Picture this: you find yourself strolling into a small, crowded shop in downtown Hong Kong. As you cross the threshold, a barrage of strange sights and smells attacks your nose and vision. As you turn your gaze to the walls, you notice shelves upon shelves of animal parts, mysterious fungi, and dubious bunches of dried
On September 1st, 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott passed Senate Bill 8 (SB8) which bans abortion after the first signs of fetal heartbeat. There are no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape, sexual abuse, or incest. Texas legislators claim that 6 weeks is plenty of time to get an abortion. However, this is not accurate
On an otherwise entirely forgettable late-summer morning during the height of pandemic-induced self-isolation, I stepped out onto my front porch and saw the biggest spider I had ever seen in my life suspended above my hedges, hanging in the middle of an elaborate web. My new neighbor was as big as my palm, bright yellow
We've reached a point in the pandemic where people are starting to wonder: what would you do in a vaccinated world? Of course, reaching that reality requires that the world continue to take the health risks of coronavirus seriously, and that we continue to be transparent about how vaccines are made, tested, and distributed. There
Last week, I received an email from Brandless, an online store that specializes in affordable, healthy, and environmentally-conscious products. Their email was advertising their new line of “tree-free†products – paper products that are made from bamboo and sugarcane, rather than trees. I strive to be environmentally conscious, but I am also a person who
Trees have received a lot of press lately. As wildfires tore through forests worldwide, President Donald Trump blamed the devastation on poor forest management. Meanwhile, the United States formalized a commitment to planting trees to restore our climate. The world's governments and scientists are grappling with how we both protect and manage forests. What should
A text comes in. It reads “Meet me at the abandoned gas station past Lexington and Thomas.†The car starts up and heads down the dimly lit streets. Soon, headlights illuminate the dark gas station. There is already a truck parked behind the shuttered garage. The buyer opens their car door and steps toward the
Anyone who knows me knows that mitochondria are pretty much my life. My Ph.D. focuses on making these little cellular power plants more efficient at producing energy so that they can help muscles heal faster after traumatic injury. More than that, though, I want to teach people that mitochondria are more than just “the powerhouse
Growing up in Arizona, we were told that people could go to jail for damaging a Saguaro cactus. Saguaros are a protected symbol of the Southwest. Yet in 2019, videos shot by Kevin Dahl, the Arizona Senior Program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, recorded bulldozers uprooting Saguaro cacti and other desert shrubs at
