The world’s deepest zoo harbors clues to extraterrestrial life – my first piece for kids
I’m excited about the publication of my first piece for kids, about the World’s Deepest Zoo, written for Science News for Students. It covers the same topic as my Smithsonian piece from last year, i.e. life living deep beneath the Earth and the scientists who venture into underground mines in order to study them. Of […]
Ants, impostorism and a few more updates
It’s been a while since my last update, although this time I have a better reason than usual for being so busy-my wife and I were blessed with a lovely baby girl a few months ago! Between frantically trying to finish up assignments before she was born, and then being busy/sleep-deprived taking care of a […]
An online feature about deep life for Smithsonian
I just got done with a Smithsonian feature on microbes that live in extremely inhospitable environments deep beneath the Earth’s surface, and the researchers who venture 2 kms or more underground in South African gold mines to study them. It’s hard work, but they’ve found a surprising diversity of life living in these deep environments, […]
Keeping busy, writing about molecular biology for BioTechniques
I’ve been meaning to update this website for a while, unfortunately I’ve been too busy writing articles to do so. Among other things, I’ve been writing regular articles for the journal BioTechniques. It’s been a nice way for me to keep in touch with the latest in molecular biology, a field that I haven’t extensively […]
Article about an insect-sized flying robot for Motherboard
I wrote my first piece for Motherboard, Vice magazine’s online science & technology site. I just happened to find a pitch that worked well for them, and it was fun to write a more technology-related article after a while. The article is about the first bee-sized robot that can fly using feedback only from an […]
How crazy ants live up to their name
Crazy ants (named for their strange, jerky walk) are displacing fire ants from the Southern US. Fire ants are notorious for their toxic venom, so researchers wondered how the crazy ants were able to overcome them. It turns out they’ve developed a neat behavioral trick, smearing their own formic acid venom all over their bodies […]
Back to work: Of bats and bumblebees
Well, I had a nice, relaxing, vacation in India. It was great to see friends and family after a long while, and enjoy the good food and warm weather. Now I’m back, well refreshed, and it’s time to get back to work. Right after I got back, I attended the 2014 Beckman Initiative for Macular […]
Axon: A game about growing neurons
Wellcome: Axon Game. Wellcome seems to have an interesting collection of educational web games. Axon, in particular, seems pretty fun to play (although my 5-year-old computer seems a bit too slow for it). They have more on their main games page. I was impressed with how well produced the games were, they all look pretty […]
Feynman explains fire
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITpDrdtGAmo[/youtube] The always enjoyable Richard Feynman explains fire. His enthusiasm and facility for explaining things in simple terms always amazes me. I guess the clip is from an old BBC TV series called “Fun to Imagine.” Apparently BBC has some of the episodes available in higher quality on their website, but unfortunately the streaming video […]
A depressing/cynical flowchart of the academic job search process
Related to my previous post on the Washington Post article, I came across a blogpost about the academic job search, with this depressing flowchart. It’s an interesting post that touches on some of the issues involved, but I can only hope things aren’t quite as bad as the flowchart indicates! (I like to think there’s […]