Last October I attended the National Women in Physics Conference at Lincoln Nebraska. For an undergraduate women in Physics this is an amazing conference that offers a great opportunity to network with other young physicists and learn about the research going on around the country. While at the conference, I met many great people who [...]
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In my last post, I focused on flaws in the medical device approval process. The Union of Concerned Scientists’ “FDA at a Crossroads” meeting also covered problems with drug approval. This is perhaps no better illustrated than by the disappointing decision by Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius’ to deny the emergency contraceptive, Plan B, over-the-counter [...]
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February 2nd, 2012 |
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Recent weeks have seen a spate of news articles (three examples here, here, and here) claiming that wreckage from the March 2011 Japanese tsunami has started arriving on the west coast of North America. Is that likely? First, a little perspective on just how big the Pacific Ocean is. About 70% of Earth is ocean. [...]
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February 1st, 2012 |
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Our vehicle pulled into the village late one rainy night. Dozens of my new neighbors, Sierra Leone’s Mende people, emerged from their thatch-roof houses, looking cross at being woken up and not exactly welcoming. We unloaded some of my gear underneath the dripping eaves, and as I tried to find something dry to wear, I [...]
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January 31st, 2012 |
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Two weeks ago I was at Science Online 2012, the annual conference for science bloggers and writers in Raleigh, NC. While there, I attended the session on Blogging Science While Female (a more detailed summary of the session can be found here). At the session, many of the women in the room expressed discouragement at [...]
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January 31st, 2012 |
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One of the reasons I love my job as a wildlife veterinarian so much is the variety of my days. No two days are the same; each is filled with different animals with different problems, and I love the anticipation of what my day may bring. I never know what kind of animal will come [...]
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Quantum entanglement is such a mainstay of modern physics that it is worth reflecting on how long it took to emerge. What began as a perceptive but vague insight by Albert Einstein languished for decades before becoming a branch of experimental physics and, increasingly, modern technology. Einstein’s two most memorable phrases perfectly capture the weirdness [...]
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January 29th, 2012 |
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Ten steps to a healthier life and more wealth through embracing the bacteria around you. Book titles are difficult to choose. In theory, a perfect title is concise, compelling, enticing and, oh by the way, accurately conveys some aspect of the book’s contents. In practice, most titles involve more compromise than perfection. The working title [...]
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January 27th, 2012 |
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NASA’s Apollo program began with one of the worst disasters the organization has ever faced. A routine prelaunch test turned fatal when a fire ripped through the spacecraft’s crew cabin killing all three astronauts. Today marks the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire, a tragic and preventable accident. There were warning signs, similar accidents [...]
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January 26th, 2012 |
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I bought three copies of Sam Kean’s The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements. I left the first one in the seat-back pocket of Delta flight 188 from Beijing to Detroit. The second one is sandwiched between ROCK and [...]
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How a Book about the Future Inspired Me to Look into the Neural Underpinnings of the Past
An Archival Treasure: Singing Mice
Tiny, Tree-Dwelling Primate Called Tarsier Sends and Receives Ultrasonic Calls
The tragic fate of the Brighton octopus
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