Annie Minoff

Host

Undiscovered

Annie co-hosts and produces the podcast Undiscovered

Annie co-hosts and produces the podcast Undiscovered along with Elah Feder. Sometimes, this entails visiting labs to look at tiny, glowing worm brains. Or digging through archives in search of 50-year-old chain letters. Or spending WAY too much time in a foam-padded closet (the “recording booth”).

Prior to Undiscovered, Annie produced stories about science and the arts for the Friday radio show. (Like this story, about guitar playing robots, and this one, where astronauts review “Gravity” à la Siskel and Ebert.)

Annie’s first run-in with radio was as an undergrad at Columbia University, where she covered the New York arts scene for the universe’s best radio station, WKCR-FM (“Sit Back and Dig the Shellac”). Since she couldn’t major in radio, she earned a B.A. in American Studies.

She’s also been an assistant producer for the world’s only rock ‘n’ roll talk show, WBEZ’s “Sound Opinions,” where she had the honor of meeting the Jesus of Cool, Nick Lowe. Rock on.

When news broke last September that NASA had detected liquid water on Mars, Germick knew the discovery had to be doodled, and fast. “I sent an email that morning to the team, and within 45 minutes, I had two proposals for how to celebrate the discovery,”

Here are the people who make Google Doodles

The story behind Google Doodles and the nerd ethos at Google

Here are the people who make Google Doodles
rchers planted this camera trap (complete with robotic toy cat) in order to study what local species prey on cats. Here, a great horned owl takes the bait. The cat was found not far away, mostly intact, suggesting that the owl probably discovered the ruse

The secret life of animals, captured on camera

The secret life of animals, captured on camera
A screenshot from “That Dragon, Cancer"

A new generation of video games play on your emotions — like empathy, complicity and grief

A new generation of video games play on your emotions — like empathy, complicity and grief
Mobile Quarantine Facility

This art installation pokes fun at NASA, space exploration and sculpture

This art installation pokes fun at NASA, space exploration and sculpture
Woman looks through a phoropter in 1945.

Six things you believe about your eyes that are totally wrong

Six things you believe about your eyes that are totally wrong
On the left, The Bedroom as seen in real life. On the right, a digital recolorized visualization.

The walls in Van Gogh’s iconic 'The Bedroom' were never meant to be blue

Art conservationists used science to figure out the original color of the walls in Van Gogh’s “The Bedroom” was purple.

The walls in Van Gogh’s iconic 'The Bedroom' were never meant to be blue
White Sands Beach Park in Kailua-Kona

Did you know Hawaii has a dengue fever outbreak? Neither did Congress.

Hundreds of people came down with dengue fever in Hawaii over the winter, but Congress only recently learned about the outbreak. What does this say about our public health system? And what does this mean for the possibility of an oncoming Zika outbreak?

Did you know Hawaii has a dengue fever outbreak? Neither did Congress.
The Indian military enforcing a quarantine of Surat’s hospital in 1994, during an outbreak of plague in that city. Photo by Laurie Garrett

Is the US ready for the next big pandemic?

Ebola, Zika virus, bird flu — disease and pandemics are constantly in the news, but how ready is the US to combat health threats?

Is the US ready for the next big pandemic?
Vulcan

Why the long-lost planet Vulcan holds lessons for Planet Nine

Scientists used to believe there was a planet in our solar system called Vulcan — and we're not talking about Star Trek. But that's no longer the case.

Why the long-lost planet Vulcan holds lessons for Planet Nine
Antarctica

Want to find a meteorite? Antarctica might be the best place to look.

Why scientists who want to know the geology of other planets head to Antarctica

Want to find a meteorite? Antarctica might be the best place to look.
Macbook Air. Photo by Björn Olsson/flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Is Apple’s design getting worse without Steve Jobs?

One of Apple’s own alums says Apple’s reputation for creating beautifully-designed, easy-to-use products might be waning.

Is Apple’s design getting worse without Steve Jobs?
“Scientists proposed that male lions’ skill at ambushing prey in dense vegetation was previously unknown because of scientists’ fear of being ambushed by male lions in dense vegetation.”

A series of cartoons that capture science’s 'rich diversity of weirdness'

“Findings” author Rafil Kroll-Zaidi combs the journals for science’s most fascinating — and flummoxing — facts. Now he has combined the best of the best into one illustrated book

A series of cartoons that capture science’s 'rich diversity of weirdness'
Science books

These are the science books of 2015 that you should be reading

If you're looking to not only find a good book, but also get a little smarter, try some of these options.

These are the science books of 2015 that you should be reading
Excerpted from “Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words” © 2015 by Randall Munroe. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

Is it possible to explain the universe of science in just 1,000 easy-to-understand words?

A new book explains difficult scientific concepts using just the 1,000 most-common English words — and a bunch of comics

Is it possible to explain the universe of science in just 1,000 easy-to-understand words?
The New York City subway map (L) alongside a peripheral vision visualization (R) with a focus on the Times Square subway stop. Courtesy of Ruth Rosenholtz

A researcher is trying to make those confusing transit maps easier to understand

Transit maps can open up the world. But they're often tricky to read — what with their spider web of routes labeled with numbers and letters. Does it really have to be this hard?

A researcher is trying to make those confusing transit maps easier to understand