Tag Archives | A Tale of Ten Slugs

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.

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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…

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Above the stove

Eight ways writing is like cooking

On the weekends I have more time to cook and write. The week can pass in an automated blur, but weekends make me feel very human. Cooking and writing are two uniquely human pursuits. Writing is a celebration of the mind – a way we can record and share our thoughts. Cooking celebrates the offerings…

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mini-post: D.C. wanderings, a photo-blog

A few comments: 1. NMNH in the captions = National Museum of Natural History, aka the Smithsonian’s absurdly fun enormous collection of dinosaur bones, a giant squid, the Hope diamond, meteorites, BUGS, elephants, a crochet coral reef that lives up to its hyperbolic name… 2. The National Art Gallery has a great temporary exhibit featuring…

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mini-post: science and engineering fair photos

N: I had a conversation at the awards ceremony with John Mather about kids and science. John’s argument was that kids are natural scientists — and that the problem we’re facing is not how to interest kids in science; rather, the challenge is in *keeping* them interested. The Science Expo today demonstrated the truth in…

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Photo 68

K-tron and Slugnads do D.C.

This will be a “LIVE, recorded during an earlier broadcast” blog post. We will update as much as possible. *NOTE: We have updated to the point of arrival back in California. We’ve added some flavorful text message exchanges and additional photos throughout. Enjoy!* And….begin: [in flight, time unknown because Keith is superstitious and refuses to…

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Show Me

In graduate school, I studied a group of jellies called siphonophores. Most people had never heard of them, except for the Portuguese Man-O-War. (I have now taught spell-check the word ‘siphonophores’) As part of my research, I took pictures of my specimens. I knew nothing about photography, so my time in the field was a…

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The moment of uncertainty

The moment of uncertainty

Flushed from my rush back to the office, I throw open my laptop, slam in the USB cord, and hold my breath. A small moment of panic. Is it there? Is it entact? The file transfers, iTunes bounces awake, and the tinny voices of victory sing my success. Glory be, my interview, with all its…

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Social media, journalism, and expressing opinions

Our class was visited by NPR’s Richard Harris today. What followed was a fascinating look at what makes radio different from print, and some inside looks at how NPR does such great science reporting for radio. But that’s the subject of a whole different post. Towards the end of his talk, I was struck by…

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