crperrien's blog

The Science of Fitness w/ Science in the Triangle guest Laura Z. Powell, American Council on Exercise

crperrien — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 22:16:19 +0000

There is much, and some say way too much, talk about Healthcare. I sometimes feel that we're scaring people into an unhealthy state of mind. And the discussions about Healthcare's needed reforms nearly exclusively address cost and fees and funding related programs. I never hear much wisdom about serious, large scale programs centered on prevention or an approach to inspire healthy living amongst our citizens. We have a sort of, 'hey, we need more money to help or we're going broke helping unhealthy people.' I'd prefer some attention to us not becoming unhealthy as 60% of the nation's medical bills stem from some form of self-inflicted harm, usually food, drug or alcohol abuse.

This lengthy preamble introduces Sunday's guest who makes a career of personal fitness: physical, spiritual and emotional. Laura was a successful Duke tennis player; lived for 5 years in the PE epicenter of America, namely the environs of Denver, Colorado (you could look it up); and has tales of the therapeutic value of fitness programs for females in Afghanistan to help to offset the burdens and inconveniences they suffer just by being women, i.e. jumping-jacks in a burka have a high degree of difficulty.

At any rate, the glorious summer of North Carolina is upon us and there is more to our scientific community in the RTP than can be measured with a microscope; sometimes you may need an old-fashioned scale.

Interview will be repeated on iTunes, natch. If you want to contact Laura Powell = laurazpowell@gmail.com.

Science in the Triangle on Sunday 10 April at 830 pm: interview with CEO of Aten Inc

crperrien — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:27:52 +0000

Aten is a start-up in the RTP housed in the Park Research Center on Alexander Drive. Taking advantage of the strength of the gaming community in our RTP, our topic in the first program of the semester, they are making a business of adapting gaming models and interfaces for middle school education. My guest will be Thomas Vaidhyan, Founder and CEO of Aten. We'll talk about his company's purpose and composition as well as his success and obstacles in helping North Carolina take advantage of the national educational emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). I assure you that you'll find Thomas to be a well-rounded and interesting guest. /cp

Science in the Triangle: interview with musicians from our History Department

crperrien — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 22:10:02 +0000

"What does music and musicians from our university's History Department have to do with Science in the Triangle?" was Tessa's reaction to my guest list for this coming Sunday. My reply and idea is that SIT is intended to help to dispel the notion that science in our region is only about bio-engineering and genomics and nanotechnologies that daunt to the point where we forget that the woman next to us in Harris Teeter may be one of these scientists. Plus, an interesting tenant of the Research Triangle Park is The National Center for the Humanities and it was not located there by accident. I also kidded Tessa that when Steve Jobs introduced the iPad2, the stage was set at the street corner of Liberal Arts and Humanities.

On this coming Sunday, March 13, my guests will be Laurent Dubois, Reeve Huston and Bill Reddy. All are pretty good amateur musicians as a jam session at Reeve's home two years inspired an idea for SIT- let's show the human dimension to science in our Triangle region.

The show's format is 30 minutes so we'll hustle to introduce our guests, hear them play some, ask them about their field of study and its relationship to science in the Triangle and ask them to play some more.

WXDU -Science in the Triangle: Sunday at 830pm

crperrien — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 15:58:47 +0000

Tessa of Blue Pane Studio and I partner with the RTP Foundation to sponsor www.scienceinthetriangle.org. Its mission is to offer people who are curious about science, but not necessarily scientists, a place to find out what is happening in related ways around our RTP. While promoting SIT, it occurred to me that many academics and scientists have an interest and talent for music. Obvious to many at our station, of course.

Having this 30 minute show gives me the chance to reveal that often unknown side of people in our science community (which we interpret broadly) while making the show appealing to our XDU audience. I am grateful for this chance to experiment. If I luck out, we'll come across as a regional version of Terry Gross and Radio Lab. Dream on!

The first guest will be Tyler Dukes who covers the gaming beat in the Triangle which is the second largest concentration of gamers in the country. There are more than 40+ related companies including Epic and Emergent. We'll hear Tyler's opinion of the industry and the how/who picks their music.