Month: May 2013

Butterflies in the Stomach

Butterflies in the Stomach

By Gabriel Gasque With the first bite, the crisp pungency of chopped raw onion and the refreshing and aromatic flavor of cilantro were liberated in my mouth. You can take for granted those flavors in any street taco in Mexico City. Yet, here I was, […]

Aesthetically Speaking

Aesthetically Speaking

By Maryam Zaringhalam, @thisisartlab A couple weeks ago, I sat in on a lecture at Columbia University that addressed four open questions in computer science. To be perfectly honest, due to a rather severe case of jet lag and a certain rustiness where math is […]

Want to keep women in science? Pay postdocs more.

Want to keep women in science? Pay postdocs more.

By Jennifer Bussell The message is loud, clear, and has reached cultural saturation: women are underrepresented at the top of highly-competitive professions because they cannot reconcile the amount of time needed for such careers with the time they want to spend raising children. Just acknowledging […]

Smell Check

Smell Check

By Maryam Zaringhalam, @thisisartlab Taken from The Daily Doodle. My name is Maryam and i’m a congenital anosmic. I was born this way—a rare mutant with a lifelong inability to smell Anosmia literally means ‘without smell. While I most certainly do have a nose (my grandmother […]

From BAM to The BRAIN Initiative: A clearer view of a major neuroscience enterprise

From BAM to The BRAIN Initiative: A clearer view of a major neuroscience enterprise

By Gabrielle Rabinowitz In February, the media was abuzz in response to President Obama’s pledge to fund the creation of a Brain Activity Map (BAM). Reporters erroneously promised a comprehensive human brain map, complete with cures for neuropsychiatric disorders, while glossing over the fact that […]