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misciwriterseditors blog, Chemistry, Physics, Technology

New elements on the block

Author: David Mertz

Editors: Tricia Garay, Irene Park

Ever since an interactive display was built in my high school chemistry lab (one of only six such installations in the world), I’ve found the periodic table of elements to be a fascinating fixture of science. I remember watching the scientists prepare little displays for each individual element, including the metal gallium which they let me hold in my hand. It was different than most of the metals familiar to us. With a melting temperature just below 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), the metallic cube began to melt right on my palm. Continue reading “New elements on the block” →

misciwriterseditors Biology, blog, genetics, Public health, Research

Mother’s protein intake can affect her child’s weight

Author: Shweta Ramdas

Editors: Ada Hagan, Alisha John, Belle Moyers, and Irene Park

Google “diet for pregnant or nursing mothers”, and you’ll be swamped with web pages recommending foods that help the baby and foods to avoid. There has been considerable research indicating that the diet of pregnant mothers can affect the child’s health (including risk for schizophrenia). But how? And are these effects long-lasting, or do they wear off once the child hits adulthood?

Continue reading “Mother’s protein intake can affect her child’s weight” →

misciwriterseditors Biology, blog, Physics

Being cephalopod: Changing color in a color-blind world

Author: Ada Hagan

Editors: Belle Moyers, Kevin Boehnke, Shweta Ramdas

Just a couple of weeks ago in “Camouflaged: Finding cephalopods” MiSciWriters blogger Irene Park told us about how cephalopods (octopuses, cuttlefish, and squids) alter their skin color, and texture to blend into their surroundings. But based on what scientists know about cephalopods’ eyes, they should be color-blind. So how can they mimic colors with such incredible accuracy?

Continue reading “Being cephalopod: Changing color in a color-blind world” →

misciwriterseditors Biology, blog, Chemistry, Mathematics, Opinion, Physics, science behind the scenes

Science behind-the-scenes: Which fields are “real sciences”?

Author: Belle Moyers

Content Editors: Christina Vallianatos, Molly Kozminsky

Senior Editor: Alisha John

“Well, that field isn’t really science.”

“Oh, that’s just a soft science.”

Most people who work in the sciences have probably heard phrases like these.  Translation: that field is lesser.  The physicists say it about everyone lower than them in the pecking order, as do the chemists, biologists, and so on down the line.  The nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford famously said, “All science is either physics or stamp-collecting.”  People argue about this at scientific conferences and in the media.   The science and pop-culture webcomic xkcd has even parodied the issue.

Continue reading “Science behind-the-scenes: Which fields are “real sciences”?” →
misciwriters Biology, Research, Uncategorized

Camouflaged: Finding cephalopods

Written by: Irene Park

Edited by: Ada Hagan, Alisha John, Belle Moyers, Kevin Boehnke

When I was watching Finding Dory, one character caught my eye: Hank the octopus (or septopus since he’s missing a tentacle). Throughout the movie, Hank uses his camouflage ability to blend into his surroundings, a very useful skill for Dory’s quest to reunite with her family without getting noticed by humans.  

I could not help but think how helpful Hank’s camouflage ability would be for different professions: hunters, nature photographers, and perhaps even people in the military. Unsurprisingly, researchers are already taking notes from cephalopods — which include octopuses like Hank, as well as squids and cuttlefishes — to develop better camouflage technology.

Continue reading “Camouflaged: Finding cephalopods” →

misciwriters Biology, Disease research, Research

The “FADS2” diet: How vegetarian populations have different genomes

By Belle Moyers

It turns out that what your ancestors ate can influence your ideal diet. At least, that’s what researchers at Cornell University and the University of Pune, in India, have announced after analyzing several hundred peoples’ genomes and blood samples in the United States and India.

Continue reading “The “FADS2” diet: How vegetarian populations have different genomes” →
misciwriters Science communication, Technology

Communicating science: From Michigan, across the world (wide web)

By Ada Hagan

“Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone” – Albert Einstein

We’ve discussed it on the blog before, but science has a communication problem. Sure, research is performed and shared via research articles or at scientific conferences, but rarely do scientists directly relay results outside of their academic niches. Few scientists disagree with broader science communication in theory, especially since much of the funding for research is provided by taxpayer dollars. And we learned in our first “Science behind-the-scenes” post that the final step of the scientific method is to “communicate your results.” So why is it that researchers don’t interact more with non-researchers regarding science? Part of the issue is that the intense specialization of researchers into a narrow topic, combined with a lack of effective communication training, makes effective communication a difficult task.

Continue reading “Communicating science: From Michigan, across the world (wide web)” →

misciwriters science behind the scenes, Science communication

Communicated, not classified: The importance of collaboration in science (Science behind-the-scenes)

By Molly Kozminsky

Close your eyes and picture a scientist. What do you see?

In 1983, David Wade Chambers published results from a study conducted on 4,807 children as they progressed from kindergarten through fifth grade in the United States and Canada. The test? To draw a scientist. In what must rank as one of the most adorable research experiences ever, the drawings were scored for seven indicators of a “standard image of a scientist:”

Continue reading “Communicated, not classified: The importance of collaboration in science (Science behind-the-scenes)” →

misciwriters Biology, Disease research, genetics, Public health, Research, Technology

Science and social media: How “oversharing” is helping human genetics

By Christina Vallianatos

We live in an age where oversharing is overabundant. From your best friend’s artsy food pictures (#boozybrunch), to your coworker live-Tweeting her labor experience (“C-section in 20 minutes!”), it seems like we know the intimate details of everyone’s lives, all the time.

But what if some of those TMI moments weren’t necessarily “too much information”? What if they’re actually helping to solve one of the biggest dilemmas in human genetics: the identification of disease-causing genes?

Continue reading “Science and social media: How “oversharing” is helping human genetics” →

misciwriterseditors Biology, blog, Disease research, Microbiology, Research, Technology

Virus vs. Bacteria: Enemy of my enemy

By Ada Hagan

In 1917, almost a century ago, a French-Canadian scientist, Felix d’Herelle, and his colleagues discovered bacteriophage. As I discussed in a previous post, bacteriophage (phage) are the viruses that prey on bacteria, turning them into viral factories. The battle between phage and bacteria has raged for millennia, resulting in a beautiful co-evolution where predator and prey each grapple for a temporary upper hand.

We’ve been exploring the depths of this complex relationship, searching for ways to use this enemy of our enemy as a tool against the bacterial infections that plague us. Along the way, we’ve found a number of different techniques to exploit these micro-allies.

Continue reading “Virus vs. Bacteria: Enemy of my enemy” →