Though hydrogen is the smallest atom and is perched at the top left of the periodic table, hydrogen in nature exists as two atoms hooked together. Hydrogen hit the news this weekend as a leak led NASA to scrub the Space Shuttle Endeavor launch: Hydrogen is as clean as chemical fuels get: burning it produces…
I decided that in honor of my own birthday, I’d see which scientists also blew out candles on this spot on the calendar. (Okay, so I guess it’s a day late.) My cosmic alignment is pretty distinguished. Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix was born on June 8, 1916. I also share a…
It’s been a rainy week in New York City, and my office next to our front porch and my container garden has me thinking about that ubiquitous wetness. It’s been soaking my plants, and after a quick errand on Friday afternoon, its dampness lurked for hours on the hem of my jeans. It’s easy to…
In my post last week about blue whales singing in NY Harbor, I mentioned that I had an email out to the Cornell Bioacoustics Research Program to find out the current status of the NY harbor listening project. I heard back yesterday from Connie Bruce at Cornell: The current status is that we have terminated…
Tickling Techniques from Science News on Vimeo. Last month, I posted about laughing rats. Well, here’s the follow-up: chortling chimps, orangutans, gorillas, and bonobos. From the article posted on Science News’s website: Don’t try this at home, but tickling a gorilla, orangutan, bonobo or chimp can inspire bursts of grunting sounds. Yes, that’s laughter, says…
Almost 6 years ago, I attended a conference of scientists and communicators about issues of communicating global warming to the general public. At that point I was still wearing my graduate student hat and was still learning the ropes of science writing. The issues related to global warming and the public were different– this was…
So, it’s day 31, and I made it! I’ve decided that daily blogging is like daily exercise– it’s much easier to keep going when you’re supported by a group of other people with the same goals and mission. So, I’m grateful for the support of my fellow bloggers and the new friends I’ve made along…
Over the last several months I’ve gotten press releases just about every week about Vitamin D, usually talking about studies that show health problems connected to Vitamin D deficiencies. A lot of this discussion about “the optimal dose” of Vitamin D is still under debate, though. The main problem is that it is possible to get too much.…
They’re the largest animal to ever live on Earth, and for the first time researchers have confirmed that blue whales have been singing off the coast of Long Island. (These animals are almost unfathomably huge. If you’re in NYC sometime, check out the blue whale model suspended in the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall…
Before I was a writer, before I was a mom of four boys – before I was the mother of one boy – I was a nurse. Guess I’ve always been interested in science. In high school, I loved biology and advanced biology. In college, I studied anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, microbiology, chemistry, biochemistry, nutrition and…