I am still in a glow from something that overwhelmed me with joy and gratitude earlier this month: I hosted a private, invite-only sneak peek of Antarctica Unearthed for friends, family, supporters, and crew. Antarctica Unearthed, my first documentary, is scheduled to broadcast on television in the U.S. this Fall.
I'm going to Antarctica! My heart is fluttering even just typing that right now.I have spent the past five years (five!) working on trying to go to Antarctica. And now, later this year I'll be spending an entire month there! For me, going to Antarctica is like going to space... only I get to keep that nifty gravity and atmosphere as carry-on luggage.This is going to be a multi-month endeavor for…
I went a mile underground inside an abandoned gold mine ...for science!I was in Lead, South Dakota (next to Deadwood) to keynote their big public event called Neutrino Day where families come in from the surrounding areas to geek out about particle physics, which is so cool.I always adore a chance to geek out about neutrinos and subatomic particle collisions, but I was especially excited to get a…
Premiering today for the first time - I'm hosting a new show with Tested called Offworld ! Tested is Mythbusters' Adam Savage's YouTube channel that has over 3 million subscribers. Offworld will be about all things outer space + pop culture. Check out the first episode featuring astronomer Dr. Jill Tarter and Norm Chan as we geek out about the movie Contact: Welcome to Offworld, a new show we're…
As many people today, on New Year's Eve, are reflecting on the year they had, I feel compelled to document and more suitably archive my year in protests. This is not a post telling you what you should do or what to compare yourself to. Welcome to a personal blog – my personal blog. Going through these photos and videos helps give me faith for whatever 2018 brings, whether it's rebuilding a long…
Geeky confession: I was excited to wake up & see @ScienceChannel RTed me: http://is.gd/7bQ1Jh . Geeky dream: Ideally, 1 day I'll be on it. — Ariel Waldman (@arielwaldman) June 23, 2011 CWtIy5oUkAAIx7J Five years ago I revealed on Twitter that one of my geek dreams was to appear on the Science Channel. Little did I know that a few months later I would be appearing on the SyFy channel , which was a…
Originally posted to my Patreon page, where you can directly support my work ! Anyone who knows me knows I work on a ton of different projects at any given moment. This is why I am often tongue-tied whenever someone asks me what I do or what I've been up to lately. Over time I've come to embrace being scattered and found that my strength is actually in working across an assortment of projects and…
Offscreen Mag From my interview with Offscreen Magazine in 2015 which included an awesome photoshoot at the space-communicating Stanford Dish. First and foremost, I'm looking forward to 2016! It's the year that my book, What's It Like in Space? comes out (available now for pre-order). It's weird, funny and surprising. I'm quite proud of it. What I'm also looking forward to is creating new awesome…
Ariel Waldman and Matt Biddulph were married among the redwoods and eucalyptus trees surrounding the Trocadero Clubhouse in Stern Grove in San Francisco. One Love Photo were there to capture the day. Ariel wore a couture dress made by a local designer, Atelier des Modistes . The dress featured a sweet pea floral watercolor on silk taffeta from Italy. Matt and best man, Tom Coates, say hello to the…
A few months ago I did a photoshoot with the lovely Helena Price for Offscreen Magazine . We walked around San Francisco a bit before deciding to head up to the space-communicating Stanford Dish . Not having visited it before, what we thought would be a quick run up a hill turned into a hike on one of the hottest days in the Bay Area, for which neither one of us had planned for things like, you…
This article was originally published on Boing Boing and has been reposted here. Descending into Madagascar at night is an experience. I was enveloped in and captivated by the darkness. The expected sight of bright lights, distinguishing cities, small towns or even an airport runway, slowly dissipated as I pressed my face against the plastic Air France window. Occasionally, the plane would pass…
Part of the Science Hack Day SF organizing team: Ariel Waldman, Rose Broome and Jun Axup (photo by Matt Biddulph) When I first came across hackathons several years ago, the idea sounded awesome to me. A bunch of people get together, brainstorm ideas, and build wacky or useful stuff over a weekend. I never really accepted the fact that they were in large part geared solely towards developers. I had…
I'm both excited and humbled to announce that I'm joining the external council for NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts ( NIAC ) program! NIAC nurtures visionary, sci-fi-esque ideas that could radically transform future NASA missions. Essentially, NIAC is one of the coolest of the many cool programs at NASA.Just recently, NIAC announced funding for 12 projects including a submarine for Saturn's…
I got scammed today in Shanghai and enjoyed it.I was admittedly nervous to travel to China on my own, despite being relatively well-traveled. Coming here crossed off the last inhabited continent that I had yet to travel to. The language barrier I knew would be more extreme than anything I had yet experienced. In the week leading up to flying to Shanghai, I started building up my guard – installing…
In 2012, I announced that I was appointed as a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee member of a congressionally-requested study on the future of human spaceflight. Just last week, we released our 286-page report to the public (thankfully, there is a great summary section at the front!). I highly recommend reading the report; you can download it for free at…
This thought was originally written for the Pastry Box Project and has been reposted here. As someone who has publicly stumbled into a career in space , I often get asked about my interest in space as a little girl – if I had dreams of being an astronaut growing up, if I begged to go to space camp. These questions often bother me, not for being asked, but in the way they’re asked. In a sense,…
When I first wrote up instructions on how to organize a Science Hack Day, they were rather verbose. I was vacationing in Spain at the time and was probably a little too relaxed to get down to a brass tax quick-start guide. With a total of 28(!) Science Hack Days having taken place all around the world, I decided it was due time to revise the instructions and get to the most important steps that…
I'm gleeful to announce the launch of Seahack.org , a directory of ways to participate in sea exploration!This launch comes on the five year anniversary of its companion site, Spacehack.org . It was five years ago, fresh out of NASA, that I created Spacehack.org. Soon after, I met Lisa Ballard , a planetary data hacker at the SETI Institute and we've been collaborating ever since. While Lisa and…
Science Hack Day SF attendees inside the Morrison Planetarium, photo by Matt Biddulph Wow. The 4th annual Science Hack Day in San Francisco was our most epic yet! I was ecstatic to bring the most science hackers yet (200+) to the largest venue yet - the California Academy of Sciences! Each year of Science Hack Day SF has brought some of the most unexpected creations to life. Each year, I'm asked…
If you're in Australia, you'll probably see me down there this month! Sadly, not in person, but you can find me in the latest issue of Frankie which has been voted Australia's best fashion magazine of 2012. I'm incredibly flattered to be included!I would love to see more fashion magazines feature women science hackers and show how accessible it is to make weird fun things with science. I grew up…