It was getting late, the student center all but deserted. My old friend and I had a table to ourselves, awkwardly wedged among the chairs that had been set in a circle for an invited talk I had just given to some undergraduates about issues for women in science. My friend alluded to having a [...]

I have a million thoughts swirling in my head after Science Online 2013, and a million more things I want to learn about and accomplish for Science Online 2014. I find reflection after these conferences a useful way to organize all those thoughts, and make an action plan for what I need to learn and [...]

As you now all know, my partner in crime Scicurious is much like the superhero Batwoman. Or maybe, she is trying to tell us something, and finally share with us her secret identity? I always wondered why she was hastily stuffing a cape into her backpack right before our Skype conversations… Sci and I have [...]

Earlier this week, the Women in Science group at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign convened a panel on using social media to promote science. Melanie Tannenbaum, Bill Hammack, Joanne Manaster and I were the panelists, and Jo Holley was the organizer. There were a few things that I found interesting about our varying responses as [...]

Join me, Joanne Manaster, Melanie Tannenbaum and Prof. Bill Hammack today from 4-6pm at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Institute for Genomic Biology, room 612 (that’s the room right next to Array Cafe, in the Gatehouse). The University of Illinois has a surprising number of academics who are successful science writers, bloggers, photographers and social media [...]

It’s that time of year when I take stock of how many more times I’ll be away from my family before the semester is through. I’ve pared things down quite a bit this year after traveling too much last year, and so my talks are semi-local, but open to the public. Stay tuned because there [...]

Not an impostor I think I started blogging because of impostor syndrome. Impostor syndrome, for those unfamiliar with the term, is when an individual feels she doesn’t belong or deserve her accomplishments. This can come from external or internal factors, and really, the internal factors are by definition largely derived from the external ones. A [...]

This is a re-post, with slight editing, of a piece I wrote on the old blog after last year’s AAPA meetings. I would like to keep thinking on this topic so thought I would share this before I write anything new for the Sci Am space. Variation in adolescent menstrual cycles, doctor-patient relationships, and why [...]

  As many of you have already heard, I was a guest on Skeptically Speaking a few weeks ago, on the topic of why women menstruate. PZ Myers tackled the evolutionary perspective first, and then I got to answer audience questions and talk a little about my own research. Because I think it’s important for [...]

The folks at Duke University’s Women in Science and Engineering organization (WiSE) have invited me to their digs to give a talk. So, I’ll be back out in #scio12 territory next week. I arrive early afternoon on Tuesday and leave early morning on Thursday. (Maybe some locals would be interested in a Tuesday dinner meetup?) [...]