Save yourselves, kill the chipmunks

Growing up in New England, there are several things you learn from an early age to be true. Number One: Yankees suck. Even if you don’t like baseball, you know this to be true. They are arrogant, spoiled, thieving New Yorkers. They suck. Number two: You can never have enough ice cream stores. Especially in … Read more

The Future is Paradise to Parasites

Being a biologist, there are very few things that disgust me. When we find road kill, biologists don’t think “oh gross,” or “oh sad,” we think “oooh, can I dissect that?” and then later “what diseases could I catch from dissecting that?” and much later “wow, I didn’t realize the pancreas could get that infested … Read more

The Climate Change Coffee Connection

Living in Berkeley, I am at high risk of becoming a neo-hippie. There is extreme external pressure to eat raw, gluten-free foods, vote for politicians with spirit animals guiding them, and decorate my house in herbs and crystals. I can’t walk down the street without someone asking me if I want a sage smudge to … Read more

Corpses, Cadaver bugs and Climate Change

When I started taking classes in Biology, I had my eyes on becoming a doctor. I signed up for all of the appropriate intro classes, started researching medical programs and considered different volunteer opportunities to get into medical establishments. Then I got to Anatomy and Physiology, where we had to dissect all sorts of animals: … Read more

House hunters: the climate change edition

As part of my job, I’m required to go to conferences on climate change and education. This is always fun—who doesn’t love breaking away from the office?—but also sometimes rather shocking. I actually choked on my coffee at a recent talk when a presenter declared that Massachusetts was the most energy efficient state in the … Read more

Climate Change and Clownfish Incest: the future could be way weird

We’re about to hit another election, and the media is ablaze with political rhetoric. I’m an avid, maybe rabid, consumer of politics. Ask me anything about who’s running, why they’re running, which spirit animal they follow (this is Berkeley after all), and I can recite it by heart. I watch debates with the Politifact Twitter … Read more