Although it sounds like an unpleasant way to take dictation, this weighty sounding word has a pedestrian meaning. It is the act of sneezing. The National Institutes of Health says sneezes are triggered when the mucous lining of your nose or throat is irritated. Things like pollen, dust or pepper can set off a bout…
Shellfish-snacking otter sounds
During our class field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we learned about the aquarium’s Sea Otter Research and Conservation Program (SORAC). I loved spending time with the researchers watching wild otters hang out in the kelp forest in the bay. But what I was really eager to see was the conservation program. I wrote…
Something’s fishy here
Intergalactic Fish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Lousy fish image by Nads. NGC 4038/NGC4039 colliding galaxies, BC Whitmore Space Telescope Science Institute, NASA.
A day with the otters
As a class we enjoyed a lovely day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, tagging along with otter researchers. Here are a few pictures from our day. Be on the watch for rouge kayaks that paddle too close to the wildlife!
Open Notebook: A new site about the craft of science journalism
A new website called The Open Notebook just launched focusing on the craft of science journalism, and I think it’s well worth checking out. The website features interviews with science writers about recent stories they’ve published. It seems like a great way to get insights about how they tackled the story, including the nitty-gritty details:…
The joy of a good interview
Interviews can sometimes be a chore. Sometimes you’re talking to someone who’s not particularly enthusiastic, or who just talks in a really boring way about something that should be inherently exciting. And you persevere as you try really hard to get some interesting information and quotes from them. And then you have the sources who’re…
Malcolm Gladwell’s take on social media makes sense
There’s an interesting debate going on right now about the power (or lack thereof) of social media as agents of social change, spurred by Malcolm Gladwell’s article in the New Yorker which I recommend reading. Of course this spurred an immediate response on the internet, but here’s an article that I think summarizes the debate…
Top 3 bird bird vids… because there are no good pink flamingo vids.
As it turns out, there are no good videos of pink flamingos on the Internet. I burned the better part of Saturday looking for them, so believe me when I say there are none. In lieu of pink flamingo videos, I offer the following. These are, in my opinion, the top three bird videos of…
Ripples, waves, and swirls
I’ve always been fascinated by fluid dynamics. A New Scientist article about how tap water hitting a sink could be used to model white holes inspired me to compile some pictures of other everyday fluid flow patterns.
A Good Editor Saves The Day
I’m an intern this quarter at the Stanford School of Medicine Office of Communication & Public Affairs. Long name, great people. Especially my editor. I was having the darnedest time with the paragraph order in a news releases. No matter how I tried to structure things, I would lose the poor reader within the first…