While I was at MIT (at the tragically doomed 2019-2020 KSJ Fellowship, which was WONDERFUL and only ended tragically due to COVID-19, as we all fled back to our home countries), I got to take a stand-up comedy course! Here I present to you: me, trying something new, and failing at it. Because while it […]
Upcoming appearances! Awesome Con 2019: A Science Fiction, Fantasy, TV, Fandom con in Washington, DC. I’ll be with my, brilliant, fantastic Science News colleague Tina Saey doing Future Con, the science-focused portion of the event (room 144). Saturday, April 27: 9:00 PM – 9:45 PM CRISPRing Our Way to GATTACA It’s only been 16 years since […]
Awards, honors and opportunities are a bit like single socks. Once you get one, others follow, seemingly unrelated, until your drawer is overflowing in socks and pieces of cardstock with very fancy fonts. A single striped sock. An award for outreach. An unpaired athletic sock. An award for a particular article or project. A dress […]
About 1.5 years ago. I started a newsletter. A few weeks later, I brought on the fabulous comic artist JoAnna Wendel to help. The newsletter was supposed to be a fun way to connect with my audience, to be creative and funny. But the newsletter didn’t work. No one ever seemed to subscribe no matter […]
I’ll be on some panels at the upcoming Awesome Con in Washington, D.C., March 30- April 1. On March 31, I’ll be moderating a panel on women in STEM (1pm in room 209) and later that evening, I’ll be discussing the awesome science behind real monsters (and why we can’t have nice things like head transplants, 8pm room 209). […]
Science Fact Some pitcher plants eat bugs to get the nitrogen and phosphorus they need to make it. But one special one HOSTS bugs. It gives a baby gnat a place to hang, and that gnat then builds a web on the plant, catches bugs, eats them, and then poos right into the pitcher plant, while […]
Science Fact Pluto’s got a washboard stomach. No really! “Washboard” and “fluted” areas of terrain are parallel ridges across the landscape. In this case, scientists think they were caused by glaciers that expanded and then retreated over the years. But don’t choose Pluto for your next ski destination. The “glaciers” in this case weren’t made of water […]
Science Fact Scientists have found a penguin supercolony! And boy is it super. It’s more than 1.5 MILLION Adelie penguins. That’s like the entire city of Philadelphia. But with penguins. In the very remote area of the Danger Islands, where humans had never looked closely before. What alerted them? The penguin POO. There was so […]
Science Fact Centipedes can take down prey 15 TIMES their size. How do they do it? A toxin scientists are calling “spooky” toxin. I think they also employ a large dose of AUGH GET IT OFF GET IT OFF TOO MANY LEGS. How to counteract this horrible painful bite? An anti-epilepsy drug may be the answer. […]
Science Fact Rumpelstiltskin could spin straw into gold. These bacteria do him one better. They basically poop it out. The bacterium C. metallidurans lives in soils with lots of toxic heavy metals. They make it in the tough environment by taking in the metals, processing them, and pooping out tiny gold nuggets. This Valentine’s Day, […]