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misciwriterseditors Physics, Spanish

Júpiter Calientes: Los Exoplanetas Originales

Autora: Hayley Beltz
Editores: Alison Claire Ludzki, Callie Corsa y Sarah Kearns
Traducción: Irene Vargas-Salazar, editado por Neikelyn Burgos-Tirado

Toma un momento para recordar que tú y todas las personas que conoces viven en una pequeña bola azul que está girando alrededor de una bola caliente hecha de hidrógeno y helio que no nos presta atención. Además, solamente somos uno de los ocho diversos planetas dentro de nuestro sistema solar que han estado en este viaje por billones de años. Estos otros planetas pueden variar desde rocas calientes, demasiado pequeñas para poder sostener una atmósfera, hasta gigantes de gas frío en donde un día puede durar menos de 10 horas. Nuestro sistema solar es solamente uno entre muchos (billones) sistemas y solo incluye una pequeña muestra de posibles tipos de planetas y configuraciones. Cuando astrónomos empezaron a mirar más lejos que nuestro sistema solar a estrellas cercanas y los planetas que los orbitan – conocidos como exoplanetas – empezamos a entender que tan extraño pueden ser otros mundos. Nuestro sistema solar no nos había preparado para lo que vimos primero: los Júpiter Calientes.

Continue reading “Júpiter Calientes: Los Exoplanetas Originales” →

misciwriterseditors blog, Physics

Hot Jupiters: The OG Exoplanets

Author: Hayley Beltz.
Editors: Alison Claire Ludzki, Callie Corsa, and Sarah Kearns

Take a moment to remember that you and everyone you know live on a small blue orb hurling itself around a hot ball of hydrogen and helium that pays us no mind. Furthermore, we are only one of eight staggeringly diverse planets within our solar system that have been making this trip for billions of years. These planets range from hot rocks too small to even hold onto an atmosphere to cooler, massive gas giants where a day lasts less than 10 hours. Our solar system is only one of many (billions) and is only a small sample of the set of possible planet types and configurations. When astronomers started to look outside our solar system at nearby stars and the planets that orbit them–known as exoplanets–we began to understand just how strange other worlds can be.  Our solar system was unable to prepare us for what we saw first: Hot Jupiters. Continue reading “Hot Jupiters: The OG Exoplanets” →

misciwriterseditors Spanish

La separación de agua parte II: Las investigaciones en la Universidad de Michigan

Escrito en inglés por Jimmy Brancho, traducido al español por Jean Carlos Rodríguez-Díaz y editado por Isabel D. Colón-Bernal

Como dice el dicho: “No puedes almacenar energía solar sin romper unas cuantas moléculas de agua.”

O, por lo menos, es lo que muchos científicos tratan de lograr alrededor del mundo. Como se discutió en la primera parte, la separación de agua podría proveer energía sostenible en el futuro al almacenar la energía de los rayos del sol en una fuente de energía química como hidrógeno, la cual se pudiese usar cuando se necesite. Idealmente solo se necesitaría agua y luz solar produciendo como desecho oxígeno.  A pesar de este ideal, todavía falta mucho para que tengamos ese tipo de tecnología. Bart Bartlett, Charles McCrory y Neil Dasupta son algunos miembros de la facultad en la Universidad de Michigan que están trabajando para hacer realidad dispositivos que separen el agua. Cada uno trata de resolver el problema desde un ángulo distinto. Continue reading “La separación de agua parte II: Las investigaciones en la Universidad de Michigan” →

misciwriterseditors blog, Science communication

Changing Scholarly Publication Practices: The Open Access Movement

By: Sarah Kearns. Edited by: Srihari Sundar & Whit Froehlich

Online presence and shareability of content are ever-more important in our modern and increasingly digital world, and science and medicine are no exceptions. With published papers still being the standard for disseminating research, journals and publishing companies continue to largely serve as the gatekeepers of scholarly content. Accessibility is a critical component, with journals either labeled as Open Access (OA) or paywalled, the latter implying that readers must pay before being able access the content. The motivation behind OA is that open is better than closed – having access to the complete version of a scholarly paper increases the transparency of research, contributing to a more reliable scientific system. Continue reading “Changing Scholarly Publication Practices: The Open Access Movement” →

misciwriterseditors Biochemistry, blog, Chemistry, Ecology

When venom becomes your painkiller

Author: Attabey Rodriguez-Benitez
Editors: Patricia Garay, Alison Clair Ludzki, and Noah Steinfeld.

Imagine you are not in frigid Michigan but are swimming in the warm waters of the Caribbean. The warm waters caress your skin. While you dive past a colorful reef with a plethora of fish, you see an anemone. You know you cannot touch it, because it might sting you with its toxins. Little do you know; these anemones are not the only ones capable of stinging. The reef harbors a far deadlier and more beautiful creature: cone snails. While cute on the outside, these little creatures can contain a venom cocktail of more than 100 toxins.  However, if they do sting, you will not feel any pain at all. This prompted a pivotal change in Professor Baldomero Olivera’s career. Dr. Olivero is a researcher currently at the University of Utah, where he transitioned from studying DNA synthesis to studying cone sails indigenous from his hometown in the Philippines. Continue reading “When venom becomes your painkiller” →

misciwriterseditors blog, Physics

The Quantum Tunnel

Author: William Black, Edited by Zena Lapp, Zuleirys Santana-Rodríguez, and Whit Froehlich

Quantum_Tunnel_Blueprint.png

Some say that studying a flower’s structure makes it less beautiful—that it’s best to appreciate the façade at face value, without details of underlying mechanisms. I wholly disagree. Knowledge of how a leaf photosynthesizes gives botanists greater awe for its elegance. Knowledge of how black holes tear at the fabric of spacetime gives physicists greater wonder for the universe. Knowledge of the quantum realm gave me a greater appreciation for Ant-Man and the Wasp. It can even give insights into where the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) may be headed with Avengers: Endgame. To better understand how the quantum realm works, I’ll expound on the powers of Ghost, the main antagonist of Ant-Man and the Wasp, and how they relate to probability clouds, Schrödinger’s cat, quantum tunneling, and the current state of the MCU. Continue reading “The Quantum Tunnel” →

misciwriterseditors Spanish

El cerebro que gema: La levadura como herramienta en el surgimiento de nuevos tratamientos para enfermedades neurodegenerativas

Autora: Sara Wong
Tradducción: Cristina Maria Rios, editado por Jean Rodriguez Diaz

¿Qué tienen en común los humanos con la levadura que utilizan los panaderos? Sorprendentemente, ambos comparten una gran cantidad de información genética y son gobernados por muchos de los mismos procesos celulares. Aunque la levadura carece de órganos y extremidades como los humanos, esta trabaja similarmente a las células humanas y puede ser utilizada para estudiar una gran variedad de enfermedades que padecen los humanos. La levadura es barata, crece rápido y es fácil de manipular. Estas cualidades han permitido que los científicos que estudian a la levadura descubran nuevos genes y mecanismos que son comparables con los de otros organismos modelos, como los ratones. Un área de la investigación con levadura se enfoca en entender enfermedades neurodegenerativas, tales como las enfermedades de Parkinson y Alzheimer. Continue reading “El cerebro que gema: La levadura como herramienta en el surgimiento de nuevos tratamientos para enfermedades neurodegenerativas” →

misciwriterseditors blog, Public health

So close, yet so far: Why “the pill” for men isn’t right around the corner

Author: Ashley Melnick
Editors: Stephanie Hamilton, Christina Vallianatos

Family planning is an important component in many relationships; this includes preparing for planned pregnancies and navigating ways to prevent unplanned pregnancies. Since prescription-based birth control hit the market, women have mainly been responsible for taking “the pill” and utilizing other methods of pregnancy prevention, such as cycle monitoring, rings, and patches. In December 2018, the CDC released data indicating the pill was the most commonly used form of birth control (12.6%) after sterilization (18.6%), with long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) like intrauterine devices (IUDs) trailing closely behind (10.3%), followed by male condoms (8.7%). With new advances in reproductive health research, a similar breadth of contraceptives is becoming available for men, which will soon give men more family-planning options. Western societies have recently pushed men to take larger roles in raising a family, ranging from paternity leave to being stay-at-home dads, and others beyond and in between. Developing additional options for male contraceptives will give men and women, both in relationships and as singles, more options when it comes to planning for children or preventing pregnancies. Continue reading “So close, yet so far: Why “the pill” for men isn’t right around the corner” →

misciwriterseditors Outreach, Spanish

Girls Who Code Emprenden la Semana de Educación en Ciencias Computacionales

Autora: Brooke Wolford
Editores: Zena Lapp y Whit Froehlich
Traducción: Irene Vargas-Salazar, editado por Neykelin Burgos Tirado

Aunque no sea aparente, ¡Una gran parte de programación computacional está trabajando tras bastidores para ayudarte a leer este artículo! De hecho, este tipo de código ocurre frecuentemente en el mundo moderno. Los empleos en computación y matemáticas se encuentran en el número seis entre los 22 grupos ocupacionales de mayor crecimiento en E.U.A. Además, se han proyectado alrededor de 4.3 millones de trabajos para americanos en estas áreas para el 2020.

Continue reading “Girls Who Code Emprenden la Semana de Educación en Ciencias Computacionales” →

misciwriterseditors blog, Interview, Science communication

Feminine, Masculine, or Androgynous: How Do We Characterize Science?

Author: Kristina Lenn
Editors: Isabel Colon-Bernal, Jessica Cote, and Whit Froehlich

Being confronted with our own biases is a humbling experience. I hate to admit it, but for most of my life, even when I was in college, the images I had of scientists and engineers were typically of men. Growing up, the parochial school I attended taught us that men are supposed to be providers and women are supposed to be nurturers. According to my teachers and pastors, men are more logical and women are more emotional; therefore, men are more reliable for leadership roles. Popular culture at that time, which is unfortunately not very different from today’s, was full of references to dumb blonde women, women’s “excuse to be crazy” once a month, and men’s mistrust of “anything that bleeds for seven days and doesn’t die.”

Continue reading “Feminine, Masculine, or Androgynous: How Do We Characterize Science?” →