FRIENDS

Some offline friends! If I know you and you have a public internet presence you'd like to share, reach out to me and I'll add you here!

  • Liz - Learn about the incredible species of the Bay from a great photographer!
  • Tim Xie - Local Kiwi genius with a far more professional website.

THE INTERNET

I've gone through a few personal sites in my time, but I got inspired to make this one after stumbling on RIBOSE and falling down a deep rabbit hole of intensely creative personal sites.

Checkout some others:

  • 100R - 2 artists who live their lives on a sailboat, programming unique projects and living off the grid.
  • Monastery of St. Blamensir - Get lost in a manuscript from the middle ages. I don't know how to describe this one, please just check it out.
  • MELONKING - Is this what the internet used to be like? I have no clue what's going on but the music is top notch and I can't look away.
  • Miq - Beautiful art with a lovely constellation theme.
  • Low Tech Magazine - So cool. Just so cool.
  • Tom7 - This man is so smart and so chaotic and I love it so much. (video)

CODING

Fun fact, my first programming language was Kerboscript, a language made to fly Kerbal missions autonomously. I don't think I ever got further than orbit, but shout out to CheersKevin for teaching me how to program!

I aspire to one day have the same level of passion and talent for education as the venerable Daniel Shiffman. The man is a pure packet of joy and creativity bursting at the seams to share it with everybody.

SCIENCE AND SPACE

(left the most nerdy, rambly section for last, be warned)

I kid you not that my life would be entirely different if I never discovered Kerbal Space Program and Scott Manley back in middle school. I was interested in space before, but they were the ones to show I could be a part of it somehow. And when Scott transitioned from making KSP to science videos, his gift as an educator only inspired me more. To this day, I get excited for every video he creates and he helps me hold onto that child-like excitement for space. Sadly, it was a long and tragic story for KSP and its sequel, and now it's owned by some faceless private equity firm. Though if it's any sign of the game that HarvesteR and his team created, the community is as strong as ever all these years later and we'd love if you'd join us :) Fly safe!

If you have not already, checkout Explorable Explanations! I have sunk hours playing around on the site, and it continues to spark ideas for new projects. One of the site's creators, Nicky Case, has her own collection of incredible explorables, and was one of my biggest inspirations for learning how to code. The people behind MinuteEarth have also created MinuteLabs in the same spirit, which is also really fun to play around with, and for any physics-heads out there, checkout falstad.com to make book explanations a bit more visual.

And some more:

  • Explore EOS - A wonderful friend of mine who photographs and educates about the beautiful animals of the Bay Area!
  • NASA's Eyes - Literally the coolest thing ever. See what probe's NASA's communicating with, where the tiny explorers are in their journey, the timeline of the ozone layer, and so much more.
  • Bartosz Ciechanowski - Super accessible and wonderfully satisfying explanations to complex systems and concepts.
  • Desmos - Explore the Global Math Art Contest!
  • Map of the Universe and Cosmic Structures - Check out the largest structures that we're able to observe. Some find the scale cosmology dizzying - I find it simply sublime.
  • Clockwork - I legitimately wish someone could sit down and teach me all of biochemistry - this stuff is so interesting! Captivating animations and explanations of the intricate mechanisms keeping you alive.
  • RCSB PDB - A protein database to view, learn about, and experiment with the tiny machines of life. I find the complexity in biology and ecology to be a nice supplement to the insane scales of astronomy.
  • MICrONS Explorer - We mapped a cubic millimeter of a mouse's brain and you can explore it! I know next to nothing about neuroscience so I don't really know what I'm looking at but fascinating nonetheless.
  • RIBOSE - Loren's internet homepage, including fun pages on plants, bugs, molecular biology, and history!
  • Stellarium - Practice your star hopping skills or plan for your next star gazing retreat!
  • Stellafane and Kissner Optik - Everything you need to know about building your own telescope. Purchased my materials and looking to get into this over the summer!
If you're on this site and grew up with YouTube like I did, I'm sure you're already familiar with many of these creators in here, but worth shouting them out because they are also big inspirations and great science communicators!

And if any of my teachers or professors happen to be reading this, know that I am grateful to you everyday for stoking my curiosity and encouraging me to explore. You have changed my life in no uncertain terms and I remain in your debt.

Last thing I'll say is that it can be pretty easy to burn yourself out with whatever interests you - I've done it several times with astronomy, aerospace, and electronics. Protect your passions, explore outside your bubble, and recognize that all of this is for your own fun at the end of the day.