Mission possible: making science more accessible to all

" ... All-nighters are not fun. Whether catching up on office work, studying for an exam or doing extra project research, they rarely feel productive. However, for the last few years Science Hack Day has brought together scientists, developers and enthusiasts in a room for up to 24 hours to invent new solutions for everyday problems using science. Last year teams worked over the two days to create a doorbell that links to your smartphone, a glove that writes text messages and a toaster that recognises people’s preferred cooking time. The project is the brainchild of Irishman Jeremy Keith and former NASAasa employee Ariel Waldman ... Science Hack Day is free and open to all, and part of the motivation for Ariel is seeing different disciplines connect to make such creations. 'Getting an astrophysicist to play around with neuroscience is really cool and interesting. It’s something where it’s agnostic towards education and more about playing with things they don’t know anything about' ... It’s a far cry from the Kansas native’s beginnings. Waldman studied art in college and later found herself working in an ad agency as a digital anthropologist. After seeing the 2008 documentary When We Left Earth about the Apollo missions, she wrote to Nasa volunteering her expertise ..."