(AP Photo/Mark Tenally) On Saturday, Nats batter Adrian Sanchez turned in towards a pitch as he attempted to bunt. But the 96-mph pitch headed straight for him, and the baseball struck him in the chest. He clutched his chest and collapsed to the ground where he remained for several minutes. An athletic trainer ran over, […]

Just listened to the neuroscientist, Robert Sapolsky, talk about free will on Sam Harris’s podcast. Neither of them believe in free will and neither do I. It started in high school with a thought experiment: if you rewound your life and woke up again this morning with no memory of what had happened today, would you […]

Etymologically, schizophrenia comes from Greek skhizein and phren mind, so literally means “split mind,” and in popular culture, the term ‘schizophrenic,’ is often is used to refer to someone with multiple personalities.  However, schizophrenia has nothing to do with multiple personalities, instead it refers to a chronic mental health disorder with no cure that can […]

From talking to people in podcasts and radio, and reading people’s stories it seems like there are three ways to get jobs: applying to them, making something great, and persistence. Apply to Everything First, check websites of shows or networks you like. For example: Gimlet: https://gimletmedia.com/careers/ WNYC: http://www.wnyc.org/careers/ NPR: http://www.npr.org/series/750004/careers Earwolf / Midroll: http://www.midroll.com/jobs/ Panoply: http://panoply.fm/careers/ Look for positions […]

Every week Dr. Karen Ring organizes a “sciparty” on twitter, where a scientists or science communicator who is active on twitter takes over the @sciparty account and answers questions for an hour on twitter. Today, I hosted the science party and received a lot of questions about my decisions to pursue and drop out of […]

The knowing-speaking gap Last night I went to taping of live Tech podcast that featured non-fiction author Douglas Rushkoff as a guest. (I’ll try to link to it once it get’s published). Overall, I felt the show was funny but in huge need of either fact-checking or authoritative guests, which Rushkoff was not. Unfortunately, it […]

Exposure to toxic metals, like lead, have been linked to intellectual disability, and language, and behavioral problems, but the results of studies looking at whether toxic metals influence Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have been mixed. Other metals like manganese and zinc are essential minerals important for proper development and health. Until now, one of the […]

I’m currently trying to go from working as an MD-PhD student to a science journalist. From thinking about disease and doing hands-on research to writing, thinking, and talking about those same conditions and studies. I’ve struggled to explain why I’m making this switch. To come up with a single linear narrative that’s both satisfactory and […]

Today, I listened to a story from Science Friday about sunscreen. It’s an interesting story: sunscreen use is on the rise, but so are cases of melanoma. Why? One idea, called the ‘compensation hypothesis’ is that sunscreen with high UVB but low UVA protection, stops sunburn and enables people to spend more time in the […]

Today’s horrific tragedy will undoubtedly spawn another round of news stories saying that this is the “Nth mass shooting,” or “it’s been N days since the last mass shooting in the U.S.” But many of them will give completely different numbers. When it comes to mass shootings, it can be hard to find good data—in […]