Search Results for: label/Independence DAy

• The Only Mother’s Day Gift Guide You Will Ever Need

  …embedded a little science here and there in the links. ) While the celebration of mothers is not a new concept, the modern version of Mother’s Day is a far cry from the ancient festivals that honored Cybele .  However, in 1907, when Anna Jarvis invented the modern Mother’s Day as a means to pay homage to her own mother, it was not her intention to use moms for profit. But, alas, by the 1920s, this well-intended national holiday quickly mo…

  Authored by Jeanne Garbarino on May 9, 2012

• Mother’s Day: Part of me forever

  Always a part of each other. (Source) Double X Science’s Chris Gunter, science education and outreach editor, wrote this wonderful post for the Last Word on Nothing. We are featuring it here for Mother’s Day because, as she writes, if you’re a mother, you and your child are part of each other forever–and this time, we mean in a scientific sense. Source. This summer I put my Lilkid, as I call him online…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on May 12, 2012

• On this Father’s Day, let’s remember the allofathers, too

  …amily time those of us in the United States have come to expect on weekends, particularly when we work salaried weekday jobs that ostensibly promise weekends off. That means that on top of the anxiety associated with stacking 20 or 30 extra hours onto a 40-hour work week to meet a tough deadline, my husband and my children’s father also feels angst about this inability to be a part of our family time. These are first-world problems, I reali…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on June 16, 2012

• To Everything (Turn Turn Turn) There is a Season

  Today – June 20 – is the northern Summer Solstice, sometimes known as the Northern Solstice, “first day of summer”, or Midsummer’s Day, depending on where you live. It’s the longest day and shortest night of the year in the northern hemisphere (where I live), though exactly how long or short depends on how far north you live. And of course in the southern hemisphere, today is is the shortest day and longest night, since the seasons a…

  Authored by Matthew R Francis on June 20, 2012

• Depressing genes

  Can depression be a matter of genetic fate? by Siobhan Mitchell          [This post is the latest installment in our I Am Mental Illness series.] What if you could know if you were fated to be depressed? With the rise of personal genotyping services such as 23andme, almost can find out what their psychiatric ‘fate’ will be, but what do you do with this information once you have it? When I first considered testing myself for depressio…

  Authored by DXS Contributor on May 17, 2013

• Motherhood Defined: It is in the heart of the beholder

  “Motherhood”: Sculpture at the Catacumba Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Motherhood.  It can mean many things, and our own definition of it is largely defined by our individual experiences.  To one person, motherhood might simply mean the act of raising children; to another, motherhood might be what defines them.   It is not uncommon to generalize the concept of “motherhood” and lump everyone who upholds a singl…

  Authored by Jeanne Garbarino on May 11, 2012

• From spiders to breast cancer: Leslie Brunetta talks candidly about her cancer diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up

  …very giving. I live in Cambridge, MA, where I could actually make choices about where I wanted to be treated at each phase and know I’d get excellent, humane care and where none of the facilities I went to was more than about 20 minutes away. Some things that women might have some control over and that their families might help nudge them toward: Find doctors you trust. Ask a lot of questions and make sure you understand the answers. But do…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on January 31, 2012

• Dominants, alphas, and queens: Happy Mother’s Day!

  …mammoths. Here are a few examples: The Queen, surrounded by her supportive workers. Honey bees: Bee colonies are giant matriarchal societies ruled by a single queen—quite literally the “queen mum.” Her offspring (as many as 25,000 at a time) make up the entire clan of female workers and male drones. The queen spends her life tended to by her worker daughters. These workers have underdeveloped reproductive systems, so the queen is the only femal…

  Authored by DXS Contributor on May 13, 2013

• Xplainer: How do you date a pregnancy?

  …lopment = embryological age (e.g., developmental biologist) 2 But why are there two types of dates? We might need a bit of a primer on the menstrual cycle and how it relates to pregnancy. Implantation happens between days 20 and 22. Pregnancy is often detected after the first missed period. This graphic is intentionally simple, removing all the hormones and other fun stuff (Ed: which you can find here). You’ll note that it says approximately…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on October 3, 2012

• Hormonal birth control explainer: a matter of health

  …ich exists to prepare an egg for fertilization and to make the uterine lining ready to receive a fertilized egg, should it arrive.  Fig. 1. Female reproductive anatomy. Credit: Jeanne Garbarino. In the theoretical 28-day cycle, fertilization (fusion of sperm and egg), if it occurs, will happen about 14 days in, timed with ovulation , or release of the egg from the ovary into the Fallopian tube or oviduct (see video–watch fo…

  Authored by Emily Willingham on March 5, 2012