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hi everybody josh byerly here inside

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mission control houston i'm joined by my

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friend liz warren who is part of the

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international space station program

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science office liz

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uh is here because all this week and

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really all this month again we've been

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talking about the anniversaries of

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valentina tereshkova which has been 50

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years since sally ride which has been uh

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30 years since those two

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landmark uh flights took place but liz

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let's talk about science for a little

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bit first of all let's talk about your

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background i've got it

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i have to write it down over here so

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let's say you grew up in san francisco

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right yes i did you have a bs degree in

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molecular cellular and integrative

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physiology did i say that right you did

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and a

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doctoral degree in physiology all from

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uc davis you're a california girl so

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let's talk about

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whenever you're going to school junior

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high school like when did you get

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involved in science when did you sort of

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kind of get the bug and have that happen

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i think i was born with an insatiable

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curiosity i think i always knew i was

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going to be a scientist because of that

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my parents and my family

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encouraged me and fostered my interests

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and i had some pretty great science

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teachers as well in seventh grade

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in california growing up i had a great

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science teacher at mrs pc and then in

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high school miss miss brumbaugh at tim

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lopez high school and then at uc davis i

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had a really wonderful science teacher

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that really challenged me and taught me

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how fun science can be uh barbara

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horowitz at uc davis

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so did you spend your entire time in

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california i did and i arrived in

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houston after getting my phd

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about nine years ago

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okay so first of all let's talk about

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this about this photo that we're looking

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at right now you have a space shuttle on

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the back of your graduation gown did how

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did that happen

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well uh i knew where i was going there

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was no doubt in my mind that i was going

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to be

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working at nasa one day and i think it's

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in part because of the achievements of

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sally ride and valentina tereshkova

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really blazing the trail there was no

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doubt in my mind just because i was a

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woman that i'd be able to achieve my

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dreams as well so they sort of inspired

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you to kind of go into it whatever you

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absolutely you know i'm sure you talked

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a lot of high school and junior high

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kids whenever you're out there and and

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you know the ones that are interested in

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science how do you tell them what to

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figure out what they want to do we

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talked to camille elaine yesterday about

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the same sort of thing like how do they

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even know what they want to go into

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well

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careers in stem and particularly in

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science

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are extremely rewarding

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primarily because you're always learning

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something new

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and that makes for an exciting career

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always changing

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and

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so to students i say

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stick with it sometimes careers or

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sometimes education can be a little bit

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challenging

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but that just makes it more fun yeah and

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the number of doors that are open to you

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when you have uh skills in science

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technology engineering and math are

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really limitless

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so you've done a lot of work here at

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nasa in terms of sort of how the human

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body reacts to being in space talk a

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little bit about that

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well uh when we watch uh people in zero

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gravity uh it sure looks like a lot of

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fun but um

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running on the treadmill right it is

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that's me running on nasa's c9 aircraft

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which allows 20 to 30 seconds of

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microgravity at a time it flies

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well yes

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also known as the vomit comet and

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well i tell students that

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um

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these careers are really exciting and

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really fun and my interest in

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microgravity um really stems from the

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fact that the human body is fascinating

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on its own but when we go to

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microgravity a lot of the changes that

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occur are really not so good for us our

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bodies decondition pretty rapidly

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without gravity

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and one of my favorite experiments on

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the international space station is

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actually an experiment called integrated

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cardiovascular and in essence it studies

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the way that the heart deconditions

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during long duration space flight

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and

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i helped implement that experiment

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actually just down the hall here in

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mission control working with working

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with the folks in the payload operations

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integration center

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as a scientist here at nasa

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and one of my favorite parts of that

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experiment was

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operating an ultrasound device which the

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astronauts used on orbit to take

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pictures of their heart so we could

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actually see the changes that were

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occurring that's interesting you know we

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talk about ultrasound a little bit

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because it's uh

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you know one thing i learned whenever i

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came here was that you know size

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and weight hugely matter whenever you

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take things up and one thing the space

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station is doing is helping to sort of

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miniaturize

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you know the size of mris and and

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ultrasounds and things such as that like

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talk a little bit about that

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so the ultrasound device that is

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currently on orbit is actually a

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commercial off the shelf item that is

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very small pretty much no larger than a

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laptop

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and

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we took that up on orbit with some

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slight modifications to make it uh make

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it usable on space but uh technologies

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have been miniaturized largely because

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of uh nasa technology and and the need

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to have smaller uh technologies and and

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machinery um thanks to nasa spinoffs

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essentially so final question whenever

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you take a look at these anniversaries

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of taraskova and ride and you know you

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look around at

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you know the space station science team

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itself you take a look at all these

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flight controllers in this room i mean

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it's a very diverse

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uh you know people from all walks of

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life all over the world and all kinds of

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education background you know is that

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does that excite you or is it just sort

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of normal now

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you know i think it's actually pretty

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normal now

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we do have a very diverse team here at

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nasa in particular

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there are women astronauts women flight

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controllers women flight directors our

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center director is a woman

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we have a woman up on the international

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space station right now and these things

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don't make headlines i think it's just

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expected now the new astronaut class of

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2013 is half women and while that did

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make some headlines because it was the

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first time that it happened it really

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was wasn't that surprising that is more

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indicative of the number of applicants

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that are women and and the most

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qualified people are picked so i think

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it says a lot

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well it's always good to talk to

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appreciate you coming over here and

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spending some time here on the air with

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us thank you of course if you'd like to

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learn more about the space station all

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the different science experiments that

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the crew is currently working on you can

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take a look at it by expedition or by

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discipline just log on to the nasa

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station just look on the left-hand side

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of the page you'll see research and

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technology there and see all kinds of

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information there about what uh what the