Shawn Laatch is the Director of the Versant Power Astronomy Center and Jordan Planetarium at the University of Maine and Nikita Saini is a graduate student in Astronomy in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Maine and is also a presenter at the Planetarium. Shawn and Nikiti were part of a nationwide NASA Citizen Science program that was focused on learning more about the sun and using the eclipse as a prime opportunity for that research.  Our conversation was recorded in April 2024. ~~~~~ The Maine Science Podcast is a production of the Maine Discovery Museum. It ..read more

You’ll hear in-the-moment reactions about the April 8th total solar eclipse in Maine from folks in Stacyville, Houlton, and Jackman Maine, and then we’ll circle back to Stacyville for some short conversations right after the eclipse. We are indebted to Sarah Kirn, Nikita Saini, and Terrence Finnegan for their willingness to record audio, and Jennifer Dann for her encouragement and great questions. And a giant thank you in particular to Patrick Taylor for letting me experience the eclipse in what may have been the best possible location I could have imagined at his Katahdin View Camps & Cam ..read more

Laura Wilson manages skills-based micro-credential development for Cooperative Extension at the University of Maine. Laura's previous work includes being a Science Youth Development Professional at 4H and a Water Quality Professional. Laura has been a a long-time partner with Maine Discovery Museum, including being part of the Maine Science Festival.  Our conversation was recorded in January 2024. ~~~~~ The Maine Science Podcast is a production of the Maine Discovery Museum. It is recorded at Discovery Studios, at the Maine Discovery Museum, in Bangor, ME. The Maine Science Podcast is hos ..read more

Dan Burgess is the Director of the Governor’s Energy Office for the State of Maine, and he's had a robust career in energy policy, first in Massachusetts then coming back home to Maine.  Dan was part of our online forum about offshore wind, Off Shore Wind from the UK to Maine, in February 2021. You can watch that on our YouTube Channel Our conversation was recorded in January 2024. ~~~~~ The Maine Science Podcast is a production of the Maine Discovery Museum. It is recorded at Discovery Studios, at the Maine Discovery Museum, in Bangor, ME. The Maine Science Podcast is hosted and executiv ..read more

Wendy LePage is a research scientist at IDEXX in Westbrook, ME. Wendy has been with IDEXX since their early start-up days, having joined them once she returned from a two-year stint with the Peace Corps, which she did right after graduating from the University of Vermont with a degree in zoology. Wendy has been a hands-on presenter at the Maine Science Festival in the past, and she’ll be back at the 2024 Maine Science Festival: March 20-24th, 2024. Our conversation was recorded in January 2024. ~~~~~ The Maine Science Podcast is a production of the Maine Discovery Museum. It is recorded at Dis ..read more

Rob Wheeler studies fungus from both sides: how the immune system responds to fungal infection AND the how the fungus itself works. In particular, Rob studies Candida albicans, and all the ways it impacts us.  Rob has degrees from Harvard and Stanford University in 2000, and did post-doctoral work at the Whitehead Institute.  Our conversation was recorded in December 2023. ~~~~~ The Maine Science Podcast is a production of the Maine Discovery Museum. It was recorded at Discovery Studios, at the Maine Discovery Museum, in Bangor, ME. The Maine Science Podcast is hosted and executive p ..read more

You may have noticed we haven’t kept to our regular episode release schedule, and we wanted to send out a quick note to assure you that we’ll be back! We’ve had to do some staff juggling behind the scenes, and will be back to releasing episodes as soon as we are able.  Listen to this short update for some recommendations about past episodes to listen to! ~~~~~ The Maine Science Podcast is a production of the Maine Discovery Museum. It was recorded at Discovery Studios, at the Maine Discovery Museum, in Bangor, ME. The Maine Science Podcast is hosted and executive produced by Kate Dickerso ..read more

This  past August, Maine Science Podcast host Kate Dickerson was a guest interviewer on  the National Writing Project’s The Write Time podcast, and spoke with Meghan Wilson Duff about their children’s’ book, How Are You, Verity? (Illustrated by Taylor Barron). Meghan is on the faculty in the Psychology & Community Studies program at University of Maine at Machias. Our thanks to the National Writing Project and Tanya Baker & Bryan Crandall for letting us rebroadcast this episode. The conversation was recorded in August 2023, and aired on The Write Time in September.  To l ..read more

Diane Rowland is the Dean of the College of Earth, Life, and Health Sciences (formerly Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture) and Director of the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station at the University of Maine. For most of her career, Diane has specialized in the physiological mechanisms of crop stress, particularly related to drought and crop water scarcity resilience.  She pioneered the development of primed acclimation, a water  management system that capitalizes on the nearly universal priming  response in crop plants to enhance drought tolerance. Diane beg ..read more

Matt is an entrepreneur and award-winning architect with a nationwide reputation for innovation and expertise in the design of high performance residential and institutional buildings. A leader in Passive House design in North America and named to Architect Magazine’s Architect 50 list in 2018, he is a frequent speaker at sustainable design conferences in the U.S. and abroad. Matt has pursued a career based on exploration and innovation, working for architecture firms in New York and Germany, where he gained a thorough understanding of sustainable design and construction systems. Matt was a sp ..read more