Hi reddit! World View is providing a new perspective of our planet and revolutionising access to space for communications technology, sensors and people. I believe that seeing the Earth from space changes the way we view humanity and our relationship with this planet; I call this ‘The Orbital Perspective’. As a NASA astronaut I travelled 71,075,867 miles in 2,842 orbits of our planet over 178 days. I flew on both the US Space Shuttle and Russian Soyuz spacecraft and logged over 27 hours in the vacuum of space during four spacewalks. I also participated in a record-setting exploration research mission held in Aquarius, the world’s only undersea laboratory and I am the author of ‘The Orbital Perspective’ – my book detailing the effects of seeing Earth from a new point of view. I’ll be talking about The Orbital Perspective and life in space at BBC Future’s World Changing Ideas Summit on 15 November in Sydney. I will be here to answer questions at 15:00pm EST, 20:00pm GMT. Ask me anything!

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Hi Reddit, I’ve been a science reporter for more than 30 years. I have a PhD in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz. I have worked at Nature, Science, and now NPR. Over the years I’ve traveled around the world covering science stories: from to the South Pole to the top of Mauna Kea, to inside the plume of the Eyjafjallajokull during its eruption in 2010. I’ve been at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory while 5 different probes successfully landed on Mars, I’ve been to Stockholm to watch the King of Sweden award the Nobel prizes, and I’ve interviewed many of the world’s top scientists: Jim Watson, Francis Crick, Carol Greider, Martine Reiss, Andrea Ghez, Roger Angel, Jennifer Doudna…you get the idea. I host a series called Joe’s Big Idea that focuses on the minds and motivations of scientists and inventors. The “Big Idea” is to present science not as a set of discoveries but a process of understanding. Most of the news media depict science lurching from breakthrough to breakthrough. I want to show the hard work, frustration, creativity, persistence and occasionally joy that truly represents what science is all about. Want to see what I’m up to and chat with me after this AMA? Message me and follow me on Facebook at Joe’s Big Idea. I will be back at 1 pm Et to answer your questions, Ask me anything. I am blown away by all the interesting questions. You have set the bar very high. I’ve been writing answers for a couple hours now, and if I could only type faster, I’d answer more. I hope this discussion we started today can continue. I’m very committed to accurate communication of science, and welcome thoughts, ideas, and critiques going forward. I’ll watch /r/Science for questions going forward, or you can get in touch via the Joe’s Big Idea Facebook page or [email protected]

Hi Reddit! Since I introduced myself in the ACS AMA last year (http://redd.it/3fqnqo) , I’ll only say that I’m the Director of the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute where we work to catalyze and enable the implementation of green chemistry and engineering throughout the global chemistry enterprise. At the moment we’re getting ready for the 20th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, held in Portland, OR June 14-16 (http://www.gcande.org/) and I hope you can join us for what is shaping up to be a great Conference.. So, feel free to ask me anything about the current and future states of sustainable and green chemistry and engineering. Like last year, feel free to ask me anything about how sustainable and green chemistry is implemented in industry, or how you can apply it in your research, or what challenges you’re encountering in your work as you work to implement it. I will be back at 11 am ET to answer your questions, Ask me Anything!

Hello Reddit! My name is Dr. Christophe Galfard and I’m a theoretical physicist and author of The Universe In Your Hand. I hold a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University where my supervisor was the world-renowned Professor Stephen Hawking. I worked with him on black holes and the origin(s) of our universe for many years. While I’m no longer at Cambridge, I now spend pretty much all my time spreading scientific knowledge to the general public in [hopefully] entertaining ways. From the tiniest particles to the edge of our known universe as well as theoretical scientific attempts to unify all known forces in a Theory of Everything, I seek to help everyone understand the science of our world - as it is seen by today’s scientists. How was our universe formed? Why do stars die and why do some of them become black holes? Our world is filled with mystery, excitement, and questions whose answers still escape the brightest minds to walk on Earth. My goal is to help everyone who wants to learn more about our universe and how it works in a way that anyone is able to understand and grasp. If you’ve ever had a question about the solar system, the Big Bang, dark matter, parallel universes, quarks, or anything else (science related!), now’s the time. I will be back to answer your questions at 3 pm EDT, Ask me anything! Well, there are so many brilliant questions that I’ve left unanswered that I feel a bit bad about it, but it is time for me to wrap this up… I’ll try to come back to answer some of these in the days to come. In the mean time, thank you so much for your questions, I’ve had a great time answering as many as I could! And don’t ever forget to keep asking questions about our beautiful world! Christophe

Hi Reddit - I’m Eric Green, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) since 2009. NHGRI is the largest organization in the world solely dedicated to genomics research, and a part of the National Institutes of Health. I started my career in genomics research in the lab of Dr. Maynard Olson at Washington University, and was then appointed Assistant Professor of Pathology and Genetics and Co-Investigator in the Human Genome Center at Washington University. Two years later, I joined the brand new “Intramural Research Program of the National Center for Human Genome Research”, which was later renamed the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). Prior to becoming Director of NHGRI, I served as Scientific Director of the NHGRI Intramural Research Program, Chief of the NHGRI Genome Technology Branch, and Director of the NIH Intramural Sequencing Center. During that time, and for almost two decades, my lab was at the forefront of efforts to map, sequence, and understand eukaryotic genomes. I was significantly involved in the Human Genome Project from start to finish. As Director of NHGRI, I am responsible for providing overall leadership of the Institute’s research portfolio and other initiatives. In 2011, we developed a new vision for the future of genomics research, entitled Charting a course for genomic medicine from base pairs to bedside (Nature 470:204-213, 2011). Since that time, I have led the Institute in broadening our research mission, including designing and launching a number of major programs to accelerate the application of genomics to medical care. I’ll be back at 1 pm EST (10 am PST, 6 pm UTC) to answer your questions, ask me anything!

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Hello there, /r/Science! We* are a group of researchers who just published a meta-analysis of expert agreement on humans causing global warming. The lead author John Cook has a video backgrounder on the paper here, and articles in The Conversation and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Coauthor Dana Nuccitelli also did a background post on his blog at the Guardian here. You may have heard the statistic “97% of climate experts agree that humans are causing global warming.” You may also have wondered where that number comes from, or even have heard that it was “debunked”. This metanalysis looks at a wealth of surveys (of scientists as well as the scientific literature) about scientific agreement on human-caused global warming, and finds that among climate experts, the ~97% level among climate experts is pretty robust. The upshot of our paper is that the level of agreement with the consensus view increases with expertise. When people claim the number is lower, they usually do so by cherry-picking the responses of groups of non-experts, such as petroleum geologists or weathercasters. Why does any of this matter? Well, there is a growing body of scientific literature that shows the public’s perception of scientific agreement is a “gateway belief” for their attitudes on environmental questions (e.g. Ding et al., 2011, van der Linden et al., 2015, and more). In other words, if the public thinks scientists are divided on an issue, that causes the public to be less likely to agree that a problem exists and makes them less willing to do anything about it. Making sure the public understands the high level of expert agreement on this topic allows the public dialog to advance to more interesting and pressing questions, like what as a society we decided to do about the issue. We’re here to answer your questions about this paper and more general, related topics. We ill be back later to answer your questions, Ask us anything! *Joining you today will be: Stuart Carlton aka @jscarlton John Cook aka /u/SkepticScience Sarah Green aka @FataMorgana_LS Peter Jacobs aka /u/past_is_future Stephan Lewandowsky aka /u/StephanLewandowsky Andy Skuce aka /u/AndySkuce Bart Verheggen aka @BVerheggen and perhaps some others if they have time Mod Note: Due to the geographical spread of our guests there will be a lag in some answers, please be patient!

I am a postdoctoral researcher at Michigan State University investigating the biomechanics, evolution, and ecology of gecko lizards with special attention to their adhesive toes. I’ve always been interested in figuring out how things work and my research blends that interest with biology. I use an evolutionary approach to understand why animals are shaped the way they’re shaped, This kind of work is sometimes called functional morphology or comparative biomechanics. I specifically focus on the toe pads of gecko lizards, an amazing example of natural nano-technology. Gecko toe pads are a really great system to work with because they have some really unusual mechanics and evolutionary patterns. Unlike other adhesives you may be familiar with (glue, tape, velcro, suction cups), gecko toe pads work completely differently. They are made up of tiny hair-like structures that are much smaller then mammalian hair. These structures are small enough to interact with the surface the gecko is walking on using van der Waals forces (an induced dipole - induced dipole weak intermolecular bond). Simply put, the fact that the gecko hairs are very small and have electrons spinning around them and the surface the gecko is walking on also has electrons spinning around its molecules, results in the gecko hairs being weakly attracted towards the surface. The really interesting part is trying to figure out why there is so much variation across species. Gecko toe pads come in different shapes and their hairs also come in different lengths, diameters, and densities. We’re just now beginning to look into how/why this variation evolved and its affect on performance. With this research, we’ll not only gain a better understanding of how life on our planet has evolved and adapted to different environments, but some of the things we learn can be applied to help solve complex human problems (biomimicry), like sticking to things in space or designing Spiderman gloves. I also have a live crowdfunding project at https://experiment.com/projects/are-the-feet-of-gecko-lizards-adapted-to-different-surface-textures you should check out. I will be back at 1 pm ET to answer your questions, Ask Me Anything! Sorry everybody! There was a scheduling snafu! I’ll be checking this all day on Sunday (4/16) to answer your questions! Also check out a video of a lecture I gave in 2014 at the University of Idaho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzmXxp_tjj8