“As scientists, you’re a little bit more tuned into that.” Rich Robinson works on a tiny scale with nanoparticles to solve an enormous problem—the world’s energy crisis. What motivates him? We’ll let him explain:

“Why are we trying to save the planet? Why are we trying to solve the energy crisis? I’m not sure we have a choice. As a responsible person living in this Earth today, you need to do something in order to sustain life for the next 50 years, hundred years, however long it’s going to last. But if we don’t, things are going to come crashing down pretty quickly. And as scientists, you’re a little bit more tuned into that…. And also as a scientist, you know that you’re the person that can really make a difference.”

Rich certainly isn’t the only scientist working on the energy crisis. Do you know about others? Tell us about them in the “comments” section of this post (and include links if you have them). Who knows? If they have a secret life (and it seems like almost everyone does), we might wind up profiling them.

And if you have any questions specifically for Rich, you still can ask them here.

Rich Robinson in our studio When Rich Robinson came to our studio, one thing was abundantly clear—the man was wearing an amazing purple shirt. We all loved it so much that we’re getting a bunch of them for our team in the “Science on the Web” bowling league (it can only help—at least we’ll look good…).

As we spent more time with Rich, some much deeper truths did emerge:

• For Rich, science is something everyone can do—it isn’t limited to natural born geniuses. And he attributes much of his own success to his willingness—since he was a young boy—to always “work a little bit harder.”

• Rich talked a lot about the moment when his photographic subjects “show up” and reveal some truth about themselves. We’ve been behind the camera for dozens of interviews, and there’s never any doubt when someone is sharing something real or just going through the motions. On the set, it felt like Rich was “showing up” big time. We hope that comes across in the videos.

After you watch Rich’s videos, be sure to check out his links to learn more about his science and some of his favorite photographers, too. (And if you’re reading this on the homepage, go to Rich’s individual page on our site to find those links.)

We got the chance to ask Rich Robinson 10 questions. Now it’s up to you to ask the 11th question (and the 12th and 13th, too).

Ask Rich your questions in the comments section of this post. He’s going to be stopping by the SLoS World HQ in the not-too-distant future and has promised to provide some excellent answers.

UPDATE: We are no longer accepting new questions for Rich. Many thanks to everyone who did send in questions. And for those who didn’t get to ask a question, check out the comments section for this post—Rich may have given an answer to something you wanted to ask.