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October 10, 2024 34 mins

In this episode, Sienna dreams of becoming a world-renowned science educator like "Nano Girl," Michelle Dickinson. 

Joining Sienna and Ben, Michelle shares her journey into the world of science, despite not being a fan of science during her school days! 

Episode highlights include: 

  • How Michelle created her Nano Girl persona to overcome her huge fear of public speaking. 
  • Michelle’s efforts to break stereotypes surrounding women in science and make the subject enjoyable, inspiring more young people to develop a passion for science - especially when they stop worrying about others’ opinions. 
  • Answers to burning science questions: Are we using the microwave incorrectly? How clean is your water bottle? Is there really a five-second rule? How gross are flies? 

Plus, Michelle performs a (safe) demonstration that involves lighting Sienna's hand on fire! 

And finally, what advice would Michelle give her younger self at Sienna's age?

About The Show:

Sienna Boyce is 14 years old and constantly tells her Dad, Ben Boyce, what she wants to be when she grows up – an actor, scientist, rugby player, singer, chef or politician. 

Each episode of ‘When I Grow Up’ aims to showcase inspirational females from around Aotearoa and shine a light on them, what it takes to do their job and learn about their story of how they got to where they are so that Sienna can help make up her mind.

This is a podcast to help the teenager in your life dream big.

Follow The Podcast on Socials:

TikTok: Ben | Sienna 

Instagram: Ben | Sienna | The Hits

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Heads podcast network.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Myne nem is seeing it and this is my dadmin Hi,
And when I grow up, I want to be a TikTok.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Start right, or a sports player.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Okay, hang on ale yeah, even a fashion designer. Actually
maybe in all the players.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Okay, okay, slow down. Maybe we should talk to some
amazing females who inspire you and who you want to.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Be, like, yeah, and we can find out what they
did to get where they are.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yes, and let's do it as a TV show.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
No, Dad, only old people watch TV.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Let's do it as a podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Okay, yeah, yeah, I guess that works though.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
This is when I grow up. Today's Scarce is doctor
Michelle Dickinson, who is also known as Nana Girl, who
does amazing things in the world of science.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
The incredible things She's spoken down heaps of stereotypes. She
tries to get more young people into science. But there's
also a few misconceptions around here, right, and well, I'm
going to throw you under the bus. You say it,
but we were both wrong about one thing at the start, right.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, Well, Michelle is awesome. I love how she makes
science fun.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
And during this chat, how amazing was that moment where
you were You're literally on fire.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I was on fire. That was pretty cool. That was
the first And we did learn something really cool from
Michelle's story. Even if you don't like something at school,
it doesn't mean it's not for you.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, and a pretty amazing hack about getting over a
fear of public speaking.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
What is really amazing about Michelle is everything she knows.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, it's like that.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
What's that saying, like waves as woe?

Speaker 3 (01:27):
What's up?

Speaker 1 (01:28):
I have no idea.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, I'll have to find that out. You have to
hear that from me in the next episode.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
But yeah, you're right. We draw a lot of things
at it, and we find out like we've been using
microwaves wrong. Oh, we haven't been cleaning drink bottles enough.
And the stuff about flies.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
And that's disgusting. What's that saying?

Speaker 1 (01:49):
I don't know what you're talking about. I honestly don't
like such that. We'll come back to it at the end, all.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Right, we'll come back to it.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Hey, Dad, Today, when I grew up, I want to
be a scientists like Nano girl doctor Michelle Dickinson.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Oh, it's cool. I think it's great. I'd like to
know why, though, And I'm sure, Michelle, who's here right now?
I would like to know why you'd like to be
like Michelle.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, there are lots of things I admire about you. Michelle.
You've made it your mission to help people love science,
but you do it by making it fun. You're smart
and also very successful in the science world, which doesn't
seem to have as many females getting talked a bad enough.
So that is very inspiring to me.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Thank you very much. I should probably correct something that
is a common misconception. Not a scientist, what are you?

Speaker 1 (02:34):
But you work?

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah, I'm technically an engineer. And here's the interesting part.
So I'm an engineer by training. But when I first
got into media, I was talking to the media professionals
and they've never seen sort of a woman do engineering
on TV before. And they're like, oh no, the public's
not going to believe you. We're just going to call
you a scientist real because it's much more believable, and

(02:55):
then you can just do your thing and everybody will
trust you. But if we started with engineer underneath your name,
we're just we're not sure that they would go with that.
So it's been this common misconception, and I went with
that for quite a few years until very recently have
gone I should probably creative people on those way, I
did have to study science to become an engineer. They're
just you know, if you're going to ask me about

(03:15):
big scientific careers, I haven't had one. I've had great
engineering careers. But it's a common misconception about me. But
you do have to be great at science to become
a great engineer.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well, there were go, okay, learning something from the gig guy. Yeah. Yeah,
that's been really cold that they have so many young people,
particularly young girls, look up to what you do. Though.
It must be nice.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
It's so flattering and such an honor, and it's a
big mission I set out to be because when I
was young, I mean, I didn't become an engine it
or much later on than I probably should have. Nobody
said in school this is what you should be, because
the misconception was that boys were going to be engineers,
and if I was good at science, I should be
a nurse. And that's what people said, be a nurse,
you'd be really good at it. And I was like,
I don't want to be a nurse. I want to build.

(03:56):
And so I realized that actually my teachers never thought
about me being an engineer because in their head the
stereotype was also really prolific. And so I thought, well,
how do we change this. It's been a long time
since I was at school, and the stereotypes are the same.
How do we showcase amazing diversity in science and in
engineering and show that number one, science isn't just chemistry

(04:17):
and physics and maths and there's other things in there.
But number two, all sorts of amazing people do it,
and we're not, maybe, like you said, showcased as much
and you don't see as many of them.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Well, first off, something that surprised me because I know
there are many kids my aide who shock horror, say
I don't love science at school, and you'd think we're
you know, you as an engineer, a scientist, which science science,
and having a life full of science, you would think

(04:45):
you'd be a straight a student at science when you
were at school.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
No, I sucked at sciences. Sucked. Yeah. I was really
good at woodwork and really good at metalwork, but they
asked me to do home economics instead, which was cooking,
and I just didn't care. So I'm may have been
quite disruptive in that class. I'm not going to talk
about what I actually did, but I got into a
lot of trouble in home economics, and the home economics
teacher realized that they couldn't manage me and so put

(05:10):
me I want to be a positive role, forced me
into the sternest teachers class, which was would work, which
is where I wanted to be anyway. And I mean,
I made so many cool things, but science I found
really boring at school, Like it was boring what did
you do at a periodic table? I don't care about
a periodic table. I didn't see the point. And one

(05:32):
of the reasons why I think science and mass can
be really boring at school is we don't show you
how to apply it. We don't show you why it's
relevant in your life. And if you think about what's
called the it's called the forgetting curve, which is why
you forget information is because you don't care it's not
relevant to you. And how many times have you done
science in school and you're like, I don't care why
you pull this chemical into that one, Like I don't

(05:54):
care why it turns blue. But if you have an
example that you actually like, if Let's take a lot
of girls that I know are interested in cosmetics, right,
which makeup works the best and which one should I buy?
And what's in them? And are they making my face
look smoother or shiner or whatever. I'm like, cool, Let's
do some chemistry and show you how to do an
experiment that says, how do we measure this? And we

(06:14):
actually usually measure on pig skin, for example. So you
go to the butcher's. You'll take some pig skin off
a you know, slaughtered pig that you're going to eat
for dinner. Anyway, before you eat it, put some moisturizer
on it, leave it for an hour and look at
the wrinkles and go, yes, this is my cream. That's
a chemistry sort of experiment that I like. But we
don't do that.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
It's all right, yeah, So it's just because you're not
into something at school doesn't mean necessarily you won't your
job eventually won't be like touching on some of that stuff.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
One hundred percent. And so I say to people and
the other Research shows that most young people make up
their mind about the science subjects by the age of twelve,
which means the place you fall in love with it
is in primary school, but so few of our primary
schools teach science. And the great thing about primary school
is that it's inquiry based learning. So that's the place
that you can poke and prod and not worry about

(06:58):
your grades because you're just having fun. That's where you
do fall in love with it. And I see those
schools that do amazing primary school science produce scientists much
later on in life who are incredible because they can
get through the hard high school stuff because they know
what science is and how fun it is. If you
haven't had good science in primary school and then you
get to high school where it's so dry because we're

(07:20):
tied to this curriculum that doesn't seem relevant to what
you do every day, then you're not going to take
it in the later years, and then you can't go
into a career in it, and so your career options
have already been stopped through no fault of your own,
other than our science curriculum is quite boring.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Ah, so it's not so light for it's not well,
maybe too late for me, but not for young people
listening right now, that's good tonight.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
So my goal of Nanogirl was to show you that
science has always been interesting, and science is always amazing.
It's not always amazing in high school. But don't let
that make you think that that defines the subject and
your careers. And so the reason why I do really crazy,
fun cool stuff is because science is naturally really crazy,
cool and fun, and I just want to showcase some

(08:02):
of that side of it that's pret Well.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
We also see going on live TV radio shows, doing
public speaking to hundreds of people, and doing live Nana
Girl shows, and I read as a child, you were
super quiet and shy, and you need even talk to
an adder until you're a teenager.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, I think they called it selective mutism. I think
I was called selectively mut It's a diagnosist, which you know,
at the time, everybody was like, oh, she'll talk eventually,
I was. Was I painfully shy or I think probably
now I would have been diagnosed with some sort of
neurodiversity syndrome, whether that be autistic on the spot, whatever
it is. But selective mutism is as a strong trait

(08:41):
for autism, for example. But because I'm old, they just went, oh,
she doesn't talk, like we didn't have a lot of
those things now and I don't want to get diagnosed
now because I'm too old and I just don't. Yeah,
speaking public speaking was not my thing, and I didn't
publicly speak until I was in my thirties, which is
when I did my first ever talk. And it was awful,

(09:02):
like it was the most awful experience ever. But when
I did it, I had so many people come up
to me at the end and go, I learned so much.
You've changed my mind about science and engineering, And I thought, wow,
that was really powerful. And so I had to learn
how to get over my fear and my uncomfortable feelings
around public speaking because I realized that if it could

(09:22):
do public good, maybe I just keep forcing myself to
do something that I didn't really enjoy in the hope
that it could help inspire more people and diversify science
and engineering. And so, yeah, it was pretty hard to start.
And over the time, I've learned lots of techniques that
have helped me to get over my fear and get
over my dislike for public speaking. And a lot of

(09:44):
that is the feedback. A lot of that is young
women coming up to me and being like I never
knew I could be and now I think I can,
and I go great. Let me help you show you
some different pathways for you to be able to do that.
And I don't care if you study science or not.
I don't care if you become a scientist or not.
I just want you to know that it's an option.
And a lot of young women don't think it's an

(10:04):
option because they go, oh, I don't like science, and
intergenerational fear of science and maths, maths especially. There's great
research on if your mom says to you as a daughter, oh,
I wasn't good at maths at school, you don't have
to be too, because it's hard, which happens a lot,
and it's just casual conversation at home where they're going,

(10:24):
oh it was hard for me. Suddenly daughters believe, well,
my mom couldn't do it, therefore I'm not able to
do it. And so I try and disrupt this intergenerational
fear of science and maths because of a comment that
a parent might just say as a flyaway comment, not
realizing that they've given permission now to their child to
go I don't have to do it because apparently it's hard.

(10:45):
And so by being able to provide other positive role models,
and that's what we do at Nanaga. Right, We've got
so many scientists who are amazing women around the world
who work for the Nanogo brand, and they are positive
role models, going, Hey, your mom and dad might think
it's hard, but let me show you my science and
it might not be hard for you.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
This is when I grow up. You grew up wanting
to be a superhero and you created Lello Girl to
help with your fear of public speaking.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Was it kind of like a character in a way
that you created totally?

Speaker 3 (11:16):
So which kid didn't want to grow up to be
a superhero?

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Right?

Speaker 3 (11:20):
I just never outgrew that. I think I just continued
with my childlike ways. And that's the crucial part of innovation.
So innovation it's people who invent things in new things,
and I'm really fortunate to have known and worked with
lots of amazing innovators in the world. You know, Sir
Peter Beck is now a sir, he is still so
childlike in his personality, and he's curious. He's always asking questions,

(11:45):
and so I like that we keep our childhood state
of being curious because I think that helps us to
invent better things. But yeah, when I had to do
this first public talk in my thirties, I felt like
the world was going to eat me up, and so
I went for some professional help. And I went to
see an acting coach and she said to me, well,
obviously you're terrible at public speaking, like I've seen you
do this. We need to come up with a bit

(12:06):
of a plan as your confidence. She said, So what
I teach actors is to act a part. So we're
going to create a character for you. And instead of
you being you on stage, which is terrifying, why don't
you act that person on stage? And I was like, yeah, cool,
and she's like, well, who do you want it to me?
I was like, oh, it'sly a superhero because I'm still
carrying that. She's like, well, create your favorite superhero. And
so I created the superhero with all of these traits

(12:28):
that I wished I had, which was confidence on stage,
not being socially awkward, like being the life of the party.
Like I am none of those, right. I am a
socially awkward, weird nerd who spends her weekends reading nerdy
books like that's my place. But the world is very
extrovert friendly. It's all about how bubbly your personality is,
and she said, you can create that in your superhero

(12:49):
character and then I'll teach you how to act that.
So Nano Girl became that superhero character. And I didn't
name Nana Gil. So I was out doing some work
with schools and I was talking about this character to
these group of year eight students and they were at
Hawick and they were like, well, you need a superhero
name and I was like, yes, yes I do.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
I have no idea.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
So yeah, these intermediate children Howick School named me Nano Girl,
and I was like, how big is it going to be?
So I just stuck as like a, well, I need
this character to do this public talk and they're like, oh,
just be Nano Girl. And then it's stuck. And I
didn't realize at the time. I didn't think it through
that it was going to become the thing.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
But that's what you're not on for.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
It's stuck. And then yes, so my fear of public
speaking is actually public in my brand name, which is
the character that I act when I have to sometimes
be outside of a personality that is naturally me, that
allows me to do my work of being extroverted and
bringing science to life. When yeah, my natural state would
probably be just sitting at home.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
That's cool. You're going to come up with a superhero.
You can be like podcast Gil or something.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yeah, you can be like dorky Deaths.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
The psychic character for I don't know, but.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
Superhero pairs and research has shown real confidence. So they
showed that if young people put on a superhero T
shirt before they went into a maths exam, they scored
better on the maths exactly just by what they were wearing,
because having that superhero power, even if it's just in
the head, built their confidence.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
And over the top of your trousers as well.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Even though you didn't start working in science straight after school,
in a way of your passion for science and it
was always there. Used to love fixing things and also
breaking things violently. Of course for science, it's.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Probably the engineering thing you talked about before, right, you know.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, So my hobby was the thing I got grounded
for and put into attention a lot. My hobby and
the thing that I would my brain was wired to do,
which now I know is called engineering, was to figure
out how things would. And I could only do that
by taking the screws out, opening electronics up and looking
inside and I love that, apart from the things I
may have been taken apart, might have been actually really
expensive things that were really useful to other people. And

(15:00):
so because I didn't have an outlet for what my
brain was searching for, which was trying to understand, and
there were so many electronics that were coming to life
at the time I was growing up, and screws were available,
Like if you look at a lot of the digital
devices now, they don't let you open them anymore unless
they're broken. But in my day and age, he's a screwdriver,
and you could take it all apart and you could
figure out where the electronics went. And then I was

(15:22):
really fortunate because neither of my parents have high school education,
but my dad chose when I was about eight to
go back to finish his high school diploma, and he
specialized in his year twelve and thirteen equivalent in an
electrical engineering diploma, which meant that my dining table was
full of soldering irons and electronics. So I got to

(15:43):
grow up while my dad was finishing his high school
education to play with stuff that was naturally great for
my brain, which was oh, teach me how to sold
a dad and he was like, Okay, I know you're
eight and it's hard to deal with it. And so
he taught me how to solder at the age of eight,
and then my fascination with electronics was right there, and
I was able to have the tools to be able
to do that. And so that's why a lot of

(16:04):
work that we do is giving hands on experiences to
young people and things that maybe they've never tried or seen.
We take a part of electronics, We do soldering, we
do robotics, We build all of these cool things to go, hey,
if I can give you the equipment, you can probably
build the next whatever it is you want to build.
We think that old people are the ones who invent stuff,
but that's not true. It's only because old people have
the money and the resources that they do that. Young

(16:27):
people are super smart and you see so many problems
that you get frustrated with white knew the ones who
were fixing that, and I go, well, let me give
you some tools and some confidence and some permission to
figure out how to do the things you want to
build in the world.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
That's pretty cool. See when Michelle breaks something is for
science and engineering. When I break seeing as iPhone I
get in trouble with anyway.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
Yes, it's just to rebuildabuild.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
We're backing in front of Michelle.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
So cracking the screen of an iPhone is a good
thing to do, and I'll tell you why. So I
Me've worked for that large company and I worked on
the screen while I work for them. And one of
the things about the screen is people get frustrated when
they drop their phone that the screen smashes. That's really
important that your screen smashes because when your screen smashes
when you drop it, it absorbs all of that energy
from the drop, which means that electrical components inside your

(17:20):
phone don't break because that energy has been sawed by
your screen break. And it's much easier and cheaper to
replace your screen with the glass than it is to
find the one tiny component that has now broken because
of that energy that's gone into the phone and your
whole phone is mounted.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yeah, it's a good thing. It's a good thing.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's a very good It's actually been designed into your
phone to break as the thing that breaks rather than
the tiny component that you'll never find.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
Was it weird though, when we talk about COVID. When
COVID came to I came to the world. Was it
weird that, you know, because your your life, you spend
a lot of time talking about viruses, and then for
the whole world to suddenly be talking and you were
suddenly talked to all the time in the media. Was
there a really weird time that everyone was an expert
almost on viruses?

Speaker 3 (18:01):
It was a lot of pressure. So look what my
skill has become is a science communicator. And it's because
I don't know why, but my brain can speed read
really quickly. I can read a lot of things, including
scientific papers, it seems, very quickly, and then absorb a
lot of that information and retain it. That's just how
my brain is wired. And so I became a science
communicator because I realized that was quite a good skill,

(18:22):
especially when we're in times of chaos, a pandemic where
we're getting I don't know, hundreds of papers every day
telling us different things, and I was able to read
them all, absorb them all, and sort of find the
patterns that go, hey, today, this is what we know,
this is what the advice is. Tomorrow that might be
different because there might be something new done, and scientific
studies are very small. They look at one tiny thing,

(18:43):
so you can't base your decision on one scientific study.
Reading them all is where you needed to be. And
so I was really lucky that my brain seem wired
in a time of a pandemic to be able to
absorb lots and then translate lots of that to go,
this is what we know. I would never get advice
to say you should do this or you should do that.
I'm a science communicator. I don't go this is what

(19:04):
you should do. I'm like, hey, the science advice recommends
that right now, this is what we know, and this
is what might be helping you to deal with not
catching the virus or recover quickly. But it was a
lot of pressure and I couldn't just have a day
off from reading stuff because it was coming through thick
and fast that if you missed one paper you might
be giving advice that was older that did so there

(19:27):
was a lot of pressure there. But you know, I
really use that skill to help people. And I know
there are lots of people at home who were fearful
and I won't If I don't do this, where are
they going to get their information from?

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Because there's a lot of questions about gyms isn't there?

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yes, Okay, when you drop food on the floor and
see such thing as the five second roll, you have
to pick it up for eating four five seconds?

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Fuck?

Speaker 1 (19:49):
No?

Speaker 3 (19:50):
No, within less than a tenth of a second, all
of the microbes that are going to be on that
food are gonna be on that food, and you can
blow it as much as they want. They're sticking there.
There's no such as with the three seconds foot rule
or a five second rule. If it's on the floor,
the second rule, you would have to pick up up
fast enough. So just make your decision are you going
to eat something with microbes on it or not? And

(20:12):
your decision is based around are you immune compromised? If
you're not, you'll be fine. You might get a bit
of a tummy ache, but actually your system is designed
to break up a lot of the specteria. Like if
it's got actual big chunks on it and you look
at the floor, and it might be a bathroom floor,
you might go, oh, I'm going to make some decisions here,
and if it makes you feel better that you blow
on it, blow on it. Not gonna make any difference whatsoever.

(20:34):
No five second rule doesn't exist.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
Okay, then what about drink bottles. I mean, how do
you keep the host clean and start them from getting moldy.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
You have to wash it every day in soapy water,
which most people don't. People go, oh, it's just water.
How bad can it be? All of the disgusting bacteria
from your mouth go into your bottle every time, every day,
literally every day. And number two, have a bottle brush
doing it, because if you've got those straw bits, you're
not cleaning the little bits in the middle, especially where
straw connects to the top, and that's where all the

(21:02):
mold grows. And if you look closely, and if you
can see the mold let me tell you it's been
growing there for months. Yes, you know, I know, So
what you really? The sign says you should have a
metal ideally a stainless steel, open mouthed water bottle, and
that's the best because the bacteria doesn't grow as well
on the stain is steel, and there's nothing for it
to sort of get caught in, like there's weird straw pieces.

Speaker 4 (21:24):
Oh wow, okay, because how do you Because we talked
to you about mattresses on radio a couple of weeks ago,
and how horrible mattress with dust mites and all sorts.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
You need to flip your mattress and vacuum your mattress.
I mean, you know these things. How do you not
live your life walking around in like a hesmet suit? Yeah,
one of those predicular things.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
I probably know more than you would ever want to know.
And there are things like you know, I don't touch,
and there are things but I do do right, vacuum
my metress. I make sure that I'm changing my sheets
very because of you know, change my towel. People leave
their towel. Oh my gosh, it's so disgusting how little
people change their towel in their bathroom and then people go, oh,
I was clean, cells have been exfoliated on Like, it's disgusting.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
So what are we talking before months?

Speaker 3 (22:12):
So I see a lot and that's okay. The thing,
the thing that I love the most is how frustrated
I get that people use things wrong for the whole
of their lives and they blame the technology. So all
microwave is a great example. People like to microwave their
food all the time, and people complain all the time
that their food is cold in the middle after they've
microwaved it for ten minutes, right, and what do they do.

(22:32):
They pull out their food, they stir it around with
the thought they put it back in for an extra
two and then they literally complain that their microwave is broken.
And it's because they don't understand how their microwave works.
Because everybody puts their food in the middle of the microwave,
which is the coldest part of your microwave, and people
haven't thought, why is there even a spinny plate in
my microwave? They go, oh, maybe it's to look pretty
while it's no is there Because a fundamental physics wave theory,

(22:56):
So out of the corner of your microwaves come microwave
which are actually waves, and they hit each other in
the middle of your microwave. And when they do that
in physics, you have what's called constructive interference where they
add up together and get really hot, or destructive interference
where they're totally out of phase they cancel each other out.
The middle of your microwave is the coldest point of
your microwave. When you put your food in the microwave,

(23:17):
you're supposed to put the food around the outside of
the spinny plate, which is where the waves aren't bashing
into each other, and if they do, your food moves
all the way around the microwave so it doesn't stay
in a cold spot for very long. And then everybody goes, oh,
I've been using my microwave wrong.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
For forty years. You're right, I.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Wonder why I'll give me my little plate of like
whatever mac and cheese A sorry in the.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
Middle, because we all use our microwave on the edge
where and if you read the instructions through your microwave,
it says put it on the edge. But also physics
is useful because if you understand fundamental wave theory about
constructive and destructive interference, you'd be like, oh, you'd never
put the stuff in the middle. Yeah, Over ninety five
percent of people put their food in the middle of
the microwave and complain every time that it's called and

(24:06):
do it for their whole life. And how many hours
have been wasted standing there putting the microwave on for
another two minutes. And you know this because you pull
your food out, you stir it with a fork, which
is what your spinny plate is doing, and then you
put it back in the cold part. You just go
so mark, you know For me, it's about seeing how
people use technology too and going, ah, men, we could

(24:29):
do this a way matter.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
This is when I grow up.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Okay, just just quickly, a couple of quick ones. Flies
on food is what happens. Is it bad? Is it bad?

Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (24:40):
I mean they vomit on it. And they've just eaten
like dog poo outside, right, So they've just licked dog poo,
and then they vomit up their dog poo that they've
just eaten onto your dinner, and then they lick that
back up. Because what they do is they process their
food externally, so they vomit up all of their stomach
contents onto your food, so it digests externally on your food,
and then they suck it up through their little probiscus

(25:02):
straw and then they'll leave a little bit of their
old vomit which includes some of their old stomach content
or whatever, the dead animal or whatever.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
I hate flies. The fly He's going to run away.
The windows closed, and somewhere it was like I hate
the flies coming in little.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Story about fly. So one time Dad was like, I'll
pay you guys. I'll pay you guys to as many
flies as you can. So at the end of the day,
I mean, Indy met my Sisterly we had got in like.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
You got a few of them, right, like twenty flies.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Each or something, and he was like, how did you
do that?

Speaker 3 (25:33):
We just opened the windows, just.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Lean more in to get more money. I was like,
that's really smart that.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah, you've got to approach them from behind because of
the way that their eyes are on the front of
the head. They're not great if you go totally behind
them slowly, and then you can hit them if you
come at them forwards. Because of the way that their
eyes process information, they're always going to see you coming
forwards from the side. To approach a fly from behind.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
It that's so interesting. With so many things to throw,
you must get sick of talking about this exactly.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
I can help you now swap your fly or save
two minutes every day with your microwave science wins.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
OK, now we're going to do an experiment. I think, sure,
should we do that?

Speaker 3 (26:10):
Yeah, so this is a relatively because I thought we'll
watch the experiment that I bring in. I thought, well,
let's do a dangerous experiment. It's also what Nanago the
same is for. It's actually on the logo and it's
called the hand on fire experiment. Now, don't do this
home anybody, because only a trained scientist can do this.
And I'm going to do some things where I'm not
explaining to you how it's done, because otherwise people try

(26:31):
and copycat and I don't want to do that. So
everybody who's listened to this, Suster pinky, promise that they're
not going to try this at home, or if they do,
do it with me and I'll show you how to
do it safely. If you do this at home and
you don't understand what you're doing, you will burn yourself.
So that's my little legislation thing. Don't do this at home. Okay,
we're going to do it together. So most people know
that fire is hot, and you wouldn't normally put your
hand in a fire, So we're going to do a

(26:52):
little experiment that allows you to do that. I'm going
to trap a very special type of flammable gas into
basically dishow because I want the bubble to hold the guests.
I'm going to put that gas on your hand and
you're going to hold fire for approximately three seconds until
I'll pick you out. And if the experiment goes well,
touch wood. Your hand will be hot. If it doesn't,

(27:13):
it will. But I've done this enough, and I am
a scientist in this training. I am you going to
use scientific principles in this training, and I've done the
health and safety analysis. But are you ready to be
set on fire?

Speaker 2 (27:27):
I am.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
So We've got a couple of bowls, and I'm not
going to say everything that we've got obviously, with a
couple of bowls in the studio right here, safety glasses on.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
Oh yes, let's put on my lab coat. Let's go
full science.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, okay, we're putting some stuff inside one of the
bowls of water. I'm saying I'm not describing these, so
I don't want people to copy copy them, but I
have no idea what you're actually doing. I'm getting creating
quite a lot of bubbles now as well.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
Okay, so you've got a lot on, your hair is back,
your eyes are shielded. Here we go.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
You're feeling a little nervous right now.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
Your whole hand and in a second, I'm going to
ask you to hold your hand out flat. I'm going
to put some bubbles on your hand, and then I'm
just going to light those flammable bubbles on fire. Your
default is going to be my hand is on fire.
I'm going to flick them off. If you do that,
you're going to flick them with me. Don't do that,
So go against your instinct, trust the process. Put your

(28:21):
hand out and let's see it.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
It's okay, good luck, see you right? Is weird putting
the mixture onto seeing his hand?

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Are you ready?

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Okay? Really?

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Wo god wow wow?

Speaker 3 (28:44):
And is it hot? And I'm going to tell you
do it. You just held fire.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
It was a lot more farther than I thought that
was going to be.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
Yeah, I figured you could handle the fire, should be warm,
it shouldn't have been burnt your skin like it would
have done if I hadn't done some of the things
that I didn't tell you that I did. And that
is how you hold for That's very very cool.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Before you go quick fire. This all that questions to
find out if I really want to be like you.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Introvert or extrovert. I'm naturally so I have to vote
for that. But the world is extraverted. To learn some
extravert skills. If you are an intro it simple or glad.
Oh I'm so simple.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Because I'm a nerd.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
And I never go glam rain or sun sun every time. Indeed,
it's good for you.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Sleep in or stay up late.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
I'm none of them. Like I'm like, okay, I'll sleep in.
I don't sleep in, right, I don't stay only sleep
five hours? Yeah I don't. I'm not a good sleep
I'm like up at the cracker door and then I go.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
To Yeah, five hours a night, that's good.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Yeah, dog or cat dog? Dog have a cat allergy?

Speaker 1 (29:53):
So got a dog? Really cool dog duma, right, that's
very cool.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
Always later, always early, always early, obsessively like I am
never late ever, walking or driving walking TikTok or Netflix, TikTok.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
TikTok for you all your science advice too, right, yeah TikTok.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
I mean I love Netflix is done. They don't have
enough science on there, so definitely.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
I mean people would read stuff from you know, you
hear a lot of advice on TikTok.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
I guess a lot of it's nonsense. Sometimes I want
to comment. There was one dentist yesterday and I was
going to be like.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
No, but I was just walk away.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
You made some claims about when you should brush your
teeth in the morning. I was like, no, she's scientifically correct,
but I just have to go Otherwise, I'd spend my
whole time correct to people on TikTok, and I don't
want to become that old person.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Camping or staying in a hotel, camping, phone call or text,
miss a text.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
I don't phone people.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Kendall or a real book, real book meeting celebrities are
going on this podcast.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
On this podcast, Well, thank you so much for your time.
We do really appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah, for me so much, Michelle, I think you've inspired
so many young people like me with what you do.
And finally, what would you say to your thirteen or
fourteen year old self, be an engineer if you can.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
I would say, stop caring about what you think you
should look like and just be you. I think I
spent a lot of my young woman's self not being
thin enough, not being pretty enough, and comparing myself to
things that weren't actually real. That I had a huge insecurity,
that I was never enough. And then when you realize

(31:34):
that a lot of these images are airbrushed and not
actually real, and that everybody's best side not their standard
get out of bedside, I think I lost a lot
of confidence because I was like, I'm never going to
be that, and now I know that that isn't a thing. Actually,
just be you. Diversity is amazing, Be different, be proud,
stop trying to be like everybody else, and life's going

(31:56):
to be fun.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
You do inspire so many people, and it's cool that
you help many people with you. Your grants as well, you.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
Provide those to Trust Break Future Trust. If you are
doing something into science and you're like your robotics club
at school, or you can't afford something, apply to the
Bright Future Trust and we try and make those things happen.
We try and get kids overseas to compete in like
the World Maths Championships that you know currently are in Kazakhstan,
the World Biology Championships. We've just been able to get
some students over there.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
Wow. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:23):
So if you're into that and you don't have enough money,
to apply to the Break Future Trust and we'll see
if we can get you there.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Very cool.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Wow. Okay, And you know what I would say to dad,
I would tell them just stop trying to be cool.
It's okay.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
That's a good Listen. You say you do, you think
you think back, You'll want it to be cool, but
you're not, you know, and it's quite it's good to
embrace who you are, you know in a lot of ways.
And I think you're right. The thing, the sooner you
realize that, the better it is. You're not trying to
be like someone else's trying to be yourself, and you're.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
So worried worrying about what other people think of you.
They don't care. They're so busy thinking about themselves, but
they don't care. So stop worry about what other people think,
and go, who am I? What do I love? How
am I going to be kick ass in this world?

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Very cool? Well, thank you so much for you, Thank
you so much. How good was Michelle? Really great advice,
particularly around just then, about stopping caring about what other
people's thinking of you, you know?

Speaker 2 (33:15):
And should I stop caring if you get upset about
me not tiding my room.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
I don't think that's what she meant.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
I should I should stop caring about that. I also
love how Michelle embraces who she is. She calls herself
a nerd, and that's a good thing. I learned so.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
Much from her handld fire. That was cool.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
That was really cool, wild, warm, hot. I was a
cool fire. We'll be catching up with someone else just
as inspiring as Michelle and the next episode to hear
their advice from more young people.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
The first. I'm off to buy a fly swat
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