48% covered, so it did a thing and we got weird muted colors Like that was the thing that was the weirdest was the color of what the sun was spitting out changed and that was like very bizarre for the for the whole time, but it wasn't. It wasn't like everything got darker. There was the fireball in the sky, so yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 2:

For people that for people maybe that aren't as into the whole thing and don't know what. What is a total clip? What is a total eclipse?

Speaker 4:

So a total solar eclipse is when the moon completely obscures the sun in the sky. So because of the timing and distance, so while the moon is 400 times closer to us than the sun, the sun is 400 times farther away from the sun, and so they're about the same size from our point of view. So when everything lines up correctly, the moon will completely obscure it, temperature will drop, it'll become very still. It's just an eerie, eerie feeling.

Speaker 2:

I watched it live or I watched the recording of it, because I was actually out there with my like things. I didn't burn my eyes out of my face and my special goggles, but people like start got emotional and started to cry Like they just couldn't handle it.

Speaker 4:

I've seen people crying. I've seen footage of people just laughing. I've heard people say it's incredibly spiritual, when it's like feeling between it's nothing else going on in the world except for the moon, the sun, the earth and themselves. It is one of the greatest positive shared experiences you'll ever get to go through.

Speaker 2:

Well, you're really selling us. Dan Sounds like we're driving to see the eclipse next year. This is just one of the many events you have organized or are organizing. What are some of the other events you've organized in the past? Just so people get a picture of what you've done?

Speaker 4:

So I've hopped around between different events where my event organizing goes back even to high school, where I helped coordinate our offseason first robotics competition that we held here in Rochester and that was me dipping my toe in and college I used to organize these unconferences where basically anyone who attended could talk about any subject. It was heavily tech related, but that schedule wasn't decided until people showed up, and so they would have presentations. We would have a whole bunch of rooms, do some opening remarks and then from there that day was made up on the spot. I've done maker fairs where people bring whatever type of project that they're working on, everything from having sewing machines teaching people how to sew to 30 foot long, 14 foot tall, fire breathing dragons that they welded together.

Speaker 4:

I've seen everything from Lego projects to school projects. I've seen couches that can drive. I really learned how to solder all of it.

Speaker 2:

That is so cool, so like from beginner to mega advanced. I love it.

Speaker 4:

The whole gambit. And then one of my other favorite things is to do is well, I may not organize the event, I will Create activities to bring to other festivals or other events. Where you know I'll go to our local fringe festival when they're doing a big outdoor concert, I'll just go and set up a booth where you know I'll have. I've done everything from community built string art. I've done a light painting photo booth when you take a long exposure photo and wherever the light moves it shows up. I brought the big face boxes. I've done what cardboard rockets Just a whole mismatch of things. One year I built a green room For a festival and it was a green and both senses of the word. So I used over a thousand recycled milk jugs, which I do not recommend ever doing anything at that scale again. That was pretty crazy out there, okay, especially as I had to clean all of them and at that time I was living on a second-story apartment In the summer with no AC.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my god Okay.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, okay, that's it is a miracle I am still married after that project.

Speaker 2:

My guess that was that you got a never again, dan, will you be doing this in this house?

Speaker 4:

It took me nine years to bring a milk jug into a house again.

Speaker 2:

So all of these events like they're just they all of them sound so fun. I want to come to all of them. This may be a no-brainer question, but it's something I think. You're such a unique guest on our show, dan, and I was wondering if I could like pick your brain about this. There's science communication, like what we do with Bunsen and beaker and the science podcast, but there's also science communication through what you do and I was wondering, like what are some of the advantages of doing those events? Why do them and what are the advantages?

Speaker 4:

For the two different types of events that I think of. I think of, you know, the ones that are, you know, slightly more science, stem, steam themed, and then the ones that are, you know, have nothing connected to science whatsoever but are fun to bring out. For that first category, the science, technology, engineering ones it's all about that community and you know you get to relay your concepts. You're on the ground, you're talking with the public and you're going to meet people who are, you know, they're just curious about this, and it's a great chance to get hands-on or to try new things out or figure out how you want to convey a new subject. One of the things that I've had to pick up science communication. You know, just on my own, as I've developed these hands-on activities and you know I've had to come up with you know, how do I talk about, for now, lenses. Can I come up with a? You know, a 30-second Description, a five-minute description or you know even as long as a 45 minute description on these or no. You can get new ideas. It's your chance to also talk with your collaborators.

Speaker 4:

One of my favorite things about, you know, the maker fairs. It's just meeting people who are passionate about other subjects and getting to cross, mingle and collaborate. One thing that kind of happened out of a maker fair. So I was next door to a Puppeteer so I had all sorts of science activities and he had his puppets and you know we started playing around about you know what puppets in space would be like. I put on a space helmet that I had built and the puppet was playing around with that and then a couple years later we were doing a Virtual event and I had him Pre-record introductions for all of our speakers as a puppet emcee. I love and I had, you know, makers and scientists and maker spaces and educators Not know what was going to happen or how they were going to be introduced and just watching their faces. As you know, they're introduced by a puppet. Talking all about that subject was fantastic, but that collaboration would not have happened without an event.

Speaker 2:

And then all of this is just making my heart so full, because it's it's just the heart of good teaching is hands-on engagement and wonder. It's just so good what you do, dan.

Speaker 4:

I love it and it's it's. No, it started off as a hobby and then just became a deeper and deeper passion that I eventually found myself changing careers into it and whenever I get to like go out into the community and talk about, you know, whatever subject, either being about makers or about the eclipse, or astronomy, it never gets old. It's like I'm bringing telescopes for the first time out to concerts and festivals where I'll be showing people the Sun during the day, with a filter of course, and then At night, when the moon's out, I'm gonna have people look through the telescope and Every time I get to show people the moon or the planets, the reaction between a kid and adult is the exact same. Yeah, it's. You know that wide-eyed curiosity. It's their jaw dropping. Is that bit of wonder. There's some excitement. It never gets old.

Speaker 2:

That is such a huge thing that as kids go through school they start to lose. If they have science teachers that don't. They just don't nurture that wonder and excitement. So I know we there's a lot of science teachers that listen to the show and Just never give up on your kids, even if they're like 17 or 18. Never give up on them with that sense of wonder. Always strive for that hands-on, whimsical approach to science, because, man, the engagement just is out of this world.

Speaker 4:

And there's so much you can play with If you're given the opportunity. It's like that dragon that I mentioned a few minutes ago. Part of that was built by high schoolers learning to weld.

Speaker 4:

Yeah and I mean, if you think of the applications, you can really have a lot of fun. It's? You know, one of the events that we do at the museum is we have a mess to fall. We say, hey, you know, let's just outright get dirty for a week, let's make messes, let's talk about the science and let's Mix all these things together. I Love adding whimsy whenever possible. And you know, during the eclipse, as I'm talking about, as I've been figuring a lot of my programming for this past year and looking forward, my underlying, you know, besides eclipse being the first word, my second internal word is scale. So you know, as in In your general classroom, you might get a small version of the solar system. And you know, within the first week my boss said, hey, you should start looking into inflatable suns.

Speaker 4:

So I ended up buying three ten foot inflatable suns my god, that's so big and it worked out that I have this model thanks to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. That's, the earth is one inch big and the moon is a quarter inch big and they're about 30 inches apart and they're about 30 inches apart. I and that's to scale against the sun, and I would have to be over about 1074 feet away for everything to be at distance. And I have been able to do that distance before it actually fits perfectly on our grounds, which is wild.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I love that. The whole two scale the actual size and scale of things that we do that we do that, like a lot of our teachers do, that we walk out the size of the solar system. You don't have, obviously, have a 10 foot sun, but you can walk out. Here's the sun, now let's walk to Mercury, and you do that, and then you get the Mars and you might do Jupiter and you're like, guys, we're not doing anything past because we're gonna be in another province.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I've dealt with that. I've had to figure some of that out with this giant sun, or when I'm about to go to an event, I'll look up where everything else should be, which is a lot of fun. And then the other thing I've been doing with scale is while we took a pair of eclipse glasses and we now have a couple six foot wide pairs and an eight foot wide pair, and all of them work.

Speaker 2:

Oh my God, so people can just like stand behind it for the eclipse.

Speaker 4:

Yes or honestly, we've been doing solar observing just with the glasses.

Speaker 2:

That's true, you can look straight at it.

Speaker 4:

You can look straight at it. You can see sunspots. It's a wild feeling.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that is so cool. You know, dan, you sent me nobody can see this because this is audio, but Dan sent me a photo. Is that you in this picture, dan, with the big head box?

Speaker 4:

Yes, it is, that was with one of my earlier versions.

Speaker 2:

I love it. It is so whimsical but so engaging, because people are like what, how does that work? And then you get boom. You can start talking about Fresnel lens as an optical light and physics and all that kind of stuff. Fraction, reflection.

Speaker 4:

I just love being able to find the play in science or so.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for sharing a little bit about what you have done, what you are doing and, of course, about the eclipse. We have some standard questions on the podcast we asked our guests about, and the first one is for a pet story, where we asked our guests to share a pet story from their life. I was wondering if you could do that for us, dan.

Speaker 4:

So a couple of years ago this was not too long after my wife and I had gone married we had a cat, carla, and you know, one weekend we said you know what? We did this a lot as kids. They had spilled a fort in the house and so we built this like massive fort in our living room. And our cat who? She was a bit older. We had adopted her at the age of eight and this was a couple of years after that. She wasn't known to be a jumper, but we were both sitting in the fort just watching a movie and then all of a sudden everything comes like crashing down. Because she decided she thought it was solid, oh, no, yeah, okay. And she just jumped right in the middle of it and she had such a guilty, sad look afterwards. I can just still picture that look of you know. Oh, I thought this was a real thing.

Speaker 2:

They always, you know, they pride themselves on their agility and I think when it doesn't work out for them, they're like, oh my God, it's the thing I'm good at didn't work today, yep.

Speaker 4:

It's amazing how many projects she saw me build and how many event production meetings she sat in on.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, our cat Ginger. See she, I've spoken about this before. She sleeps on my computer bag when I'm working, like on the podcast or like Bunsen and Beaker content. So she's my work partner, that's what I call her. She doesn't help at all, but she's my partner.

Speaker 4:

I would just always have to worry about one thing, which is I tend to store a lot of my projects myself, and so if I have to load out the car, it was always an issue?

Speaker 2:

Oh, because she wanted to escape.

Speaker 4:

Yep.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

No incidents, thankfully but that's good.

Speaker 2:

That's good, and sorry, dan, what was the cat's name again?

Speaker 4:

Carla. Carla, yeah, we actually adopted her back when we lived in New York City. She had been a Katrina cat, katrina rescue, and the shelter had her for, you know, a good seven, eight years, until we adopted her.

Speaker 2:

Well, thanks for sharing your pet story, Dan. That's, that's pretty cute. The other standard question we have is this super fact. It's something that you know that when you tell people it kind of like blows their mind a bit. I was wondering if you could share a super fact with us.

Speaker 4:

Sure. One of my favorite eclipse super facts is, as far as we know, we are the only planet to have a total solar eclipse. Eclipses do happen on other planets and we have observed one on Mars, but we're in just the right space and everything just mathematically works out correctly that we are possibly the only planet that we know in the universe that can have a total solar eclipse.

Speaker 2:

Oh, because of the 300 to 300 rule. Yeah Right, because if it was like 280, it wouldn't be so total.

Speaker 4:

In fact, that's actually. What does happen is that the moon moves further and closer away from us at times, or it is further and closer away, which is why you know, at times we'll have a annular eclipse when the moon doesn't completely cover the sun, and there's a big one coming up in October 2023. But then there's other times when it's closer to us that you know it completely blocks it out.

Speaker 2:

Is the moon moving further away from the Earth ever so slowly? I thought I read that.

Speaker 4:

Very, very slowly, In fact, there will be a day when we will not have a total solar eclipse again. I mean, that's in the very long time frame, but in theory that's what will happen.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm glad we're alive now, dan. We're born at the right time to see the total eclipses, but maybe born too early to explore the stars. But you know, we'll take our wins where we can get it.

Speaker 4:

Hey, we have a solar probe going through our star right now, so one down many more to visit.

Speaker 2:

The last section of the podcast, we asked our guests to share a little information about a hobby or cause that they're passionate about and, as we were talking before, your hobby has changed a bit to something very near and dear to you. You did a bunch of stuff with Lego, and then a new creature has arrived in your house that has put that on hold.

Speaker 4:

Yes. So I currently have a 16-month-old daughter, leela, who ever since a little bit before she was born, we had to put all of the Lego away or at least hire up, and, admittedly, once she started walking we realized, oh, there were still a few items here and there that we would have to move. But you know, we still get to build different things. We're starting to look at duplo blocks and you know, hey, what can we start building together? And she, often in the morning, will say hi to a lot of our Lego figurines. So she'll say hi to our R2-D2 or the model of the International Space Station. She looks directly at our Lego Yoda just because of the faces there. But with her we're going out to the parks, we're going to museums. We have a big chalkboard wall in our kitchen that, you know, you can just draw on. Oh, that's so cool.

Speaker 4:

It's a lot of exploring and learning and I love seeing things through her eyes, and she's attached to me at the hip.

Speaker 2:

You know I'm sad that your whole Lego thing is on pause, but it sounds like it's a pretty good trade-off.

Speaker 4:

It works out and I know later on she is going to most likely start playing with her own Lego in about maybe three years, three, four years.

Speaker 2:

So question for you, dan are you going to turn into a president business bad guy, or do you think you'll be more sherry-sherry with the kids?

Speaker 4:

I will be sherry-sherry. My wife, however, will not share. You'll be president business, her and my dad. My daughter will most likely be a third-generation Lego builder. However, I'm probably going to be the only one who will share with her.

Speaker 2:

That's the Lego movie reference for the people who are wondering President business is the. What would you classify president business as A misunderstood villain?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Speaker 2:

Well, dan, we're at the end of our interview. This has been so rewarding talking to you. My entire philosophy of learning is wonder and experimentation as a high school chemistry teacher, and I'm just so inspired by what you do on a daily basis to have wonder and engagement with everybody in the public around you. So thank you for the work that you do.

Speaker 4:

Thank you so much, and I was personally inspired by a lot of teachers, so thank you as well.

Speaker 2:

Dan, I have a question Are you on social media anywhere? Where can people follow or check out where you work, what you're working on or even you yourself?

Speaker 4:

So you can find our work usually at Rock Solar Eclipse for all of my Eclipse activities, and that's on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and then for myself on Twitter. I recommend following me at Hiteek H-I-T-E-A-K. And then on Instagram at Dan Schnitte.

Speaker 2:

Nice Rock Solar Eclipse on Twitter, right, yes, all right, bunsen and Beaker just followed you.

Speaker 4:

Thanks for having me and be sure to look up year round.

Speaker 2:

We are proud to have Bark and Beyond Supply dot com now as an official sponsor of the Science Podcast. Bark and Beyond Supply dot com is a small, family owned company that started off making joint supplements for dogs, but now they sell toys and treats and a whole bunch of other goodies. Skip the big box stores and check out the amazing deals and awesome stuff at Bark and Beyond Supply dot com. You'll see a link in our show notes and use the coupon code BUNSEN for 10% off at Bark and Beyond Supply dot com. Click the link. Skip the big box stores.

Speaker 1:

How about the little guy? Okay, it is time for Storytime with me, Adam. If you don't know what story time is, story time is when we talk about stories that have happened with in the past one or two weeks. Dad, do you have?

Speaker 2:

a story I do. So we got back from our trip to the Badlands. I mentioned in the lead that we went there and we went on a couple hikes through these cool canyons that have. They're really, it's really arid. So as the canyon kind of erodes, they leave like very striking rock formations called hoodoos. I don't know if that's an Alberta thing or the rest of the world thing, but we call them hoodoos. Anyways, they're very cool and this canyon that we got to explore it went on and on and on and it was what was really cool is there's not really any one path you could take. So it was a bit of an adventure. It was really fun with the dogs and we went early enough that it wasn't too hot for Bunsen, because this area is kind of desert-y and I'm not talking like as hot as it would get in Arizona for, say, like some desert place in the United States, but for us it got very, very hot very quickly and we had to skedaddle while the getting was good.

Speaker 5:

Jason, it did get to 36 or 37 degrees and actually you even said the temperature on the van said 38 degrees Celsius.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that area of Alberta is hotter than here, for sure, but like it doesn't get up to like the 40s, I don't think it wasn't that hot. Like it was, it would be in Arizona or Nevada or something like that, and I don't know if Chris is going to tell the story or not, but I'll mention it. I think Bunsen was all done with hiking and the heat. We think he pulled another fake Bunsen injury where his paw was just so sore to be on rocks Because his paw was like, as soon as he was on rocks he was like limping and he was like oh my paw.

Speaker 5:

Jason, he was Sir Limpz a lot. Yes, he was Bunsen, sir Limpz a lot.

Speaker 2:

Right. And then we're like oh my God, bunsen, are you okay? We should probably. You know, let him have it easy for the day. And then the next day, when we got home, he was losing his, like going crazy bananas, with zoomies everywhere, chasing beaker. And then we realized I think he probably faked his paw injury because he just didn't want to go in the heat. Smart guy, that's my story.

Speaker 1:

All right, it's my turn for a story and my story includes the cats at the farm. So a while back on the podcast I don't know you talked about how if you leave cats alone, they will come up to you and they will hang out with you and they like it when you're relaxed. And then they'll come and relax with you, like if you're listening to music or you're doing your thing, they'll come up to you. And we were at my grandpa's house. We were at Papa's house and Annalisa and I were playing music and we were having fun together, like playing music together, and Larry came up and laid down on me and started making biscuits in the air. So, like cats do the paw thing where they make biscuits. But Larry was doing that in the air and did my arm and it hurt really bad. So I flipped them upside down like a baby, which he likes being carried like a baby, or he likes being carried around your neck like a Balenciaga thing. That's why I call him Balenciaga.

Speaker 1:

That's another story. But yeah, larry's nickname for my nickname for Larry is Balenciaga, because you can wear him around your neck like a necklace. But then also, yeah, he came up and hung out with us for a while and Mouse and Willow came up and Mouse was outside the door but Willow was also with us while we were playing music. But yeah, that's my story is. Larry came up and hung out with us. Mom, do you have a story?

Speaker 5:

I sure do. Jason, I thought you were going to tell the story of Beaker on the Bed. I forgot to build that one Beaker on the Bed we had at the Airbnb that we went to. So if you've seen some of our content on social media, you would have seen the cute little vlog video blog that Jason did of the windmill, and you would have seen those stairs that had no back and were spiral, and you had to go up those stairs to get to the bedroom. So the first night, unfortunately, jason got a migraine and he went upstairs at about nine o'clock and he has to take care of it, otherwise it'll just get horrific. And so he left me downstairs with both dogs, and so I hung out with them and then I'm like okay, I'm going to go to bed, like at 11. And I checked the dogs out to go to the bathroom and I go up the stairs and Beaker starts crying oh no, what am I going to do? So what I did is I ended up, she jumped on the chair and I picked her up and I carried her all the way up those stairs, and so then she jumped on the bed and she was happy to fall asleep for the evening, and that was fine until about what two o'clock in the morning, because then Bunsen started to cry and there's no way that I could lift him up those stairs, but no in your life. And so what I did is I just stayed downstairs with Bunsen and I rubbed his belly. He had toddler time like in the middle of the night, and I was very glad that Beaker just slept with Jason for the rest of the evening.

Speaker 5:

Fast forward to the next day. Jason comes down and he made coffee and I thought, oh, I'll just go sleep upstairs with Beaker and get a little bit more shut eye. And I did. And then I'm like, okay, I'm going to go downstairs. Guess what Beaker was having none of it. She. I'm like okay, beaker, let's go downstairs. And she looked at I, put her down off the bed and she's like nope, nope, nope, not going to go down those stairs. And so she jumped up on the bed and then she was like like a little snake dog, deacon to the left, deacon to the right, ha ha ha, you can't get me. She was so fast.

Speaker 2:

She was moving as fast sideways as she was moving front to back.

Speaker 5:

I know it was crazy.

Speaker 5:

And then she was like giving the bed raspberries, like with her nose or whatever, and she's like nope, nope, nope, nope. So then I tried and like Jason, I can't, I can't get her, she will not let me scoop her up, because I have to scoop her up under your chest and under her bum and carry her like that. Nope, she was not doing it. So then Jason picked her up for me and I was able to go to the stairs and I got about halfway down and she's like nope, and she kind of jumped out of my arms and went back up to the top of the stairs, got on the bed and was like blulululala, blulululala, doing her little lizard, you can't get me, you can't get me, ha ha ha. And then Jason tried to take her so he can scoop her up quite easily, but he is so tall that he couldn't even do it. He grabbed her and got on two stairs and he said Chris, how did you even do this? How did you? How did you even get down as many stairs as you did?

Speaker 2:

Because I had to duck under there. There was like a TV and an overhang and I had to like duck to go under it and with the center of gravity of holding beaker I was going to tumble to my death.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, and it was pretty sketch. So then she's like, nope, ha ha ha, doing the same thing again and again, back on the bed. Can't get me, can't get me. And I said, jason, we have to get her. Like we, this cannot be her now, like she's going to eventually have to go to the bathroom. This is not going to work. We have to get her downstairs. I said so if you can give her to me one more time and you go down first. And I went down about halfway and then I was able to pass her to you. So then you were able to take her the rest of the way and she was so happy to be downstairs. But then I was thinking, hmm, what's going to happen the next night? But you know what happened the next night. We had taken them for a big walk and she was very tired, and so either she was very tired and didn't want to come up the stairs or she just was like no, I don't want an instant replay of that scenario.

Speaker 5:

But it didn't matter, because by two o'clock in the morning, like I went to bed, beaker was sleeping, bunsen was sleeping, but by two o'clock Bunsen's like mommy, mommy, I'm just crying. So at this point the previous night I looked in the drawer to see if, like, there was some bedding, and I saw a little note that said this is for the hide of bed. And I didn't realize that there was a hide of bed. And that evening when I went down the first evening I was, I couldn't figure out the hide of bed. I'm like I cannot figure this out. It's dark, I'm tired. So I just slept on the kind of Ottoman thing like it was for made for Michael Scott. But then the next, the next day, I said Jason, hey, can we look at this and see if we can figure out this hide of bed. And then I slept on that and it was totally fine for the next day, the next night. So that happened and that's my story.

Speaker 2:

There are consequences to being the mummy fave, Chris.

Speaker 5:

Well, and also being under six feet tall, like five foot five, I can fit in small spaces. Yes, but that's my story.

Speaker 1:

All right, everybody we have once again we have a surprise guest on the podcast Annalise. What is your story?

Speaker 3:

Hello, I am Annalise and I have a story that probably should have been told a while back back, but so basically this is every day and I don't know if it's kind of just come back into my mind of like every time I enter the house, bunsen and Beaker have like three stages that they go through when I come into that door. The first stage is when I'm not even through the door yet. It's when I just knock on the door and they go crazy, they're barking, they go crazy, and you know that happens with the rest of everyone else, but like it's forever with me for some reason. But anyway, once I get through the door, next thing I know Beaker and Bunsen jump on me like forever and they run into me and they punch me and then Beaker shows me a sock or toy that she brings and like it's wonderful. And then they finally calm down and they accept that I am a human who is just staying, who is just sitting down and being. But anyway, that's my story.

Speaker 1:

They just really like you. All right, and that's it for story time. Thank you everyone for listening to my section of the podcast and thank you for listening to through the podcast episode to get to me. I've heard well, dad says sometimes people skip to my section immediately, or that used to be the case. I don't think so anymore. Thank you, bye bye.

Speaker 2:

That's it for this week's show. Thanks for coming back week after week to listen to the science podcast. Special thanks to our guest, dan Snyderman. Very cool, look up everybody. Wait for that eclipse in 2024. We'd also like to give a shout out to our top dogs. That is the top level of the pop pack. That's the community that supports what we do. If you want to hear your name, check out the link in the show notes to help support us through the pop pack community. Let's hear who they are. Chris, take it away.

Speaker 5:

Alicia Stanley, the herd, wendy, diane Mason and Luke Linda Sherry, tracy Halberg, carol McDonald, Helen Chin, elizabeth bourgeois, peggy McKeel, mary the Magna writer, Holly Birch, sandy Breimer, brenda Clark, andrew Lynn, marianne McNally, catherine G, jordan, tracy Domingu, diane Allen, julie Smith, terry Adam Shelly Smith, jennifer Smathers, laura Steffensen, tracy Linebaugh, courtney Proven Fun, lisa Brianne Haas, bianca Hyde, debbie Anderson and Yuchita Donna Craig, amy C, susan Wagner, kathy Zercher, liz Button and Ben Rathart.

Speaker 2:

For science, empathy and cuteness.