Bibliosphere

 I recently listened to an audiobook called "Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life." It was a short little book, but very interesting, and honestly covered a lot in its 3.5 hours. It was also very cross-culturally translated, because it's a book from Spain, translated to English, about Japanese culture. But I enjoyed listening to it. I feel like this fits with my very strong interest in the Blue Zones. I'm actually reading The Book about Blue Zones (the original one), or listening to it I guess. I'm glad that my library is so full of good resources to learn about these topics. Top takeaways? Eat well, socialize with those you care about, and find your purpose in life (your Ikigai). Good little read.

 Summer is here (unless you say summer doesn't start until the solstice, but it's been over 80 here for weeks, so it's summer) and there's tons of great outdoor activities. After six summers working at camp and a grand total of 24 years of Girl Scouts, I've gotten to know a ton of great activities and resources. Here are some of my favorites: Build a bee hotel - buy small bee tubes and stuff them inside of a TP or paper towel tube Stargazing - start with the big dipper and work your way to harder to find constellations, or check out a local star party, as many of them are free and open to the public Go on a scavenger hunt hike or walk - make a list of things you hope to see then check them off as you go Do a soil experiment - using an egg carton, plant seeds for the same plant, then do something different to them such as using different fertilizers and natural additives Pressing flowers Pine cone crafts - literally so many to choose from Bird feeders - tons of optio...

Over the past few years, I've been exploring and learning more about inclusion, diversity, equity, and justice. Recently I attended a Zoom on exploring these topics and we watched this video: This video focuses on the "hidden curriculum," or the unspoken principles and expectations in a space. They are usually not obvious. Some examples used in the video include whether you should smile at strangers on the street if you're in NYC vs the midwest, or why all of the summer camp counselors are so goofy. The hidden curriculum is found in pretty much every space, but we may not think about it. When we're in a new space, we may not know the hidden curriculum. Someone may have told you not to smile and greet New Yorkers on the street, or your parents may have read about what camp is like to you before you went, but chances are you didn't learn it all ahead of time. Not knowing the hidden curriculum can make us feel like outsiders, a feeling we usually don't want i...

I recently ran an event for work where we planted flowers around our building, among other things. The squeals of delight at finding worms and digging in the dirt shows how much joy we can find in nature. It also speaks to what children need access to: free play and time outside. I finished grad school a little under five years ago and my thesis was on the benefits of nature, specifically for military families. I worked with our local base (one of them) to provide day outings as part of a larger research study on recreation. It wasn't what I wanted to study in grad school, because I wanted to study children or adolescents and mental health more directly, but I got to involve nature and recreation at least. I found many resources along the way, and I'd like to highlight a few: Richard Louv's books, especially Vitamin N, have a really great assortment of nature activities and information on nature and children. Some books are more research based and others are more practical/...

After four years of engineering school and two years of grad school, I lost my love of learning. While I continued to learn things, I was primarily taking trainings at work to do so, and not necessarily retaining as much as I wanted. In the past couple of years, let's say since 2021 and moving into my home, I've become more able to actively learn and seek out new opportunities outside of work. I truly do love learning and want to know more about the world around them.  Most recently this has taken the form of Ted Talks and Duolingo, two free sources of knowledge, but also books, articles, and now a course from Coursera . For those of you unfamiliar, Coursera is a free, online learning site where colleges and universities run MOOCs, or Massive Online Open Courses. I took one on vaccines in college that was a lot of fun, and signed up for one in the fall but never actually did it. My current course is called Learning How to Learn and I wish I'd gone through it the summer befo...

One of my "hobbies," if we can call it that, is watching TED talks. I'm a sucker for an inspirational, science-based bit of knowledge. I watch a lot about mental health because that's a major interest area for me. I was watching the other night and after a talk about strengthening brains, the algorithm that has seen me watch TED talk after TED talk about psychology and the mind fed me this one:     The Power of Mindfulness: What You Practice Grows Stronger | Shauna Shapiro | TEDxWashingtonSquare I often pull a little tid bit from each TED talk, and in this one the overall lesson stood out was, "What you practice grows stronger," from the title. Basically the premise is that by practicing the sort of kind and loving attention you have during mindfulness, you are strengthening that portion of your brain, that particular pathway. It culminated in self love, beginning your day with, "Good morning, I love you," to just yourself.

TYWKIWDBI ("Tai-Wiki-Widbee"): How the American public views science : As reported in the StarTribune : The American public and U.S. scientists are light-years apart on science issues . And 98 percent of s...

      As a recap from last year, here are the main players on the childhood cancer field.  On the visiting team, we have: Leukemia - a blood cancer that begin in the bone marrow and affects leukocyte development (white blood cell blasts).  The most common type of childhood leukemia is ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia), followed by AML (acute myloid leukemia).  There are also chronic and infectious leukemias, which occur mainly in adults.  Lymphoma - a cancer of the B or T lymphocytes, a crucial part of the immune system.  It affects the lymph system as well.  There are over a dozen kinds of lymphoma, with the most common kinds being Hodgkins and Pre-T Cell Lymphoma.   Sarcoma -  a soft or connective tissue tumor that can occur in various tissue types, such as bone (Osteosarcoma, Ewing's Sarcoma), cartilage/connective tissue (chondrosarcoma, fibrosarcoma, neurofibrosarcoma), skeletal muscles (rhabdomyosarcoma), or smooth muscle ...

       The most common type of childhood cancer is leukemia.  While leukemia can often be treated with chemotherapy, some children require a bone marrow transplant.  Siblings and parents are tested first, but if they don't match, the only chance is a stranger match through the bone marrow registry.        The only way to get a stranger match is to have a large group of donors to choose from.  The best matches are often from donors with a similar ethnic background, so a variety of donors are needed.  Joining the registry is easy, but make sure that you are ready to commit to a bone marrow donation before joining.  These patients are counting on you to help them survive.       If you aren't able to commit to donating marrow, consider donating financially.  It can cost hundreds of dollars for all of the testing required for donors before they can join the registry.   That also doesn't include costs ...

     As promised, a more in depth look at the role of genetics in cancer: Cancer is, by definition, mutant cells. Somewhere in the cell line, a cell had an abnormality in it's propagation control and it's DNA damage control checkpoints.  This allows the cell to propagate without check no matter what damage it accrues.      This abnormality happens in two main ways: oncogenes, which cause cell growth and multiplication, and tumor suppressor genes, which prevent excessive cell growth.  Cancers occur when either oncogenes are amplified or tumor suppressors are suppressed.  Usually, these mutations happen in cell line, and then cause a tumor to develop in that specific site.  One example of this is mutations caused by tobacco in lung cells, which causes a lung carcinoma.  Sometimes, these mutations occur when the embryo forms, known as germ line mutations.  These are commonly associated with high incidences of childhood cancer, ...

As summer continues, enjoy this list of reads: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman - about cross-cultural medicine in the context of Hmong refugees.  Also has a nice back-story on the Hmong people. Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder - about the life's work of Dr. Paul Farmer, who started a thorough public health and medical clinic in rural Haiti The Book Thief, by Markus Zuzak - the holocaust, written from the eyes of Death about a little girl living in rural Germany 33 Things Every Girl Should Know about Women's History, edited by Tonya Bolden - a collection of shorts about women's history and political movements Return of the Black Death, by Susan Scott and Christopher Duncan Buffy the Vampire comic books - entertaining, but not my favorite ever Most of these I read in May, since Day Camp is a full time commitment. Enjoy!

This summer has been fairly relaxing so far (although that is partly due to the fact I was furloughed from work for two weeks).  I've been catching up on my reading, and have come across a few gems of scientific and historical note: A 1500 year old skeleton showing signs of Down's syndrome (trisomy 21) was found in France. The child was buried in similar fashion to the others in the site, possibly indicating that the child was treated no different than others.  Read about it at New Scientist . A 50+ year old frozen smallpox vial was found while researchers were cleaning out an old freezer at the NIH facility in Bethesda, MD.  The vial, though unsecured, was still intact and fully sealed.  The CDC has gained custody of the vial.  The contents were DNA tested to verify it's contents (definitely smallpox) and is now being tested to see if it could have infectious.  Read about it on NPR , CNN , and TIME .   Apparently plants can hear themselves being...

Myth: Children get too many vaccines – it’s dangerous to get so many. Since vaccines work by stimulating the immune system, they aren’t the same as a by weight dosed medication, such as benydryl, which works by influencing biochemical pathways.  It takes the same amount of exposure for any individual to develop immunity, and more or less exposure doesn’t mean a different outcome.  For example, if I sneezed on a baby and a teenager each once, they both could get sick.  It doesn’t take one sneeze to make the baby sick and five sneezes to make the teen sick.  One sneeze does it for both.  Chemical additives, as previously discussed, are dose specific, and are added in much smaller quantities than is required for any kind of side effect.  Myth: The diseases we vaccinate against aren’t a threat anymore The only vaccine preventable disease that isn’t a threat is smallpox, which was eradicated in 1979.  As a result, we don’t vaccinate against it anymor...

Part III on vaccines Myth: Vaccines cause Autism This is just loads of wrong.  The study that considered this was rejected by peer-reviewed journals and the writer was stripped of his medical license.  The study itself used techniques that were quite harmful to the children involved (unnecessary enemas, colonoscopies and other painful tests were performed).  Additionally, recent studies (2014) have concluded that the changes in brain structure and function that result in autism begin in utero (long before childhood vaccinations).  Vaccines do NOT cause autism.  Myth: The decline of vaccine prevented illnesses wasn't due to vaccines While some graphs seem to show that diseases were in decline, and therefore the decline wasn’t due to vaccines but other measures (from nutrition to sanitation and quarantine).   While these public health measures may have had some effect on the decline of these diseases, they weren’t enough to wipe out or even slow do...

Part two in my series on vaccinations Myth: I’m not a danger to people if I don’t vaccinate myself You are a danger to others if you chose not to vaccinate yourself (or your children).  See that infant? She’s too young to receive the whooping cough vaccine, but she has a 1 in 200 chance of dying from it, as well as a 50/50 chance of needing hospitalization.  Infection could last up to 100 days, and will require supportive treatment, such as oxygen, IV nutrition and fluids, and possibly mechanical ventilation.  See that bald man?  He has cancer, and his body can’t fight infections due to the chemotherapy.  The flu could easily kill him.  See that little boy wearing a mask? He is immune-compromised from a genetic condition.  He can’t be vaccinated because his body doesn’t form antibodies in response to vaccines, so they are not effective for him.  See that girl over there?  She’s allergic to the eggs in which vaccines are grown and can’...

   Today I'm going to start a series on vaccinations and immunizations.  I'm appalled by the amount of misinformation out there, and I want to address some of the common myths from a science/bio-engineering side.  If you have any additional myths you would like addressed, please comment on this post and I will address them. I will also provide reliable sources for the facts I discuss. I feel the need to write a post about vaccination, due to the insane amount of mis information out there on the internet.  Vaccination/immunization shouldn’t even be a debate, in my opinion.  It’s a no-duh kind of situation, yet an inordinate amount of people, nearly all unqualified to do so, feel the need to vehemently disagree with vaccination.  I shall now offer an argument of my own, as well as some refutations of commonly cited issues. I did go through a questioning phase, where I wondered about the science behind vaccines, which prompted me to do my own research...

   Recently, 9 year old Kamryn shaved her head at St. Baldricks in support of her friend Delaney, who is battling cancer.  In response, her school kicked her out until she either got a wig or her hair grew back.    This is the response that a young girl who took a brave step in loosing her hair was given.  She should be applauded for shaving her hair to support her friend, not ostracized from her school.  This is the response of St. Baldricks: "Kamryn, by your sacrifice and willingness to be bald like Delaney, you’re demonstrating that love is more powerful than fear and that life’s most valuable lessons are often learned outside the classroom." Kathleen Ruddy, St. Baldrick's CEO, shares her support in an open letter to Kamryn Renfro and Delaney Clements. After a massive social media campaign, Kamryn's school board voted 3 to 1 to allow her back into school.  This still means that there was an adult who thought she shouldn't be allowed back. ...

So, the last two months have been pretty busy.  I'm taking some really cool classes this semester: Diversity and Evolution of Life, Drawing for Non-majors and French Conversation.  I've been spending a good amount of time in my lab.  This semester I'm going to be presenting in the Undergraduate Research Symposium, which is pretty exciting. Last night was Girl Scout Night with SWE, the third one I've organized in the time I've been here.  We had 110 girls, which is a huge event, the largest I've ever organized.  It was a bunch of fun, and we really reached a lot of girls.  We also had a forum for the parents with some of our female engineers, so we got to educate the parents too. Next week I'm going to San Diego, which is going to be awesome.  It's the SWE region B conference.  There's a big career fair, lots of workshops and keynote speakers. I'm going to apply to present at Annual conference next year, so I'm hoping to pick up some pointer...

   Yesterday, I was notified that I was approved for a grant for an awesome event for middle and high school aged girls.  I'm organizing an into to Engineering event: Edible Engineering.  I'm really excited my grant got approved, so I can reach even more girls.