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Narrator: A group of fifty-five science and space enthusiasts who follow the NASA Ames

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Twitter account were invited to NASA Ames Research Center to participate in an event

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called a “Tweet-up.”

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These tweeps, or people who use Twitter, were given a rare opportunity to tour the labs at NASA Ames,

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listen to presentations and get answers to their questions from researchers who work at the Center.

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Pete Worden: Social networking is really critical.  As we move forward as a country

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and some of the most exciting things that the country does are in NASA.

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This is an increasing way that the public, particularly the interested public,

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can actually participate and ride with us as we do the wonderful things we do at NASA.

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Narrator: Throughout the day, the participants were busy taking pictures and

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tweeting about their experiences 140 characters or about 20 words at a time.

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Natalie Greco: I think NASA's involvement in social media and Twitter is awesome.

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I think it's a really great way to get the word out to the public about what's going on with NASA

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and kind of giving everyone an insider view of exactly what's happening.

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Narrator: Researchers shared their latest discoveries and demonstrated

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some of the unique facilities at NASA Ames during the Tweetup event.

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John Yembrick: You'll get to experience something totally new here.

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Ames Research Center is like no other center in the Agency.

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It is involved in almost every single NASA mission that has some sort of influence,

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some sort of impact on what happens.

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You're going to see some of that today during your tours.

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Narrator: The attendees came from 18 states and 5 countries to take part in the Tweetup.

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One in particular had a class of his students back in Nashville, Tennessee

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following his tweets throughout the day.

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Don Breedwell: My students are learning how to use social media in the class.

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So one of the things we've been doing is Twittering, Facebooking, doing all the different kinds of things.

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I've had a wonderful time here and we'll use this information that I've learned here

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to help with science programs that we have in our high school and in our county.