The Show About Science

CryptoKitties is a game centered around breedable, collectible, and oh-so-adorable creatures called CryptoKitties! CryptoKitties is one of the world’s first games to be built on blockchain technology—the same breakthrough that makes things like Bitcoin and Ethereum possible. The creator of CryptoKitties, Dieter Shirley, joins Nate on this episode to talk about creating games on the blockchain.

Verd has been growing food for as long as he can remember, beginning in his family’s backyard garden in Oak Park, Illinois. At age sixteen, he left home to live and work on a communal farm in Austin, Texas, where he stayed for ten years and met his future wife, Jeanne.

Manatees are large marine mammals found in shallow coastal waters near Florida, Brazil, and the west coast of Africa. Manatees are occasionally called sea cows, because, like cows, they are slow, peaceful, and graze on plants. Sheri Barton is a Senior Biologist at the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Florida, where she studies these fascinating creatures. On this episode of The Show About Science, Sheri joins Nate to talk about her research.

Did you know that there are tiny microbes that call our bodies home? These microorganisms live on and inside of us. You can even take a test to learn which ones make up your microbiome. Stefan Green is a microbial ecologist who runs the DNA Sequencing Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Stefan joins Nate to talk about what the microbiome is and why these tiny little microbes are so important for our health.

Jesse Schell is a video game designer and a professor of entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also the creator of “Happy Atoms,” a game that helps kids learn how atoms bond to form new molecules. Jesse joins Nate on this episode to talk about how “Happy Atoms” uses technology like augmented reality to teach kids about chemistry.