Category: science

  • The Color of Cancer: Time for a Change

    In New York City, where I live, life-expectancy is 3 years shorter for Black people than the average and cancer is the leading cause of premature death – according to the City’s Vital Statistics records in their most recent summary. Too many Black lives are cut short by cancer, documented by me and many others over the years in…

  • Sex and Science

    “Who’s the sweet young thing?” asked a female postdoc. “She’s MY sweet young thing,” the taller professor who was showing me around the lab said, grinning. The first day of my first undergraduate lab rotation in molecular biology began strangely. I was learning to run gels to separate the two paired strands of DNA that…

  • My Vaccine Memories

    My vaccine memories are personal ones from my childhood. But these are colored from my years in biomedical research when protecting people from infectious diseases like hepatitis C and HIV was an unreachable goal. We still don’t have a vaccine for either virus. Have a look at the History of Vaccines site, from the College…

  • Demystifying the Science of Learning with ScienceFirst Radio

    On the premier episode of ScienceFirst, my new radio show at the Artist First Radio Network, guest, psychologist Gary Marcus demystified the science of learning. Cognitive scientist and best-selling author Gary Marcus always had an interest in science, dinosaurs and astronomy as a child. But it was his interest in computers that led him to…

  • Truth and Lies in the Promised Land – Movie Review

    One Person’s Job is Another’s Tragedy Promised Land, the new movie from director Gus Van Sant, takes a long hard look at people’s decisions to sell land use rights away to energy companies for gas drilling. Small landowners and large farm owners each face a crisis when the gas man comes to town. The Pennsylvania…