For the love of science

February 14 2015

Dearest fellow listservers,

At first I didn’t know what to do when I won, because I’ve only been subscribed to the listserve for about three weeks. But I didn’t want to pass over the opportunity.

I’m 19 years old and I’m astrophysics student. I love science, and I think science (education) should play a bigger role in our lives. We’ve got such a beautiful universe, and live on a beautiful earth. But all most of us know about it is the things we learn in primary, middle or high school. We’ve soon forgotten what we’ve learned when we graduate, because it was taught to us by some dusty teacher without any passion.

But there’s more than that! Have you ever seen a picture of the beautiful horsehead nebula? Or felt a rose crumble in your hands after it was frozen with liquid nitrogen? Felt the g-force in a rollercoaster? Cool, right?! Not convinced? I’m inviting you to join me and discover the fun and beauty of science!

I’m planning to make a video showing people around the world having fun, learning or being overwhelmed all because of science. And I need your help. If you want to join me, please send me a video of you, your family, your friends, your class, someone you just happened to walk into on the street, it can be anyone, as long as you’re “sciencing”!

Some examples of what you could do:

-Build a water rocket. There are a lot of tutorials on the internet on how to do this, and I promise you it will fly really high!

-Go to the local observatory if there is one in your area. If it’s open at night you can ask if you could take a look through the telescope and look at a cool planet or galaxy!

-Take a trip to a museum of natural history, where you can see awesome dinosaur skeletons!

-Try to spot animals in the wild and study them for a while, try to make sure they don’t spot you!

-Try to find out how fast objects of different mass are falling. Hint: they will all have the same acceleration! Don’t believe me? Try it yourself!

Of course, you can come up with your own ideas. If you’re not sure whether your idea is good enough (I’m sure it is, I trust you guys), you can always send me an e-mail.

If you’re going to send me a video, please:

-Do it by e-mail, my address is below

-In the subject line, put “SCIENCE VIDEO”

-In the e-mail, tell me where you’re from!

-You don’t have to supply your name, but I’d like it if you do, and of course I’ll credit you

-Don’t film vertically, I’m afraid I can only use horizontally orientated video’s

If you have any questions, please e-mail me as well. You can also send me an e-mail if you don’t want to make a video, or if it depends on the deadline, but want to stay informed about the project (put “INFORMED” in the subject line), I’ll set up a mailing list and eventually send all of you a link to the finished video.

The deadline until when I’ll accept videos isn’t known yet, it will depend on the amount of reactions I receive. It will be published through the mailing list. But if you send it to me earlier than May, It’ll surely be accepted.


Lots of love,

Charlotte Brand
[email protected]
Leiden, The Netherlands


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