Category: Miscellaneous

  • Denaturing the Mind for Discovery – Remembering Kary Mullis through the Voice of Italo Calvino

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    Sarah Baker Nobel laureate Kary Mullis passed away on August 7, 2019 at the age of 74. Although a controversial scientific figure due to his climate change denial, rejection of the fact that HIV causes AIDS, strong belief in astrology, and open use of hallucinogenic drugs, it is impossible to deny the importance of his…

  • Biologists Call for Open Science, but Competition Creates Challenges

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    Audrey Goldfarb Transparent and thorough communication of data has the potential to streamline major scientific advances. For Dr. Maryam Zaringhalam, open science practices like these would have transformed her Ph.D. thesis. “While I was at Rockefeller, I was scooped five times,” she said. As a student in Nina Papavasiliou’s lab, Zaringhalam aimed to develop a…

  • Fighting Fatigue

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    Emma Garst Sometime in the last ten years, Jess got a tick bite. Maybe it was at our local park, where we would sometimes have picnics and watch the deer stroll by. Maybe it was that time we spent a night in Big Sur, our lopsided tent parked on a thicket of brambles. Maybe it…

  • Gender Harassment in Science: Instances of Everyday Harm

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    Emma Garst *Identifying details have been changed to protect privacy. When I met her, Laura* was the sort of postdoc who exuded professorial confidence. She was charismatic, a good writer and speaker, and an excellent experimentalist. Our professor sang her praises. Why shouldn’t he? She was talented and motivated. Some lab members started joking that…

  • Get Your Hot Dogs Here

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    Aileen Marshall “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.” That was the tagline of an old commercial. Hot dogs are known for being a quintessentially American food, especially associated with sports stadiums. In New York City, hot dog carts are considered iconic.  But how American are they? Sausages have been around since the ninth century…

  • When the Moon Hits Your Eye…

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    Aileen Marshall Quick, what is the most ubiquitous food you can think of? One that almost everyone around the world knows and loves, even if they have their own style? What is your go-to food to get when you want something quick and satisfying? I think pizza fits that bill. If you live here in…

  • Bye Dakota!

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      This month, the Natural Selections Editorial Board bids farewell to Dakota Blackman. We would like to thank her for her dedication and for helping Natural Selections to become what it is today. Dakota joined Natural Selections in May of last year as a contributor and editor. She served as the Editorial Assistant and contributed a regular column titled Word…

  • A Little Less Laughter in the Halls! Rockefeller Mainstay Isaiah Curry Says Goodbye

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      Aileen Marshall    What can one say about Isaiah Curry? Almost everyone on campus knows him. Many of us know him as “that guy you always hear laughing in the hallways.” And we also know him as the person who handles much of the hazardous waste we generate in our work. He’s always there to greet…

  • Quotable Quote

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      “It is not only by the questions we have answered that progress may be measured, but also by those we are still asking. The passionate controversies of one era are viewed as sterile preoccupations by another, for knowledge alters what we seek as well as what we find.”   Freda Adler, b. 1934

  • It Could Happen Here

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      Miguel Crespo In late 2016, the streaming service Hulu produced a series of ten episodes based on the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The first three episodes dropped on April 26, 2017 and scored the biggest debut in Hulu history. In May this year, the show was renewed for…