Hi Reddit! I’m the creator of the American Chemical Society’s Reactions YouTube channel, a weekly series that highlights the chemistry in everyday life. I also manage ACS Productions, the Society’s award-winning video team. I received undergraduate degrees in Genetics and Science Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MBA from George Mason University. I’ve been producing science videos on YouTube for most of the site’s 10-year history. Bill Nye has said that “if you want to teach something, you have to entertain people… Mr. Wizard encouraged a generation of scientists and engineers by doing this.” This entertaining, educational approach is at the heart of Reactions. We’ve produced videos explaining why dogs smell each other’s butts, why a pinch of salt can make bad coffee taste better and how garbage kickstarted the modern chemical industry, as well as episodes on the chemistry of hangovers, tattoos, avocados, bacon, moisturizer and, yes, cats. The series (and its predecessor, Bytesize Science) has received more than 20 million views and grown to 250,000 combined followers on YouTube and Facebook. Reactions episodes have been featured on the Today Show, NPR, Washington Post and more than 100 other media outlets. The series has collaborated with noted science communicators and YouTubers, including Joe Hanson (It’s OK to be Smart), Deborah Blum (The Poisoner’s Handbook), Raychelle Burks (@DrRubidium), Andy Brunning (Compound Interest), Vanessa Hill (BrainCraft) and Rachel Feltman (Washington Post’s Speaking of Science blog), among others. In 2015, Wired featured Reactions in its list of “Science Blogs, Twitter Feeds and Channels We Love.” I’m excited to do this AMA about communicating chemistry on YouTube. Feel free to ask me anything about the making of Reactions, how science videos can reach the public, using social media for science communication and questions about video production and YouTube, in general. I’ll be back at 11 am EST (8 am PST, 4 pm UTC) to answer your questions, ask me anything! [Edit at 11:45am EST:] Thanks for all the great questions! Had some technical issues, but I’m now up and running and replying the qs below. [Edit at 12:45pm EST] OK I tried to respond to as many of these as I could. I’ll pop back online later this afternoon to answer a few more. [Edit 10:30pm EST] Responded to a few more. Thanks for all the great questions – this was fun! And if you haven’t already, head over to Reactions and subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/ACSReactions