science

Kiki Sanford

Kiki Sanford is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kiki Sanford rather than just read about it. In short: Kirsten "Kiki" Sanford is an American neurophysiologist and science communicator. After working at the University of California, Davis as a research scientist, she left research work to pursue a career in science communication.

Key takeaways

Kiki Sanford belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kiki Sanford to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kiki Sanford from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kirsten "Kiki" Sanford is an American neurophysiologist and science communicator. After working at the University of California, Davis as a research scientist, she left research work to pursue a career in science communication. Her work has included multiple audio and video programs, including the This Week in Science radio program and podcast and Dr. Kiki's Science Hour, a podcast involving interviews with experts in a given scientific field.

Personal life Sanford was born in Santa Rosa, California and raised near Stockton, California. She holds a B.S. in conservation biology and Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology from U.C. Davis. She is a specialist in learning and memory. While attending graduate school at U.C. Davis, she found academic bureaucracy unappealing and decided to shift her career path from research to science communication. Sanford holds a black belt in taekwondo. She says martial arts was "something concrete to escape to" when faced with research hardships during graduate school. Sanford lived in San Francisco with her husband until moving to Portland, Oregon in April 2015.

Science communication

Sanford, known as "Dr. Kiki," produces and appears in a number of science education programs. Sanford says of her work, "My shtick is: Dr. Kiki reaches out to people who don't necessarily like science to get them to see it as something enjoyable. My goal is to get people who maybe flunked chemistry or didn't do well on their science fair project to say, 'This is really interesting.'" Sanford is the host and editor of the This Week in Science radio show/podcast, which she founded in 1999. This Week in Science is a weekly program formerly streamed live from the This Week in Tech Network (TWiT), and then rebroadcast from U.C. Davis' KDVS, 90.3 FM. This Week in Science currently records every Wednesday night using Hangouts on Air which are streamed live on both YouTube and the This Week in Science live page. Starting in late 2007, Sanford expanded her work, starring in On Network's successful series Food Science. The program explores the science of cooking as well as at-home experiments involving food. In 2008, she began co-hosting Revision3's variety show PopSiren. PopSiren described itself as offering a "feminine perspective" on pop culture and technology. In May 2008, Sanford along with several other skeptics and scientists created a pilot for a TV series titled The Skeptologists. The premise was that claimed experts in a field of pseudoscience or the paranormal would present their claims, which would then be investigated by the team. On April 30, 2009, Dr. Kiki's Science Hour started broadcasting on TWiT.tv. The show, recorded live on TWiT, became a podcast with episode 24. Guests included scientists, skeptics, and science communicators such as astronomer Phil Plait and neurologist Steven Novella. The last episode aired on June 29, 2012. While at TWiT she also co-hosted Green Tech Today, a show about environmentally friendly technology, and Science News Weekly a five-minute show. Sanford has produced and hosted various segments for The Science Channel's science program Brink. In February 2015, Sanford launched a new company to help researchers and other scientists have better communication. The company, named Broader Impacts, does video production and social media outreach.

Awards In 2005, Sanford was awarded the American Association for the Advancement of Science Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship, in recognition for her work with her radio show This Week in Science. Through the fellowship she worked as a television news producer at WNBC News in New York City, alongside noted health and science reporter Max Gomez.

References

External links The Bird's Brain, Sanford's blog This Week in Science Dr. Kiki's Science Hour PopSiren Dr Kiki interviewed on the TV show Triangulation on the TWiT.tv network

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kiki Sanford

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kiki Sanford claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kiki Sanford before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kiki Sanford ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kiki Sanford

In research: Kiki Sanford appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kiki Sanford in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kiki Sanford is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1974 births, 21st-century American science writers, 21st-century American women non-fiction writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kiki Sanford outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Kiki Sanford” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Kiki Sanford in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kiki Sanford means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kiki Sanford out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kiki Sanford in simple terms?

Why does Kiki Sanford matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kiki Sanford?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kiki Sanford.