The Pipettepen – Page 27 – Exposing Graduate Students and Post-Docs to Science Writing

Technology moguls dream of human colonies on other planets. For this dream to become reality, science needs to develop new spacecraft capable of transporting people and cargo to the outer…

Alzheimer’s disease is both debilitating and fatal. Its associated memory loss is more than a sign of normal aging, and Alzheimer’s is a leading cause of death in the United…

The month of February is a big month for hearts. Between Valentine’s Day and American Heart Month, you cannot escape heart-shaped decorations and reminders to exercise daily. And while many of…

Cloned primates are here! Over three decades have passed since the birth of Dolly, the sheep, scientists have now tackled cloning mammals that are even closer to us on the evolutionary…

With each flu season comes a bombardment of new advertisements reminding people to get a flu vaccine. The vaccine is free to most and widely available, yet almost half of…

Three years ago, I moved from California to North Carolina for graduate school, an experience that pushed me out of my comfort zone in more ways than I expected. The most…

Vegetarian sharks. If you love a cheesy sci-fi movie as much as I do, the word shark probably brings a few images to mind; swimmers rushing to shore, a huge,…

They can be eaten raw, made into countless stews and sauces, and add a tasty addition to nearly any dish. Tomatoes are practically indispensable in any modern kitchen and are…

No bread. No sugar. No rice, potatoes, corn, soy, milk, onions, garlic, chocolate, processed meats, or alcohol. Is this a starvation diet or a method of torture? Actually, this is…

Let’s start at the very beginning. When a mammalian egg is successfully fertilized by a single sperm, the result is a single cell called a zygote. A zygote has the…

Well the holiday season is upon us. Our calendars and days are now filled with shopping, travel, and social gatherings with friends, family, and loved ones. As the temperature outside…

Our bodies are marvels of precise control, synchronization and design. Every one of our cells has the same genetic sequence, but we have many different types of cells – heart,…

Earlier this year, the U.S. government released the Climate Science Special Report. This document describes the state of the Earth’s climate, specifically focusing on the U.S. If you are someone…

Plastics are nearly unavoidable. From the plastic bottle of water you grab walking into a meeting to the money in your wallet, plastics are ubiquitous. However, evidence is accumulating that…

Some of my favorite TV shows as a kid didn’t involve cartoons or slapstick comedy. They were educational shows – science and math shows to be more precise. I watched…

You probably don’t usually think of particle physics and the Great Pyramid of Giza as having much in common. In some ways, the two seem diametrically opposed: the Giza Pyramid…

If you’ve been following the news lately, you’ve probably read about the boom in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Some of the advances have elicited responses ranging from amazement to fear. So…

Tardigrades, also known as waterbears or moss piglets, are microscopic invertebrates that “resemble a cross between a caterpillar and a naked mole rat,” according to science writer, Jason Bittel. First…