As Science Friday’s director and senior producer, Charles Bergquist channels the chaos of a live production studio into something sounding like a radio program. He coordinates in-studio activities each week from 1-4. And then collapses. He also produces pieces for the radio show. His favorite topics involve planetary sciences, chemistry, materials, and shiny things with blinking lights.
Charles has been at Science Friday longer than anyone on staff except Ira, and so serves as a repository of sometimes useful, sometimes useless knowledge about the program. He remembers the time an audience member decided to recite a love poem during a live remote broadcast, the time the whole staff went for ice cream at midnight in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the name of that guy Ira is trying to remember from a few years back who did something with space.
He hails from southeastern Pennsylvania and worked for a while as a demonstrator at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia’s science museum (favorite devices: Maillardet’s Automaton, the stream table, the Chladni plates). He has a degree in chemistry from the University of Delaware, home of the Fighting Blue Hens, and a master’s in journalism from New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. However, he attended the program prior to the addition of ‘Health’ to its name, which may explain his slight unease when covering medical topics.
Outside the walls of Science Friday, he enjoys backpacking, camping, cooking not-entirely-healthy things, reading escapist fiction, and trying to unravel his children’s complicated stories.
12:10
A Colossal Squid Video? That’s A Big Deal
Researchers captured the first confirmed video of a colossal squid swimming in its natural habitat—almost 2,000 feet deep.
12:17
Trump’s Nominee For NASA Administrator Meets Congress
Nominee Jared Isaacman prioritized a Mars mission in his confirmation hearings, raising questions about the fate of the Artemis lunar program.
29.08
What Artificial General Intelligence Could Mean For Our Future
What happens when AI moves beyond convincing chatbots and custom image generators to something that matches—or outperforms—humans?
12:04
Chemists Make A Coating That Can Slow A Golf Ball’s Roll
An experimental coating could make golf balls roll more reliably on greens with different conditions.
12:16
‘Delving’ Into The ‘Realm’ Of AI Word Choice
Certain words are overrepresented in text written by AI language models. A study investigates why such patterns develop.
17:15
DESI Data Strengthens Evidence Of Change In Dark Energy
Researchers built the largest 3D map of our universe yet. What they found supports the idea that dark energy could have evolved over time.
7:12
A Rookie Robot Umpire Takes The Field
In this year’s baseball spring training, the new Automated Ball-Strike System is helping settle challenges to home plate pitch calls.
17:14
How NIH Cuts Could Affect U.S. Biomedical Research
Former NIH director Dr. Harold Varmus speaks out about what recent budget cuts and policy changes could mean for science.
13:13
Touchdown For The Blue Ghost Lunar Lander
The lander, part of NASA’s CLPS initiative, completed the first fully successful commercial moon landing.
3:52
How To See The ‘Blood Moon’ Lunar Eclipse Next Week
A total lunar eclipse will be visible across most of North and South America in the early morning hours of March 14.