Freelance Science Writer
A small sampling of recent articles I’ve written. Not always updated regularly! Check my Facebook page for a more complete listing of recent pieces.
Rockefeller University / April 6, 2017 / If you’ve been a night owl all your life and mornings are your nemesis, you may be able to blame a gene mutation for all those late nights. Researchers at The Rockefeller University have discovered that a variant of the gene CRY1 slows the internal biological clock—called the …
National Parks Magazine / March 2017 / I’m well within the city limits of San Antonio, a few minutes’ drive from the throngs of tourists at the iconic Alamo and Riverwalk. But in every direction, fields — dry and brown as they hunker down for the mild Texas winter — stretch until they hit neat, …
The Salk Institute / January 26, 2017/ LA JOLLA—The last time you had a stomach bug, you probably didn’t feel much like eating. This loss of appetite is part of your body’s normal response to an illness but is not well understood. Sometimes eating less during illness promotes a faster recovery, but other times—such as …
UCLA Newsroom / January 11, 2017 / Teatments for autism spectrum disorder that appear promising in a research lab often don’t work as well in real-life settings. But one intervention, developed over the past 15 years by UCLA scientists, has been shown to be effective in reducing symptoms of autism in preschool-age children, even when …
UAB Magazine / Fall 2015 / Two football players barrel toward each other, shoulders wide, muscles taut and engaged. There’s an audible crash, and then both players crumple to the ground, still and silent. Luckily—in this case—the collision victims aren’t expected to move. They’re crash test dummies, reenacting football’s hardest hits for UAB engineers at …
Stanford Medicine Magazine / Summer 2015 / It starts as a tiny dark spot on your calf or the crook of your neck or your back. It’s probably blotchy, like a Rorschach test, and if a doctor notices it, she is likely to take a second look. “I’d like to examine this one more closely,” …
Biomedical Computation Review / Summer 2015 / My phone buzzes. It’s Mood Matters, a mood-tracking app developed by the startup Ginger.io. “We notice you haven’t logged any recent physical activity,” it alerts me, linking to an article about the connection between depression and exercise. I glance at the band on my wrist, a Fitbit fitness …
Stanford Medicine Magazine / Spring 2015 / Ancient Egyptians used water clocks to measure the passage of time. Mechanical clocks started ticking away in 14th-century Europe; and pocket watches, in the 17th century. Timex was founded in 1854 and Rolex in 1905. Today, you might use a smartphone to follow your schedule. But before all …
Backchannel / February 20, 2015 / You’re standing completely still in what you know is a nearly empty room, with an awkward headset covering your eyes and pressing down on your forehead. In front of you: an animated version of yourself. You lift one arm and the other-you lifts its arm. You turn your head …
Stanford Medicine / Summer 2014 / One day this spring, Stanford anesthesiologist Divya Chander, MD, PhD, donned her scrubs, washed her hands, and walked into the operating room for a routine surgery. A resident anesthesiologist-in-training had already stuck flat, round electrodes on the patient’s forehead, and wires snaked from the electrodes to an electroencephalography machine …