Connecting students through technology with scientists doing research in the field has become an increasingly common practice in schools. Museums, colleges, federal agencies, and individual teachers have become more adept at putting students in direct contact with scientists, even those working in very remote locations--like aboard the NAI'A in the central Pacific, 6,000 miles away. Around the country, scientists and education advocacy groups have become ever more intent on making scientific studies and careers more attractive to young people, particularly underrepresented groups such as women and minorities. One goal is to quash the stereotype of the scientist conducting obscure research in dreary isolation. To correct that view, numerous organizations have for years sponsored print and online resources offering biographical information and testimonials from scientists explaining what they do in simple and colorful terms. Online exchanges between students and scientists attempt to make that point in a different way, by allowing students to reach out to scientists in more of a real-time manner as they go about their work. The author cites some projects that connect students with scientists in the field through technology, and discusses how blogs and other online tools bring scientific research within reach.