Last weekend I ran a 50 mile ultramarathon. It took me just over 9 hours to complete. Leading up to the race, I switched my training from competitive CrossFit to more endurance, long run training sessions. During this time, I lost 15lb over 4 months, most of which was muscle (my pants and shirts are…
Ted Talks Part 1: Nanorobots
Last week I was fortunate to attend the TED talks at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. It was the first ever TED event with exclusively science-related talks. Over the coming weeks, I am going to discuss some of the topics presented by the speakers. Today’s post, will be about nanorobots. Dr. Paul…
Ranked-Choice Voting: What is it and is it good for America?
New York City became the latest city to pass ranked-choice voting (RCV). Over 20 other cities, including other major metropolises like San Francisco and Minneapolis, have adopted the voting reform. So what exactly is it and how does it work? RCV works as it sounds, a voter ranks candidates in order of their preference to…
Peeling boiled eggs! How to do it the easy way.
Continuing from the recent post about refrigerating eggs in the U.S. versus Mexico, I wanted to briefly share my non-scientific protocol on how to make the perfect boiled egg! Specifically, how to make sure the eggshell is easy to peel! How may times have you tried to peel and egg and its absolutely terrible? The…
Why we refrigerate eggs in the United States.
When I was living in Mexico and working in a kitchen in 2011, one of the first things I noticed in the restaurant was that the eggs were left out on the table all day! They were never put in the refrigerator. I thought this was so strange! Why don’t they spoil? How long do…
The bird you never knew you loved: The American Woodcock
If someone asked you what a Timberdoodle looks like, would you know? What about a Whipperwon’t? Prairie Turtel? Brush Snipe? All of these are known aliases and colloquial names of the common American Woodcock (Scolopax Minor), but for some reason, you have never seen or heard of it. These cute little plump, long-beaked birds are…
PSA: Don’t Kill Your Unknown Roommates a.k.a House Centipedes!
We’ve all been there. You come home late at night, turn on the lights, and you see what looks like a super hairy bug on the kitchen floor scurry away to darkness at 1.5ft per second. It’s the house centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata). Now, before you grab your shoe and try to kill your newfound roommate,…
Showing some love for the Opossum
Opossums get a lot of bad street cred. They look like giant rats, they sometimes hiss when provoked, and people often like to bring in exterminators or pest control to get rid of them. But today, I’m going to break down why they are actually one of the coolest mammals right in your backyard. Seriously….
PhD’s and Politics Series Part 2: Science Literacy in the USA
What is science literacy? In a recent NPR poll, 1 in 4 Americans thinks the sun revolves around the Earth (it doesn’t). A YouGov poll found 41% of British adults think antibiotics cure viral infections (they don’t). Understanding that Earth goes around the sun (astronomy) and that antibiotics are only effective against bacterial infections (microbiology)…
PhD’s and Politics Series Part 1: Science Representation in Congress
In 2012, I was at the University of Iowa in the first year of my PhD when Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the famous astrophysicist from the Hayden planetarium, came to give a free seminar to students. He was on tour promoting his new book “The Space Chronicles.” Having recently read another one of his books…