Science Communication

Social jetlag: No plane required

When my alarm wakes me up at 7:30am on Monday, the first thought that pops into my head is “Oh dear lord, why?” After a beautiful weekend of sleeping in, enough to fill my heart's content, readjusting to my weekday schedule is a constant challenge. I feel tired, irritable, and my thoughts are as murky

Last but not yeast, the beer necessities

Fermentation is the process in which sugar is consumed by microbes and converted into another chemical. In the case of brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), the fungus responsible for nearly all alcoholic beverages, sugar is eaten and converted to alcohol, phenols, and esters. Other fungi and bacteria have been in use for centuries, but their use

Photosynthesis & waffles: how plant sap gets on our breakfast plates

Maple syrup is a staple in Western breakfast culture. True maple syrup – as opposed to the thick corn syrup imitation that sits in many American diners – comes from a variety of trees, mostly  the sugar maple. But this breakfast condiment is more than just goo that happens to ooze out of a plant

Fossilized Ebola is Hiding in Your Pet Hamster's DNA!

Ebolavirus is one of the most infamous disease causing pathogens of the modern era. The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa was the largest outbreak of ebolavirus to date, with over 28,000 suspected cases and 11,000 deaths. Ebolavirus is just one member of the Filoviridae virus family. These viruses are colloquially referred to as Filoviruses

Scouting for the Next Top Model (Organism)

Here's a valid question: if it's a human condition or disease we're interested in, why do we study flies, plants or bacteria? It's a question that researchers often have to answer: whether it be for grant funding or to their in-laws over Thanksgiving dinner. Certainly, no one wants to hear—or vote for— tax dollars aimlessly

Vegetables are a social construct

My particular confluence of knowledge (a blend of economics, environmental policy, and crop science) tends to leave me completely overwhelmed by the discordance among human nutritional needs, environmental health, and global agricultural systems. So, I let out a tiny gasp of elation when the Lancet, one of the world's most prestigious general medical journals, released

Malaria: From Miasma to Elimination

Life on Earth is full of dynamic and complex interactions between organisms. Some of these interactions are mutualistic, where all parties benefit from the relationship. Others are commensalistic, where one organism benefits and the other isn't really affected. Then there are the parasites, organisms that live and prey on others causing them harm.  Parasites are

Preventing the Next Epidemic: Scientists Take a Closer Look at Rift Valley Fever

In 2015, Zika virus resulted in a global public health emergency. The epidemic caused severe brain defects in thousands of Brazilian newborns after the virus was transmitted to pregnant mothers via infected mosquitoes. The rapid emergence of disease caught everyone by surprise, and with little understanding of the virus pathogenesis it left scientists unprepared to

Men control the reproductive rights of plants too

When confronted with the imprecise notion of “sustainability” in agriculture, most people's thoughts drift to ideas of ecologically-mindful land management practices. I'll dub these concepts “the classics”: rotate your crops, use less fertilizer and pesticides, always employ cover cropping. While these ideas are not wrong, they are incomplete in that they tend to omit some

Littering 2.0

Like many kids, I dreamt of becoming an astronaut; exploring distant planets and making contact with aliens. With a huge number of planets out there, it's hard to think we're all alone in this vast universe. But, as I grew as a scientist, my curiosity focused on a specific question: How can we find alien

Big Science, Small Satellites

Is it a star? A moon? A comet even? No, it's a satellite! NASA broadly defines a satellite as a moon, planet, or machine that orbits a planet or star. More specifically, “natural” satellites include the Earth, which revolves around the Sun, and the moon which revolves around the Earth. On the other hand, there

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