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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?” →

misciwriterseditors Biochemistry, blog, genetics

 Who owns cells and DNA?  Property rights get messy in biology

Author: Sarah Kearns
Editors: Genesis Rodriguez, Zena Lapp, and Whit Froehlich

Scattered around your house or apartment, lightly coating the surface of your coffee table and lurking in the nooks and crannies of each room, discarded layers of yourself can be found in the form of skin and hair cells. Regardless of how much of clean-freak you are, it’s unlikely you miss the over one million cells you shed per day. One might go so far as to say that they aren’t even yours in the first place as you sweep them up during a spring cleaning before irreverently dumping them in the waste bin. But what if someone came into your house and took them? Continue reading ” Who owns cells and DNA?  Property rights get messy in biology” →

misciwriterseditors blog, Education, Outreach

Girls Who Code take on Computer Science Education Week

Author: Brooke Wolford. Editors: Zena Lapp and Whit Froehlich

It is not directly apparent, but a lot of computer code is working behind the scenes to allow you to read this article! In fact, computer code runs a lot of the modern world. Computer and mathematical occupations are the sixth-fastest-growing of 22 major occupational groups in the U.S., and are projected to account for 4.3 million American jobs in 2020.

This week (December 3-9 in 2018) is Computer Science Education Week, an effort to encourage K-12 students to take interest in computer science, frequently observed with Hour of Code events. Unfortunately, only 35% of high schools teach computer science. Furthermore, fewer than one-fifth of Computer Science graduates are women, and the gender gap is getting worse. To try to bridge this gender gap, a University of Michigan graduate-student led organization, Girls Who Code at University of Michigan Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics (UM DCMB), pursues computer science education year-long through K-12 educational outreach efforts primarily serving young women. GWC at UM DCMB is a recognized Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) founded by doctoral students in the Bioinformatics graduate program in 2017. The organization, led by an eight-woman Executive Committee, coordinates a weekly Girls Who Code (GWC) Club as well as extensive K-12 educational outreach efforts. Continue reading “Girls Who Code take on Computer Science Education Week” →