The latest “Science Ink” provides a closer look at the forearm of Terrance Yee, an aerospace engineer who wears tattoos of the satellites he has helped build - like the DSX spacecraft, pictured here, which travels around the Earth in an oval-like orbit that takes it through belts of intense radiation that surround our planet. The satellite is equipped with devices that can remove radiation, which might be used to protect satellite from nuclear attacks.

“Satellite - Photos and Text Courtesy of “Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed” by Carl Zimmer

“Small satellite missions are very demanding,” says Yee, “requiring total dedication to the mission and getting the job done on a tight budget and short schedule with really challenging new technology. In order to lead teams through this sort of development, you have to be 100% committed and very passionate about your endeavor. It can’t be just a job, but a calling, something that you recognize only a handful of people in the world are lucky enough to do. I’m inspired by the work I do and I hope the artwork I have inspires others to be as passionate as I am about space.”

Check out more tattoos in “Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed” by Carl Zimmer.

Camilla Corona is the talk of the space world, having blogged and tweeted nearly every space event of note in the past three years. She’s flown to the uppermost levels of the atmosphere in a hot air balloon, mingled with all of the coolest astronauts and attracted a flurry of photographers in Russia’s Red Square. Scandal! Camilla Poses With Her Fellow NASA Mascot - The Infamous Chump the Chimp

But unlike most spotlight-loving starlets, Camilla has the noblest of missions - and a rubber neck. Camilla is NASA’s rubber chicken mascot, and her goal it to inspire kids to take an interest in STEM subjects, especially young girls. That’s a mission that’s near and dear to our hearts here at Secret Life.

Michelle Thaller may spend her life gazing at the stars but like Albert Einstein, she still hopes that there’s a “giant, big mysterious thing” out there that is stranger than we can even begin to imagine.

Giant. Big. Mysterious. Stranger. We’re right there with you, Michelle, but if we ever do figure out what this thing is, we will not be talking to it without several adults present.

Exciting announcement, Secret Lifers. This season, we invite you to look at a whole new side of scientists, one that many keep hidden under those draping lab coats: science tattoos. We’ll be featuring eye-popping images from the acclaimed science writer Carl Zimmer’s book, “Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed,” along with reflections from the book on how each image relates to the scientist’s life and discipline.

Hear that? It’s the sound of science getting cooler than it already is.

“Solar System” - Photo and Text Courtesy of “Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed” by Carl Zimmer

Whenever I went to the library, my mother always said, “Why don’t you get some kids books instead of planet books?” says Ira Klotzko, who grew up to get a Ph.D. in physics and start a software company.

Check out more tattoos in “Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed” by Carl Zimmer.

Tom Hanks did not set out to become one of the world’s most beloved movie stars. His original goal was to become an astronaut. Tom Hanks as astronaut Jim Lovell

Hanks had to settle on playing one in the 1995 film “Apollo 13.” But the film reinvigorated his love of space, and he went on to produce the HBO 12-part miniseries “From The Earth to the Moon” about NASA’s moon landings, and he stands on the board of the National Space Society, a nonprofit educational space advocacy organization.

In the early 1990’s, when NASA’s budget was threatened, Hanks issued this passionate appeal to congress on the organization’s behalf, lobbying them to continue funding the space program.

Hanks wrote:

“It is the best part of us all—the understanding that given time and money, we can figure out just about anything. The American work ethic is most perfectly displayed in the plans and accomplishments of NASA and its contributing industries. It is, in fact, inspiring to see that we can, and do, put men and women into the lifeless vacuum and glorious free fall of outer space.”

Well. Hanks took that role in “Apollo 13” really, really seriously. Do they give out Oscars for leading actor in an off-screen role inspired by a film? Maybe the Golden Globes…

Carl Sagan or Brad Pitt? And other urgent questions for our beloved Michelle Thaller.

Check it out in the player above and on Michelle’s Secret Life home page

Michelle Thaller is awake to the present. And you know this if you’ve seen any of her videos. Michelle is engaged - like all great scientists - in everything around her, in what’s happening right now.

But she’s also a time traveler. Time travelers need love too, right?

During our interview, Michelle explained:

“In so many ways, modern science makes you think differently about time. On a basic level, Einstein said that time and space are the same thing, which is not how we experience it. But somehow as a physicist, I feel very connected to events both in the past and in the future. We’re all sort of on this landscape of time that Einstein described.”

So sure Michelle’s connected to the past. How much more obvious could it be? She puts on 30 pounds of Elizabethan costuming so she can do Renaissance dances from hundreds of years ago. But when she’s doing her science, it has to be a different story, right? She’s an astronomer - it’s all about the brave new world of the future. The fact is, though, that Michelle often travels to the very same time period… in both her science and her secret life:

“So, I’m interested in the past, I’m interested in the far future. And somehow as a scientist, these things are very connected. And then there’s also something even more obvious that can be easy to overlook. When you look at things out in space, you see things as they were long ago. And some of the stars in the night’s sky that you’ll see tonight are on the order of 4- or 500 light years away.”

And what does that mean?

“Some of the light that you’re catching in your eye tonight left it’s point of origin - a star - when Queen Elizabeth I was still on the throne.”

Looking through a telescope.

Recreating dances from hundreds of years ago.

Our time traveler Michelle sees the same light when she does both of these things.

And it’s beautiful.

Are you a time traveler? A dancer? An explorer?

OK, so those are our questions for you.

Now you get to ask Michelle Thaller your questions. Use the comments, people.

We’ve got your next three clues for Michelle Thaller, right here.

You can guess, if you want to. You can guess in the comments section below. Because your friends don’t guess, and if they don’t guess then…You get it.

Ladies and gentle-readers. Meet your second scientist of the season, Michelle Thaller. Having seen her “30 Second Science” video, you know that Michelle studies the stars. But what does she do outside of her post at NASA? Here’s your first clue.

Confused? Allow us to explain. A French hood was a type of headgear popular among sixteenth century women, when a certain copper-topped, chronically single queen was running the show in England. You know the one. The music in this clue also hails from the Elizabethan time period.

Are we painting you a picture? If you’re still confused, stay tuned. We’ll be dropping three more clues ahead of Michelle’s premiere this Thursday, October 25th.

Meanwhile, post your theories in the comment section below!

Did you know that stars hold the answer to the question - “where do we come from?”*

Neither did we. Until we met Michelle Thaller.

Michelle is a professional star-gazer, studying the evolution and lives of stars. It turns out, the only thing in the universe that can form an atom - other than Hydrogen - is a star. Oxygen, Carbon, all the stuff that our bodies are made of, it all comes from those diamonds in the sky.

So, in addition to being massive, luminous spheres of plasma held together by gravity, stars actually hold the very building blocks of life - elements. The next time you’re gazing at the sky on a starry night, pondering the meaning of the universe - think only of the Periodic Table.

*The gas giants in the sky, not the movie kind (though in fairness, Tom Cruise might know something we don’t).