Dr. John here… During Science Cheerleader’s ongoing effort to challenge stereotypes and inspire youngsters, we’ve searched the globe to find cheerleaders and athletes who are pursuing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.  Little did I know, I spend every workday sitting right across the hall from a high-tech hybrid that has mastered the world of Internet technology and the rigors of personal physique (refer to image of ridiculously toned, bikini-wearing woman).

I’d like to introduce you to my friend and colleague, Arlene, a Google Search Appliance Analyst at the U.S Department of Defense. She manages both the business and technical aspects of the Google search engine on www.defense.gov and is my go-to person for insight on virtually anything related to the Internet (and apparently fitness as well!)

As you’ll learn in the interview below, Arlene has also spent her entire life competing in a variety of sports and cheerleading, culminating as a competitor in National Physique Committee Figure competitions.  She also shares some of her first experiences in the science and technology, and gives away her secret to getting people interested in STEM.

And now I think I need to hit the gym!

Which teams did you cheer or play for and when?

I’ve always been an avid athlete since I was very young: Little League left fielder, Pee-Wee League cheerleader in primary school; softball in Jr high school and indoor and outdoor track and cross-country running in Sr high school. Later on I was an amateur level competitor in National Physique Committee Figure competitions (think bodybuilding with less muscle bulk mixed with a swimsuit presentation).

Who or what experience turned you on to STEM careers?

My dentists, doctors, and my parents turned me on to science as a very young child. I was ill often, had very poor vision, and bad teeth. To help me understand the “why” of all these things, my parents took the time to explain everything to me with the help of books and games. This desire to learn how things work coupled with subscriptions to OMNI Magazine and National Geographic throughout most of my childhood fueled my interest in all things science.

From astronomy to chemistry – I received my first kit when I was 7 – to zoology, I could never get enough science. My biggest love was astronomy and space science, though. I had ambitions of becoming an astronaut when I grew up, but then I learned at university that my inferior vision would keep me from achieving that dream. I turned my attention to web technology and innovation instead.

Do you have any advice for youngsters who might feel torn between following one dream associated with beauty or physique (cheerleading, baseball, etc) and following a STEM career usually associated with, well, geeks?

My biggest advice: Ignore the labels and go after everything you desire. I feel very fortunate that my parents encouraged me to do whatever I wished. They never told me to choose between math and running track, or between biology and ballet dancing. In their eyes I was capable of doing it all, and so I did.

How did your fellow cheerleaders/athletes accept your interest in STEM fields?

I was fortunate to have known a lot of fellow athletes with brilliant minds throughout my life so my interest in science was often shared. It was always nice to be able to discuss that day’s biology homework while running laps.

What are typical reactions you’ve received when people learn about your figure competition days?

Because I’m soooo smart [kidding. not really. yes I am.], people are either shocked or in disbelief when I tell them about my National Physique Committee figure competition days. When they see the pictures they’re still shocked, but not so disbelieving. Then when I start to explain the science behind competition training (and there’s a lot of it), they become utterly fascinated.

How do you encourage people to become more interested in STEM careers??

I always like to ask people, “Do you ever wonder WHY something is the way it is?” and provide them with all the resources I can to learn the answer to the “why”. Especially children since young ones are still discovering life. More informed = better choices.

Best athletic experience?

Placing second in my class at my final figure competition. In the four years that I competed I’d always been 4th and had busted tail switching up my training regimen to finally move up to 2nd!

Best science experience?

Getting the highest grade in my freshman biology class at university for the fruit fly DNA experiment because no one else in the class could figure how to keep their flies in their containers.

Favorite sports team and why?

Auburn Tigers football. Why? WHY?! Cut me in half and I’ll bleed orange and blue. And it’s where I went to university. WAR EAGLE!

From Dr. John: To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internets, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced the DARPA Network Challenge, a competition that will explore the role of social networking in communication, team building, and group mobilization. The challenge is to be the first person to submit the locations of 10 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States.

Here’s how it works: The red balloons will be deployed on Saturday, December 5, in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roads. Teams and collaborators will have approximately 9 days, until 12:00 PM (ET) on December 14, to collect the locations of the balloons and submit their entries.  All locations must be submitted in latitude and longitude coordinates. The event is open to individuals of all ages irrespective of nationality or residency (except Federal employees and their spouses and dependents), but first you must register your team on  the DARPA Network Challenge website.

Find the red balloons. Win $40,000. Do you have what it takes to be the next Balloon Boy/Girl?

Indulge me (Dr. John Ohab) for just a moment and check out this new story, Armed and Scientific, just released by UCLA Magazine. I was recently interviewed for the “Quick Takes” series, which highlights former students and their work since graduating from UCLA. While much of the article focuses on my experiences at the Defense Department, the author did include a brief ditty about Science Cheerleader, describing it as “a web-based media platform that… aims to make science more fun and understandable to wider audience.”  Right on!

Click here to read “Armed and Scientific” in UCLA Magazine.

From Dr. John: Last week, David Meerman Scott, marketing guru and author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” visited the Pentagon to discuss the importance of social media in the Defense Department’s communications arsenal.  He spent two hours with the All Services Social Media Council, comprised of people from across the Department (ten points if you can find my forehead), and led a very interesting discussion about social media strategy and brand journalism.

I had the opportunity to chat with David during a 30-minute car ride, and I couldn’t help but detail all of the social media strategies we use to operate Armed with Science, the Defense Department’s weekly science podcast.  He was so impressed with our efforts to provide meaningful information about science and technology through social media that he even mentioned us in a blog entry, Brand Journalism in US Military Humanizes Large Organization.

Pretty cool!  Maybe his next book will be titled, “The New Rules of Science Marketing and PR”!

A brief, “edutaining” first-person account on the Science of Lying, from our own Dr. John Ohab.

This Pentagon Channel report investigates whether neuroimaging techniques can be used to detect deception. Dr. Bhatt previously appeared as a guest on the weekly science and technology podcast, “Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military”.

The report also features my award-winning acting skills and demonstrates the razor-sharp wit and decision-making savvy required to answer personal questions under pressure.

Dr. Bhatt: Were you born in 1980?
John: Yes.

Virtually no hesitation.

Special invitation from an inside-source at the Department of Defense…our very own Dr. John Ohab:
Here’s a great opportunity to engage the highest ranking U.S. military officer in a dialogue about science: Admiral Mullen, The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is taking YOUR video questions over YouTube through midnight on Monday, August 31st. He’ll select his favorite questions and answer them directly on the Defense Department’s YouTube page.

The Department of Defense (DoD) will spend more than $75 billion on research, development, testing, and evaluation in fiscal year 2009; that is, more than the entire budgets of the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation COMBINED. Much of this will directly support our warfighters by providing revolutionary, superior capabilities needed to accomplish DoD’s mission. However, this investment also includes research in biomedicine, earth and environmental sciences, information technology, and many other disciplines that extend beyond military applications into the civilian world.

Do you have a question about DoD’s efforts to reduce energy consumption, their research on climate change and retreating Artic sea ice, medical care for servicemembers and their families, or how Recovery funds will impact DoD scientific pursuits?

Submit your YouTube video questions before midnight on Monday, AUGUST 31!   Don’t miss your chance to get answers straight from the top!

From Science Cheerleader report, Dr. Ohab:

On Saturday, July 11, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA), the Defense Agency responsible for protecting the Pentagon, conducted an operational response test to a simulated outdoor airborne biological attack on the Pentagon grounds. The study consisted of the release of a harmless gardening powder into the Pentagon parking area, where nearly 100 citizen volunteers were positioned, followed by subsequent decontamination and surface sampling of the volunteers. The results will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of various emergency personnel and guide future operational responses to attacks on the Pentagon.

Best of all, Pentagon security relaxed its usual restrictions on photography and permitted media to film virtually all aspects of the operation. I had an opportunity to interview various subject matter experts, including Mr. Paul Benda and Dr. Christina Murata, Director and Deputy Director of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives Directorate at the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, as well as some of the volunteers for a SciCheer video report.

If you’re interested in learning more about the operational response test, check out “Armed with Science”, the Defense Department’s weekly science podcast, this Wednesday at 2pm ET on Pentagon Web Radio. I’ll be interviewing Mr. Benda and Dr. Murata live, and anyone can submit questions before or during the show by posting to the Armed with Science podcast or the Twitter page.

The X2 Project, sponsored by the National Academies and the Department of Defense.  An opportunity to play with the big boys!

The creators of the X2 Project, a collaborative forecasting experiment, understand the future is shaped by all of us. The old model–small groups of rocket scientists, CEOs and politicians determining our future–is crumbling. That’s a good thing because that model eroded public trust and contributed to the current, incestuous state-of-affairs when it comes to science policy (and science education, one could argue).

Get to the good stuff, you say? Ok! 

I asked X2 Project’s founder, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, to give us the low-down on this wild experiment. Here are highlights of our chat. Note: You’ve got to log on and participate! I did. Such fun and I’ve earned three points so far. Log on, you’ll understand.

Science Cheerleader:  Kindly summarize the project in terms I can understand.

Alex:  This is an effort to forecast the future of science and innovation: what new ideas or research areas are going to impact our future; where is this most likely to occur in the world; what will future scientists–researchers, entrepreneurs, independent scientists or citizen scientists–think about their prospects and the future of science.

SC:  Why can’t you just call a professor at MIT and ask him for this information, like they did in the good old days?

Alex: Because we live in a different world which is increasingly changing from the bottom-up, so to speak. Today, so-called citizen scientists, people from all walks of life, can use scientific instruments to monitor everything from rainfall to rainforest destruction and high school students can manipulate DNA. Science is more accessible now than anytime in recent history.

SC: GO!!  How can the X2 Project benefit me, I mean, society?

Alex: At the broadest level, society benefits by better understanding the futures it has to choose from. Everything we do as individuals or as members of a community affects the future; but too often we either don’t think about what our actions could mean, or don’t have the information to fully explore the consequences of our choices.  More specifically, X2′s benefits could come in a few forms. For our sponsors (the National Academies and the Department of Defense), it’s a chance to get a handle on big trends and disruptions that could be important in the future, with an eye towards making smarter policy. For scientists, I hope it can turn into a resource they can turn to when making big career decisions. And for the general public, it’ll be a place to contribute to and think about the social and economic impacts of scientific trends.

SC: How can we participate? And, it’s free and easy, right?

Alex: Yes it is. And there are a couple of ways you and your audience can get involved. First, we are always looking for “signals” or things that are happening in the sciences that people think are the leading edge of important new trends or disruptions. Anyone can become a member of X2 and add signals.  We are also organizing a series of online games exploring different possible futures for science. These are open to anyone. In fact, the more varied perspectives we get, the better the game.  People who are really enthusiastic, or have a good eye for interesting trends, can become more deeply involved in the project by writing forecasts, participating in mapping workshops, etc

And, here’s my favorite reply from Alex: I think what we’re creating here is a platform that could have uses we haven’t yet imagined, by people we haven’t thought about–teachers, journalists, advocates–anyone who wants to participate and who could benefit from having access to tools that help them think more systematically about their future.

Now that’s teamwork in science! Cheers.