Ariel Waldman to keynote Neutrino Day X

Ariel Waldman has her bags packed for some incredible scientific destinations this year. Her itinerary includes boarding the Ocean Exploration Trust’s Nautilus to scour deep sea volcano life forms and striding through Antarctic winds to study life in extreme habitats. But first, the Spacehack.org founder makes a stop at a wildly unique scientific haven—the Sanford Underground Research Facility, where she'll be the keynote speaker for Neutrino Day X.

Neutrino Day, held July 14, is Sanford Lab’s free science festival. It features hoistroom tours, hands-on science activities and exhibits, live video chats with scientists deep underground at Sanford Lab and Fermilab's, and presentations throughout Lead.

“I’m a huge nerd about neutrinos,” Waldman said. “I’m excited to geek out with people about these particles and the opportunity for interesting collaborations amidst particle physics.”

As excited as she is about physics and other scientific disciplines, science wasn’t her first love.

“I went to art school and didn’t initially consider myself a science geek,” Waldman said. “It wasn’t even on my radar.”

An interesting documentary on NASA, however, inspired her to reach out to the United States’ pioneering space agency. That one email turned into an unexpected job offer. Waldman joined NASA’s CoLab program, whose mission is to connect communities inside and outside NASA in collaboration. She hasn’t looked back since.

“Once I became interested in space exploration, I knew I wanted to dedicate the rest of my life to it.”

Ten years later, she sits on the council for NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts, a program that nurtures radical, science-fiction-inspired ideas that could transform future space missions. Far from trading her paintbrush for a lab coat, Waldman uses her talent and passions to further scientific discovery. In fact, that’s her job description.

Science Hackers

Waldman brings together artists, engineers, computer scientists, stargazers, veterinarians, teachers, writers, carpenters, entrepreneurs and librarians to create a community of “science hackers.”

“Science hackers—that’s what we all are. It’s not about your background. It’s about using things in ways they weren’t intended.”

To Waldman, science hacking means weird and whimsical exploration. Like combining particle physics concepts with jellyfish data—the more fields of knowledge you can combine, the more ingenuitive the hacking becomes.

Waldman wasted no time creating programs and interfaces that allow people to hack into their own scientific playground. She is the global director of Science Hack Day, a sort of “think tank,” that brings people from various backgrounds together to see what they can create over a weekend. The results? New research, new companies or sometimes nothing. But Waldman is enthusiastic no matter the outcome because the events inspire people to reach across disciples to find solutions.

“It allows serendipity into science and recognizes that people completely outside of science are incredibly valuable to science,” Waldman said. “They have different ways of looking at problems—different tools and techniques in their everyday lives. Tapping into these can solve a lot of problems.”

Waldman also created Spacehack.org, a directory of ways for anyone to contribute to science—without a science background.

“You can search for new super massive black holes in the universe. People have even discovered multiple galaxies through Spacehack.org,” Waldman said. “These platforms illuminate what is available to communities interested in space exploration, making it interesting and accessible.”

Neutrino Hacks

Waldman finds neutrinos fascinating and will incorporate the stealthy little particles into her Neutrino Day presentation.

“Neutrinos are mysterious—and there’s a lot left to discover about them. It’s exciting to see the collaboration between Sanford Lab, Fermilab and so many international partners. An experiment like LBNF/DUNE brings so many minds together in pursuit of discovery.”

In the hunt to learn more about neutrinos, scientists and engineers continue to develop cutting-edge particle accelerators and detectors, creating limitless potential for science hacking, Waldman said.

“People are hacking particle accelerators and using them for interesting projects. These inventions unravel more about neutrinos and how they work. Each time the scientific community makes these intergalactic discoveries, we are uncovering more reasons we should be collaborating with people from other disciplines to learn more about the earth and the galaxy.”

What’s It Like in Space?

How do you aim a sneeze in a spacesuit? How do you sleep in zero gravity? Although Waldman herself hasn’t been able to get moon dust on her own shoes—yet—she has had the opportunity to chat with several astronauts about some of their more “human” space stories. And she wrote a book about it.

After her Neutrino Day presentation, Waldman will hold a book signing for What’s it like in space?

“I created this book to show the light-hearted and fun stuff about space exploration. It can be a very serious topic, and sometimes you lose track of the more human side. This book aims to make it more personal—something you could imagine yourself going into.”

Neutrino Day X

This year, Sanford Lab celebrates 10 years of Neutrino Day, our free science festival held in Lead, South Dakota, every year on the second Saturday of July. The festival includes hoistroom tours, science activities and exhibits, live video chats with scientists at Fermilab and underground at Sanford Lab, and presentations that focus every day science hacks with Ariel Waldman and the engineering behind the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) with Chris Mossey.

Read more about Ariel Waldman and explore her interactive science programs by visiting http://arielwaldman.com/