How do you become a scientist? "It's really easy: you start out as a little kid and then you never grow up," says explorer and biologist Sylvia Earle. In the latest installment of Science Friday's Desktop Diaries series, Her Deepness takes us on a tour on her Oakland office (Earle has desks all over the country) -- items of interest include a shrunken head, a life-size green moray, and a submersible capsule.

Astronauts are allowed to bring special “crew preference” items when they go up in space. NASA astronaut Don Pettit chose candy corn for his five and a half month stint aboard the International Space Station. But these candy corn were more than a snack, Pettit used them for experimentation.
Footage courtesy of Don Pettit. Music courtesy of Bardo Music/South Hill Project. Produced by Flora Lichtman

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The aptly named Northern clingfish uses its fins to suck onto the roughest and slimiest of marine surfaces. Where manmade suction cups consistently fail, the clingfish achieves suctorial glory. Dr. Adam Summers of the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Labs, details how this bottom dweller takes the art of suction to new heights.
Produced by Luke Groskin. Filmed by Ryan Hawk. Music by Audio Network. Additional stills and footage by University of Washington, Friday Harbor Labs, Central Michigan Department of Microscopy, Shutterstock.

It's a potato on toothpicks! No, it's a hopping noodle! A fuzzy rodent T-rex! Any way you look at them, jerboas are about as cute as they come. These adorable critters bounce about on long, springy legs - appendages that just might help us better understand and perhaps manipulate the growth of human bones.

In his home in rural Montana, photographer and biologist Tim Wheeler (http://timwheelerphotography.com ) has lined the walls of his living room with shelf after shelf of lichen specimens. He has gathered these samples from his journeys and he meticulous curates his collection, finding only the most photogenic or unique specimens to profile. Using stacked macro photography, his portraits of lichen transform these dull and ubiquitous organisms into marvels of evolution and vibrant landscapes. With the aid of professional lichenologists, Tim Wheeler hopes to highlight in exquisite detail the amazing diversity of colors and forms that lichens possess
Produced by Luke Groskin
Music by Audio Network
Still Images by Timothy Wheeler

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Neuroscientist Gregory Berns wanted to know what his his dog was thinking. But unlike many behaviorists who conduct elaborate experiments to get clues about the inner life of canines, Dr. Berns decided to take a more direct route. He trained dogs to go into an MRI scanners in order to figure out what they’re thinking.

Produced by Chelsea Fiske and Brandon Swanson

Music by Audio Network

Additional Images Provided by Greg Berns, The Pavlovian
Laboratory of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic,
Javier DeFelipe, Frontiers Media SA, NASA, and Pond5

Special Thanks to Ryann Meisenhelder, Jennie Wainer
and Shannon Kulnis

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Produced by Luke Groskin. Wine and location provided by Corkbuzz. Music by Audio Network
Additional photos and footage provided by Finger Lakes Wine Program/James Monahan, Shutterstock, Patricia Lynch, Tom Mack, Christina Sookdhis, Bodegas Delea a Marca, and Gironde Tourism
From smoky to citrusy to peppery, the unique flavor profiles of wines are scrutinized and celebrated perhaps more than any other beverage. In the first episode of our wine science series, Dr. Gavin Sacks of Cornell University's Viticulture and Enology Program, details the chemical composition of wine and explains why you detect the faintest aromas of oak, flowers, or green pepper in your glass.

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Fireflies communicate with a "language of light" that scientists still don't completely understand. James Lloyd and Marc Branham of the University of Florida, Gainesville, discuss unique flash patterns and times for some of the 2,000 types of fireflies that light up the summer nights.
Produced by Emily V. Driscoll

Filmed by
Sakuma Fumio
Rei Ohara
Stavros Basis

Narrated by Ira Flatow

Additional Stills by
Joyce Gross
Bruce Marlin
Shutterstock
YikrazuulMusic by Audio Network

Special Thanks
Marc Branham
"Brilliant Darkness" movie funded by the Zoological Lighting Institute.
James Karl Fischer
Luke Groskin
Misa Kimura
James Lloyd
The Zoological Lighting Institute (http://www.zoolighting.org/)

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A behind-the-scenes look at how the cast and crew of Walking - The Arena Spectacular with Dinosaurs brings life-size dinosaurs to life in an theatrical setting.
Produced by Luke Groskin
Footage Provided by Walking With Dinosaurs the Arena Show, Julie Leibach
"Walking with Dinosaurs" Documentary Footage ©BBC
Music by Audio Network

For more than 30 years, Steve Erenberg has collected early scientific and medical objects and instruments. Packed with shelves and displays brimming with Victorian medical masks, surreal anatomical models, and futuristic test prostheses, Erenberg's store/museum in Peekskill, New York offers a whirlwind tour of long-forgotten devices. While some items were shams devised by quacks, others represent the best possible treatment for their time. Regardless of its actual function, each item in Erenberg's collection has a unique aesthetic value.

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Step Inside A Mad Scientist's Lab

The movie prop shop Jadis, in Santa Monica, California, is packed with ancient, long-forgotten technology: an Edison dictaphone, a typewriter-like counting machine and quack medical devices like the 'Hemodimagnometer.' But you might recognize some of these oddities--they've appeared in movies like The Mystery Men, The X-Files, and The Prestige.


Parke Meek, an industrial designer who worked with the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles and Ray Eames, opened Jadis as an antiques shop in 1976, with his partner Susan Lieberman. Later, Meek began to design props for the movie industry, like huge control panels dotted with switches and illuminated dials, sourcing his materials at swap meets and government auctions. "He'd say, 'Got anything heavy, expensive and useless for me today?'" Lieberman says.

Meek passed away in 2010 at the age of 86. But Lieberman still keeps the shop open for passersby on weekends--admission costs one dollar. She and Parke's nephew Thomas Meek gave Science Friday a tour of this cabinet of curiosities, recalling Parke's life and describing the perfect ingredients for a Hollywood mad scientist's lab.

Special thanks to: Susan Lieberman, Thomas Meek, Jadis
Audio: Christopher Intagliata
Video editing: Leese Katsnelson
Photography: Christopher Intagliata
Photos of Parke Meek: Lori Lieberman

From the Science Friday Archives!
With global threats like ocean warming and acidification, it's a tough time to be a coral. Marine scientists John Bruno and Elizabeth Selig, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, analyzed over 8000 coral surveys from all over the world to see if local management through Marine Protected Areas had any positive effect on coral.

Biology graduate student Tom McDonagh is taking shadow puppetry to the next level. One of his latest productions is based on the (true) story of an American doctor and French inventor who took to the skies in a hydrogen balloon and made the first trip -- by air -- across the English Channel. McDonagh, whose Ph.D. project at Rockefeller University has centered on building a microscope, is also experimenting with shadow puppet production -- from laser cut puppets to 3D shadows. McDonagh and puppeteers Jo Jo Hristova, Arlee Chadwick and Emma Wiseman will be performing several of his pieces at Puppet Festival rEvolution on August 6th, 2013 in Swarthmore, PA.

Agave plants, probably best known as the source of tequila, were important as a food crop long before the invention of margaritas. Wendy Hodgson, botanist at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, says the plants were cultivated as far back as 800 AD in some parts of the Southwest. Trek through the Arizona desert to see where agaves were cultivated centuries ago and what remains of the ancient gardens.

Originally published on ScienceFriday.com May 14, 2009

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The Greater sage-grouse makes its living in sagebrush habitats across the western U.S. and Canada. Every year from late February to May, male sage-grouse perform a striking dance routine each morning at dawn. Jason Robinson, upland game coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, breaks down the dance and describes challenges the birds face in Utah.

The Greater sage-grouse makes its living in sagebrush habitats across the western U.S. and Canada. Every year from late February to May, male sage-grouse perform a striking dance routine each morning at dawn. Jason Robinson, upland game coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, breaks down the dance and describes challenges the birds face.

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Imagine standing on another planet and looking up at the stars. What would the sky look like? In a perfect merger of art and science, artist Helena Kauppila uses astronomical data to paint her vision of other worlds.
Producer & Editor: Kathryn Free
Science Advisor: Emily Rice, The American Museum of Natural History
Special Thanks: Helena Kauppila
Music: Possibilities by Helen Jane Long &Starshift by Paul Mottram
Kepler footage courtesy of NASA

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Drawing on his experience as Artist-in-Residence at CERN, Gilles Jobin's dance performance, Quantum, presents an abstract meditation on the motion of particles and laws of physics.

Watch budding engineers compete for best bot at the FIRST robotics New York regional. Plus, a special appearance by Dean Kamen