During this Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve all been thinking more about viruses and, like Anika Chebrulo, how to stop them. Learning about Anika’s work and Covid-19 (Link to Worst Pandemic Ever?) made me realize I wanted to know more about viruses and how they worked. If you classify viruses as alive, then viruses are the most… Continue reading What’s a Virus, Anyway?
Category: Biology
Fighting Opioid Addiction
Gitanjali Rao Invents a Medical Diagnostic Tool “One of our family friends became addicted to prescription opioids after a car accident,” says Gitanjali Rao, an award-winning inventor. The friend’s doctor had prescribed opioid painkillers to ease her suffering. As happens all too often, Gitanjali discovered, the friend mistakenly took too much of her prescription and… Continue reading Fighting Opioid Addiction
Myth of the Tongue Map
A persistent meme of misconception It’s not what you know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know that ain’t so.” Mark Twain The Problem How do we know what is so and what ain’t so? Sometimes obsolete or debunked ideas still persist and circulate widely. Many people today still believe the misconception that… Continue reading Myth of the Tongue Map
Supertaster Test
With flavors of chocolate and red fruits, this Barolo [red wine] has a strong backbone of tannins. from LoveToKnow.com Some people can see better than others, with vision like eagles. Some people can hear better, detecting subtle sounds as a dolphin hears the sounds of small fish swimming. And some people are extra sensitive to… Continue reading Supertaster Test
Citizen science: What is it? Why do people do it? And why you should, too!
You are all scientists!
A Matter of Taste?
How an explosion revealed a superpower “Well, it’s just a matter of taste,” you may say to a friend when disagreeing about the flavor of food. Now many scientific studies support this common experience: some people have a more acute sense of taste than others. We all live in different taste worlds. The wonderful and… Continue reading A Matter of Taste?
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
Geobiologist Dr. Hope Jahren wrote Lab Girl as a story of her life in science. The core of her book chronicles her life as a young woman growing up to be a scientist. “In my memory of those dark winter nights [in rural Minnesota] … as my father [who taught physics and earth sciences at… Continue reading Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
Hello World
Explore the world. Nearly everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough. –Richard Feynman Welcome! Welcome to my Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) blog! If you’re interested in what is going on in STEM, this blog may be a place for you. I’m a science teacher writing on what I learn about… Continue reading Hello World
STEM & Creative Change 