January 11th, 2013 | 1
I’ve never had the pleasure of being in the UK at the time that the Royal Institute of Great Britain have aired their very famous Christmas Lectures, but I hear often from followers and friends in the UK on social media how many of them have been positively impacted by these lectures. The history of [...]
Keep reading »Although glutamate was discovered in 1908, it wasn’t until the 1980s that it came to be described as ‘umami’, the fifth flavor. It is a savory taste, to go along with our other flavors of sweet, salty, bitter and sour. Umami is translated from Japanese to mean ‘pleasant savory taste’. The fact that there are [...]
Keep reading »January 4th, 2013 | 7
Let’s face it: there is always someone who loses out big time when a massive story hits the presses on the same day as their own. It happens all the time in diverse areas of reporting – from current events to sports, politics, entertainment and of course science. Timing is critical – if your story [...]
Keep reading »January 1st, 2013 | 1
Here is the latest in cool biotechnology at the microscopic level: “Researchers at the University of Tokyo are using cells to fold microscopic origami shapes. The scientists hope that in the future the use of tissue cells to fold structures will lead to next generation medical devices and allow for the engineering of biological tissue. [...]
Keep reading »January 1st, 2013 | 1
These are some of my favorite videos from 2012. Which were your favorites this past year? Seven Minutes of Terror. A very well-produced video from NASA about how engineers worked to execute the landing of the Mars Curiosity Rover. The science and engineering thinking process came through for them successfully resulting in one of the [...]
Keep reading »December 27th, 2012 | 1
Rounding out our marathon of ‘Wild Sex’, we have episodes that focus on mating dances and ‘cross dressing’. The dance episode was one of my favorites to shoot, as I was reminded of my days as a ballerina. Enjoy!
Keep reading »December 26th, 2012 | 1
The next two episodes of Wild Sex are by far the most popular. In the first, aptly titled ‘Beach Babes and Boob Jobs’, I look at the concept of beauty in the animal kingdom and how this concept does not really apply to the human animal. In ‘Size Matters’, we take a look at some [...]
Keep reading »Merry XXXmas everyone! Our marathon of ‘Wild Sex’, my new show about the evolutionary biology of sex, continues today. Here are episodes 2 and 3, respectively entitled ‘When Sex Gets Stuck’ and ‘Dildos and Dolphins’. If you want to read the introductory piece about Wild Sex from yesterday, please visit it here. I should note [...]
Keep reading »December 24th, 2012 | 1
I have held off on posting about my new web series ‘Wild Sex‘ for a few reasons. Primarily I wanted to see how the world reacted to a very new kind of biology show – one that takes risks that are rarely seen in science. Let me set the scene for you. I have been [...]
Keep reading »December 17th, 2012 | 1
During the time I taught laboratory courses here at the University of Illinois in cell and molecular biology (After nearly 20 years of that, I’ve moved to online teaching to give myself more flexibility for science outreach), I would often tell the students, particularly the ones who were considering going into research, that the best [...]
Keep reading »