Flora has produced science media for 20 years across many formats. She got her start right here at Science Friday, working her way up from intern to fill-in host, and resident videographer. From there, she worked as a video producer for The New York Times, co-creating an Emmy-nominated film series that dramatized scientific discoveries using… paper puppets. She also was nominated for an Emmy for her writing on Bill Nye’s Netflix show “Bill Nye Saves the World.” She has created and launched a number of podcasts in various roles, including hosting Gimlet’s beloved “Every Little Thing,” which connected listeners to experts who could answer their burning questions. The show ran for five years and published over 200 episodes.
Making science accessible, relatable, and human has been a focus of Flora’s career. Some of her inspiration comes from her own experience in science: Long, long ago, she worked at a NATO oceanographic lab in Italy. For the lab’s research expeditions, she lived on a ship where apertivi were served on the top deck, hoisted there via pulley by the ship’s chef.
You can find her @flichtman on social media platforms.
Mini Speed Demons
From mantis shrimp to trap-jaw ants, some of the fastest organisms on the planet are ones you may never have heard of.
What Happens When You Levitate Flies?
In a recent study, Richard Hill levitated fruit flies to see how they behaved when they didn’t have gravity pulling them down.
Behold, The 1,000-Pound Pumpkin
Visit Robert Sabin’s pumpkin patch: he has been growing giant pumpkins—the breed is Atlantic Giant—for over ten years.
Meet The Balloonatics
It’s crunch time for the “balloonatics” at Macy’s Parade Studio.
When Is a Moth Like a Hummingbird?
A hawk moth feeds by hovering in front of flowers and slurping nectar through a proboscis, basically a body-length straw.
Geek My Pumpkin
Maniac Pumpkin Carvers Marc and Chris carve hundreds of pumpkins each fall, which go for a few hundred bucks and rarely end up on stoops. They gave us some tips for how to bring our pumpkins to the next level this Halloween.
Where’s the Octopus?
When marine biologist Roger Hanlon captured the first scene in this video he started screaming.
Solar Spotting
Using the Swedish Solar Telescope, a ground-based observatory, Goran Scharmer and colleagues probe the penumbra—that’s the stringy structure around the perimeter of the dark part of the sunspot.
Desktop Diaries: Michio Kaku
Theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku takes us on a tour of his office, where he writes his bestsellers and records his radio shows.
Magnified Sun Burns
At the right angle, a magnifying glass will concentrate sunshine into a burning hot circle.