Nature’s Cool Solution In our last post, we examined how Antarctic fish survive freezing waters using antifreeze proteins, which prevent ice formation in their bodies. But what about the opposite case? What if we could make water freeze more easily at slightly warmer temperatures, using less energy? Isabel Pulido solved that puzzle after experiencing firsthand… Continue reading From Frost-Forming Bacteria to Off-Grid Refrigeration:
Category: Women in STEM
How Cool is Supercooling!
Have you ever pulled a bottle of water from the freezer, twisted the cap, and watched in amazement as it crystallized right before your eyes? You’ve just experienced supercooling—one of the coolest (literally!) phenomena in science. So, what exactly is supercooling, and why does it happen? Quick Science Dive: What’s Supercooling Anyway? Water normally freezes… Continue reading How Cool is Supercooling!
Uncommon Ice
Different Types of Ice Learning about Isabel Pulido’s NanoFreeze technology, which is helping preserve food in rural Colombia, led me to take a closer look at the science of freezing. At first, it seemed simple—ice is just frozen water. But I soon found out that water can actually freeze into nearly 20 different solid forms,… Continue reading Uncommon Ice
Ice is Cool!
How Water Freezes (and Why It Matters) Ice—Simple Yet Strange Ever wondered why ice cubes float or why sidewalks become slippery when they’re covered in frost? Ice might seem ordinary, but it’s packed with fascinating mysteries. In our recent post, we introduced Isabel Pulido’s groundbreaking invention, NanoFreeze, which uses special proteins to freeze water at… Continue reading Ice is Cool!
Colder Ice:
Isabel Pulido’s Cool Innovation One afternoon in rural Colombia, Isabel Pulido watched a mother throw away half-eaten beans and rice. The family had no refrigerator—not because they couldn’t afford one, but because they had no reliable electricity. “I realized then that the biggest problem wasn’t just access to power,” Pulido recalls. “It was about food… Continue reading Colder Ice:
Henrietta Swan Leavitt:
The Woman Who Helped Us Measure the Universe In the early 1900s, measuring distances in space was one of astronomy’s greatest challenges. We knew there were other galaxies out there, but we had no reliable way to determine how far away they were. Enter Henrietta Swan Leavitt, an American astronomer whose brilliant discovery would forever… Continue reading Henrietta Swan Leavitt:
The Catapult Project:
How Supporting a Neurodivergent Student Sparked a Hands-On STEM Challenge The clatter of wood and excited student chatter filled the air as a small projectile arced across the courtyard. At the center of this commotion stood Maya as she demonstrated her handcrafted catapult to her delighted classmates and sparked an evolution in our physics unit.… Continue reading The Catapult Project:
Gitanjali Rao:
Update Gitanjali Rao won the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge in 2017 at age 13. I was thrilled when she agreed to an interview for my book, Teen Innovators: Nine Young People Engineering a Better World with Creative Inventions. We had a great conversation about her invention, the contest, school, and her plans for… Continue reading Gitanjali Rao:
A Trigonometry Proof of the Pythagorean Theorem?
Impossible? Not for Them! Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson, two high school students from New Orleans, astonished mathematicians by proving the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry. Many mathematicians thought a trigonometric proof of this foundational theorem of geometry was not possible without using circular reasoning. Jackson and Johnson, however, created one. The Pythagorean theorem, a cornerstone… Continue reading A Trigonometry Proof of the Pythagorean Theorem?
CRISPR:
From Bacterial Defense to Gene Editing Tool The implications of Doudna and Charpentier’s CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) discovery were monumental. Scientists realized that if they could program CRISPR-Cas9 to target specific DNA sequences in bacteria, they could use this technology in any organism. This adaptability transformed it into a gene-editing tool of… Continue reading CRISPR: