I contribute science stories to various publications, including Science, Nature News, and Scientific American MIND. My education is in astronomy and astrophysics but I have written about everything from bio-inspired engineering to archaeological discoveries in Iran. My first "science writing" was a report in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on research I conducted at Harvard.
Researchers have devised a treatment that mechanically repairs burst cell membranes in the brain, somewhat like puncture sealants used in bicycle tyres, and could therefore help to avert brain damage after serious head injuries. [html] [pdf]
Tony Kouzarides tells the story of his early career as a comedy of errors. He started his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. in 1981 studying the cancer-inducing potential of human cytomegalovirus. After a year of inserting virus DNA into target cells, the cells showed almost no signs of cancer. He couldn't rule out that other parts of the virus might do it, but he also couldn't publish his early results. On the strength of that record, he deadpans, he unsuccessfully applied to lead his own research group. [html] [pdf]
Smokers tend to resist antismoking efforts that rely on "rational" approaches like taxes, and researchers have pointed to confounding influences, including social factors and addiction. But differences in smokers' decision-making processes may also be at play. [html]
(Please see the electronic or print editions for the rest of the article while this issue is current.)
These days, it seems like everyone is into fast-and-light alpine climbing--even plants. Now, according to researchers based in Germany, valley plants are racing up the flanks of the Bernina Alps, Switzerland. [pdf]
Last spring, Katy Sheen listened to the sounds of the ocean from a ship off the coast of Spain. A relaxing vacation? Hardly. Sheen, a graduate student at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., is one of a handful of scientists adapting a technique called seismic profiling to oceanography. By observing the changing speeds of sound waves propagating through water, geophysicists and oceanographers hope to extract information about the ocean's temperature, salinity, and velocity. [html] [pdf]
This week, Science Careers takes a look at Generation Y scientists to make sense of this new workforce and the workplace that Generation Y-ers are entering.
Listen to the 41 minute podcast: [mp3]
Or what I helped script and voice: [mp3]
Or read the transcript: [pdf]
The brain reigns as the most important sex organ--even for microscopic worms. By "masculinizing" the tiny brains of genetically female nematodes, researchers have given these ladies sexual behavior typical of male worms and begun to unravel the neuronal circuits behind worm attraction. [html] [pdf]
