The Story Collider

John Rennie finds it’s great to be editor in chief of Scientific American, but not when all the ingredients of sarin gas are in his office. John Rennie is a science writer, editor, and lecturer based in New York. Viewers of The Weather Channel know him as the host of the original series Hacking The Planet and co-host of the hit special The Truth About Twisters. He is also the editorial director of science for McGraw-Hill Education, overseeing its highly respected AccessScience online reference and the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology. Rennie served as editor in chief of Scientific American (including the monthly magazine, Scientific American Mind, ScientificAmerican.com and other publications) between 1994 and 2009.

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As a mathematician, Adriana Salerno is used to solving problems, but depression is something else entirely. Adriana Salerno is originally from Caracas, Venezuela, where she received her undergraduate degree in mathematics from the Universidad Simon Bolivar in 2001. The following year she started graduate school in the Mathematics Department at the University of Texas, where she received her Ph.D. in 2009. In the summer of 2007, Adriana was the AMS-AAAS Mass Media Fellow. She worked at Voice of America for ten weeks under the sponsorship of the AMS and filed several stories about mathematics. She joined Bates College in 2009. Her research interests are number theory and arithmetic geometry and she is also interested in communicating mathematics to the general public.

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Just after beginning a graduate program in neuroscience, Brittany Bushnell gets an unexpected look at her own brain. Brittany Bushnell has a BS in psychology from the University of Washington, and is currently working on her PhD in neuroscience at New York University. She is currently studying the neural basis of amblyopia -- a developmental disorder of the visual system. Outside of work, she takes aerial circus classes and grew up racing BMX bikes with her family. She lives in NYC with her husband Maurice.

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A chemistry set is the perfect opportunity for Nate Charles Karagiannis-Troisi to connect with his engineer father.

Nate Charles Karagiannis-Troisi is an award-winning, multifaceted theatre maker and performer whose work spans decades, genres, mediums, and continents. He has studied, created, and performed extensively across Australia, The Netherlands, and the USA. His current focus lies in autobiographical explorations of multiculturalism, intergenerational trauma, sex, relationships, and contemporary Australia through a CALD and queer lens.

Trained at the Victorian College of the Arts in Naarm and currently residing and creating work in Tarntanya, Nate has worked as a facilitator for SAYArts Youth Theatre, Riverland Youth Theatre and a story-collector for Open Space Contemporary Arts (OSCA).. Most recently he performed the role of Freidrich von Schoen in the upcoming Asylum Studios film The Land That Time Forgot, and featured in the subsequent making-of documentary Mockbuster by Anthony Frith, and has received funding through Carclew to mentor young indigenous playwright Mali Harkin-Noack as she writes her first play Burn Your House to the Ground. In his spare time, he performs as keyboardist Howlin’ J. Weatherill in satirical country band Brad Chicken and the Bootstraps, and functions as half of theatre-trash duo Muse of Fire.

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When reporters call to cover David Moinina Sengeh's work, that should be a good thing, but it depends on what story they want to tell. David Moinina Sengeh, born and raised in Sierra Leone, is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Media Lab. His research in the Biomechatronics Group is at the intersection of medical imaging, material science, human anatomy, computer-aided design and manufacturing. David is on Forbes 30 Under 30 in Technology for 2013, a 2014 TED Fellow, on the Wired Smart List 2013, winner of the Lemelson-MIT National Collegiate Student Prize, and other awards. David is a cofounder of Global Minimum Inc. (GMin), an NGO that aims to break the cycle of dependence on foreign aid by empowering young inventors to develop tangible solutions to challenges, as well as creative endeavors like his own custom clothing line and making rap music that draws youth towards creativity and away from drugs and gangsterism.

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Tara Lagu's passion for beating her high school rival in the science fair turns into an unusual medical career. Tara Lagu, M.D., M.P.H, is an Academic Hospitalist in the Center for Quality of Care Research and Department of Medicine at Baystate Medical Center and an Assistant Professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine. After graduating with her MD/MPH from the Yale University School of Medicine, she completed a General Internal Medicine Residency at Brown. From 2005-2008, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, where she developed her research interest in the quality of health care in the United States. Currently, her work is focused on improving quality and reducing costs of health care in the United States and, in particular, improving access to care for patients with disabilities. She spends much of her free time thinking about, growing, talking about, taking pictures of, and eating heirloom tomatoes. Her favorite variety is Cherokee Purple.

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A surprise email leads a biologist to NASA. Dr Karen James (@kejames on Twitter) is a biologist at the MDI Biological Laboratory, where she combines DNA-based species identification ('DNA barcoding'), with public participation in scientific research ('citizen science') to meet environmental research, conservation, and management needs. She is a co-founder and director of The HMS Beagle Project, a UK charity that aims to retrace the Voyage of the Beagle aboard a tall ship in support of science education and outreach.

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Erica Ferencik's father left his family to pursue his obsession with finding monogamy in the animal kingdom. Award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and essayist Erica Ferencik is the author of the comic novel, Cracks in the Foundation and the best-selling collection of essays, Hot, Naked and Awake: Notes From the Burning Edge of Menopause. Her newest collection of essays, A Natural History of Boys, is due out in November of this year. Ferencik's novel, Repeaters, a paranormal thriller about reincarnation, has been optioned for film. Her work has been featured in Salon, the Boston Globe and on National Public Radio. More information is available at www.ericaferencik.com.

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George Church learns a lesson on the power of nature the hard way. George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Director of NIH Center for Excellence in Genomic Studies, and Director of PersonalGenomes.org, which provides the world's only open-access information on human genomic, environmental, and trait data. His 1984 Harvard PhD included the first methods for direct genome sequencing, molecular multiplexing, and barcoding. His innovations have contributed to nearly all "next generation" genome sequencing methods and companies. He has also pioneered new privacy, biosafety, environmental, and biosecurity policies. His honors include election to NAS, NAE, and Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science. He has coauthored 370 papers, 60 patents, and one book.

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Professor John Dimandja is confused when his class begins snickering on the first day -- until he realizes it's because they weren't expecting him to be black. John Dimandja is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Spelman College. A native of Oxford, Ohio, John grew up in the US, Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo. His professional career includes work as an analytical chemist at the NASA/Ames Research Center and the CDC prior to joining Spelman in 2002. An internationally recognized leader in the field of multidimensional gas chromatography, John has given over 250 lectures around the world in the past 20 years. He enjoys cooking and travelling with his wife Ann, playing the piano (poorly) and golfing, now that his basketball days are over.

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