'We want people to get excited about science'

Ellen McCallie's path to a role on a TV series did not begin with one of those classic "discovery" stories. No, she was not quietly sipping a soda at a drugstore when a talent agent happened on by and recognized her star quality.

In fact, the producers of the BBC show Rough Science called major botanical gardens around the world, including the Missouri Botanical Garden where she worked. They were looking for a botanist who could "work in rough environments and be good- humored about it".

The American fit the bill, and has now appeared on four of the five Rough Science series. The shows, filmed in July and August each year, fit into her schedule when she was a botanist, and now that she has returned to graduate school.

McCallie, who recently completed filming in Zanzibar, Tanzania, recounted some of her memorable Rough Science experiences.

Her demo tape: I'd never done TV before, so I set up a video camera outside my garage, pushed record and set to work making paper out of tulip leaves I'd found that day in the Missouri Botanical Garden's compost pile. In the end, the actual demo tape had a bit more action than I planned. I was up to my elbows in mucky, ground-up tulip pulp, when my neighbors across the street, who had had a bit much to drink, began singing "We represent the lollipop gang" from The Wizard of Oz. Soon after, a large tomcat darted at my three pound Yorkshire terrier, who then started yapping.

Topping it all off, as I explained to the camera why cellulose made good paper, Kaityln, the five year old who lived next door, ran inside to get money from her dad -- if I was so poor I had to make my own paper, the least she could do was buy me some. Two days later, the executive producer called and said if I could live through that on a daily basis, I should join the Rough Science team. Science made fun: We demonstrate that anyone can do science and basically everyone does. You don't have to have fancy equipment or a high tech lab. Science is the process of figuring things out. This can be done by observation and/or experimentation.

What we hope is that viewers will watch the show and then start talking (or yelling) at the TV screen -- telling us how we should have done the challenge! We want people of all ages, and we get letters from fans aged five to 85, to get excited about thinking and about figuring stuff out. We want you to try stuff on your own.

The best part: Working on the challenges. It's the privilege of having all your great friends around and getting to do what you love most -- science -- basically, observing, figuring things out and then making things. As a team we have different specific interests, but we all share a love of making things and figuring things out. We've been doing this together for six weeks at a time for the last four or five years. We play "science" all day long. Experiments gone wrong: One example is when Jonathan needed an extra pair of hands to glue some tin cans together. I got the right glue, but put it on the wrong part. That was really frustrating for both of us. I'd set him back a half day, because we were supposed to keep moving ahead. Doing science well means taking the time to stop, reflect and discuss regularly.

That's the challenge of working on television -- it doesn't always get to happen. We're all getting better at saying, "We've got to stop and think about this first". Sure, the cameras can keep rolling as we reflect and discuss, but we can't keep working without talking first. -- Bruce Emond