Exploring "The Secret Life of Scientists"
NOVA scienceNow has a cool new web feature– “The Secret Life of Scientists”– that I explored today (thanks to Facebook and Symmetry Mag). It’s clear that this series is right up my alley– I probe my past experience and talk to scientists, in part, about what makes them tick. I’m constantly coming back to the [...]
Introducing Material of the Week: Spider Silk
Followers of this blog might have noticed that the Molecule of the Week (MotW) feature took a summerish hiatus. I’ve decided to expand the feature to include interesting materials, which are often more complex mixtures, either of synthetic or naturally-made compounds. So, I’m adding Material of the Week (MatotW in blogospheric shorthand) to help round [...]
They Might Be Giants and Schoolhouse Rock
How did I get so lucky? Seriously. A little while ago, I came across this post in Nature News’s blog about the new kids’ album from They Might Be Giants. And. The. Videos. My neighbors probably heard me scream with glee, and then I made an impulse buy on iTunes–which I rarely do. Honest. Wow, [...]
Loose ends or a visitor in her former country
“So do you consider yourself a scientist or a writer?” An undergraduate student asked me that question last fall when I guest-lectured about communicating research for a social-scientist friend’s seminar course. I immediately said, “A writer, but I write about science.” But I do understand why he was confused. Even having done it, I wouldn’t [...]
Hubble: still amazing after all these years
I love big, beautiful Hubble pictures, and these most recent ones are no exception. When I was working on the new astronomy exhibits at Griffith Observatory a few years ago, I marveled that I got paid to dig up spectacular images like this one. In a time where basic science rarely makes the local evening [...]
The specter of ocean garbage
On a spring afternoon walk earlier this year, I obsessively took pictures of New York harbor garbage. A buildup of plastic bottles, crates, driftwood and furniture fragments littered the rocks along our coastal walkway– a strange jumble of junk. But my local trash doesn’t come close to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch– our global oceanic trash [...]
Revisiting DNA origami
Creating a genetic program to crinkle DNA into the perfect shape can appear to be a scientific stunt. But DNA origami is more than a molecular magic trick. In this excerpt from a 2007 TED lecture, Paul Rothemund describes the science behind the work– how a chain– based on its sequence– becomes a two-dimensional shape. [...]
