Sat 25 Oct 2008

“Imagine an appointment as a train,” my mom told me when I was a kid. “If you’re late, will it still be there? No. You’ve missed the train.” "Science Writing for Kids: Skills and Markets"—I totally missed that train. I was conducting an interview just before the session began, and lost track of time. I [...]

Sun 26 Oct 2008

Approximately eleven minutes after the limos deposited us back in Bloomington, I was at my in-laws’ dinner table, some lovely roast chicken steaming on my plate. After getting up at 3 am (again), two plane trips and a car ride–twelve hours worth of travel–I was wiped. And starving. But the other places at the table [...]

Wed 12 Nov 2008

Jyllian Kemsley, writer and associate editor of Chemical and Engineering News, the magazine for the American Chemical Society, understands what it’s really like to be scientist. She knows the agony of data that doesn’t make sense, the staying up all night to do just one more experiment, and that smoothbeautiful click when it comes together.

Thu 11 Dec 2008

Can what you don’t know really hurt you? According to a series of studies on studies in the September issue of Sexuality Research and Social Policy, the answer is yes. Not only is abstinence-only sexual education ineffective, but it also violates basic human rights. “First and foremost, [the studies found that] abstinence-only education programs don’t [...]

Fri 12 Dec 2008

Leigh Krietsch Boerner is a fourth-year graduate student in chemistry who’s trying to write both a thesis and general interest science stuff at the same time. It’s been…interesting. Mostly since her adviser keeps telling her, “Make it more technical!” while her editor keeps saying, “Simplify it!”

Mon 15 Dec 2008

Reporter’s log: Thursday, November 20th, 2008. 8:57 am. Earth. I somehow ended up on the roof while looking for Caty Pilachowski’s office. Swain West, the building that houses both the physics and astronomy departments, is a bizarre labyrinth of offices and labs. Additions over the years have been strangely illogical (for example, you can only [...]

Wed 17 Dec 2008

This is not a book review. It may look like one, or sound like one. Hell, it may even smell like one. But I’m here to tell you, it ain’t. Instead, it’s an explanation of why I could not get through Natalie Angier’s The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science. Have [...]