Besides the normal writing and B-roll accompaniment to the information, we decided to add an on-screen character to help with some of the concepts.  In fact, our client had seen Science Sensei and liked me as the host.  We wanted to be a little less goofy because you know how high schoolers can be disdainful of things that aim too low. So we created a similarly buffoonish character, but kept the writing to the point, and did a lot of the adventures in animatic–essentially, animated still images.

As lead animator for the project, I decided to delve more into the 3D animation world in order to fashion more of the props we needed from scratch.  The series is heavily based on animation, so I became a cornucopia of animated models: from the layers of the crust of the Earth to beta decay radiation, juggling pins on different planets to flying in NASA’s Vomit Comet.  I made hundreds of individual 3D models and countless animations based on all areas of Physics.

I had the pleasure of writing and producing the first book we did, Forces and Motion.  My degree in Mechanical Engineering and Biomechanics at Duke University was helpful…  Also, that book was the most formula-intensive in the series, and I was the only one who had the time and patience to weed through the math at that point.

The series has gotten excellent feedback so far, and I hope to contiune to develop this kind of character, wrting, and animating in projects that communicate science to the public.

Since I was a black belt and instructor in Jujitsu, it made sense for me to command the world of scientific information as handily as I executed judo throws wielded and a Japanese sword. Thus Science Sensei was born.

Lacking an interesting studio setting or backdrop, I set to work placing the Science Sensei in a variety of exotic backgrounds thanks to a judicious use of a green screen and Final Cut Pro editing and compositing software.  I reported from a snow storm in Siberia, the men’s bathroom, a birdhouse, the Sun, and even a dreamworld full of lollipops and dopamine molecules.

My animations and fantastic settings (along with my tireless enthusiasm) fleshed out my character to the point where Science Sensei became the sole host of the show, playing straight and humorous roles alternatively.  I did all of the hosting, editing, compositing, and animating for the show and worked collaboratively on the writing and producing.  The 3 minute high-definition show was shown on our website, iTunes podcasts, on its own YouTune channel, and broadcast to College Campuses around the country.

We covered serious science news and research, but always approached the subject by acting out the role of the reseaerchers, the research subjects, or sometimes the research materials (fish, molecules, objects cloaked by microwaves) to bring an intuitive, visceral, and entertaining sense of what’s going on in the world of science.

The project lasted about a year. We made 11 episodes and two holiday specials. We stopped because we were having trouble monetizing video on the web, but we refined many of the ideas and techniques and applied them to the role of Mr. Physics, which is part of a high school and college physcis video series.

String Theory came about as a way to try to unify the four fundamental fources in the Universe: the strong force, which holds atomic nuclei together, the weak force which transforms sub-atomic particles into other sub atomic particles during decay cycles, electromagnetism, which does everything from point a compass North to generate electricity and hold matter together, and finally gravity, which Einstein described as a distortion of the fabric of space-time that draws objects towards each other.

You might be surprised to know that physicists have already unified the first three forces using the “standard model” however, we have such a poor understanding of gravity that we haven’t been able to make it fit into a “Theory of Everything” or as it used to be called, a “Grand Unified Theory.”

String Theory is (mathematically speaking) ridiculously complex, with high order calculations extending into multiple dimensions.  Personally, I think extra dimensions are a deus ex machina, and you could probably prove that the world is flat and time runs backwards with enough extra dimension in your pocket.  But who am I to say?  I’m not a physicist.

There was no prize money for the contest, but it did help me land a job at ScienCentral News, where I have been a science media producer since 2006.