Stay Home And Skype A Scientist

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The spread of the coronavirus has led many to stay home in recent weeks. During that time, the non-profit Skype A Scientist has seen a surge in demand for its service of virtually connecting students to scientists. Maddie talks to Sarah McAnulty, executive director of the group and a squid biologist, about bringing science to kids and, at the same time, confronting stereotypes about who can be a scientist.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:04.3	Welcome everybody to Skype is scientists live.
0:07.6	Just as a heads up we are running these about once a day, Monday through Friday-ish during
0:13.6	this delightful quarantine time that we're all in.
0:18.3	Sarah McAnulty is just starting up a video live stream.
0:21.8	She's the executive director of the nonprofit Skype Assigned.
0:25.9	Generally, we match up scientists with classrooms and other groups to chat about science and generally
0:31.8	make science accessible for as many people as possible and make people feel as welcome
0:36.5	in science as we can.
0:38.3	The coronavirus pandemic has slowed down a lot of businesses.
0:42.7	But Skype is scientists?
0:44.7	Saw a massive spike in its audience over the past couple of weeks as schools have closed
0:50.2	and more and more people stay home.
0:52.6	Before we may have had like 20 people show up to a live stream and now we have like over
0:57.8	500 showing up every live stream, which has been amazing.
1:01.4	Plus, Sarah says they've had a similar boom in scientists reaching out to lead the live
1:06.8	sessions.
1:07.8	Alright, so I'm a paleontologist and I'm so excited to be here today.
1:11.4	First, this is the first human interaction I've had in about a week.
1:14.4	So I'm really sorry, I'm really excited, but I haven't talked to anybody in a long time
1:18.5	outside of my house.
1:20.5	And these days, the questions the scientists are getting are just as silly and insightful
	...

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