Double X Science - It's In Your Genes

Search Results for: label/right-to-know law

  • Biology Explainer: The big 4 building blocks of life–carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and nucleic acids

    …ll selection of different materials: bricks, mortar, iron, glass, and wood. Arranged in different ways, these few materials can yield a huge variety of structures. We encountered functional groups and the SPHONC in Chapter 3. These components form the four categories of molecules of life. These Big Four biological molecules are carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. They can have many roles, from giving an organism structure to be…

    Authored by on June 8, 2012

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

    According to Leslie Brunetta, she now has much more hair than she had last July. We became aware of Leslie Brunetta because of her book, Spider Silk: Evolution and 400 Million Years of Spinning, Waiting, Snagging, and Mating, co-authored with Catherine L. Craig. Thanks to a piece Leslie wrote for the Concord Monitor (and excerpted here), we also learned that she is a breast cancer survivor. Leslie agreed to an interview about her exper…

    Authored by on January 31, 2012

  • On Parenting, Science, and Trust

    The following was originally posted over at The Mother Geek (RIP) in January of this year.  The guest author is Alice Callahan, who is a research scientist turned stay-at-home mom. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, with her husband and 14-month-old daughter. Alice writes about the science of parenting, as well as her adventures in mothering, at scienceofmom.com.  You can also find Alice on Twitter. Via Creative Commons Having a PhD in sci…

    Authored by on August 2, 2012

  • How helpful are dense-breast right-to-know laws?

    …sk factor for breast cancer; §   mammography sees cancer less well in dense breasts than in normal breasts; and §   women may benefit from additional breast cancer screening. The California law goes into effect on April 1, 2013. It follows four states (Connecticut, Texas, Virginia, and New York) with similar statutes. All have enjoyed solid bipartisan support. Rarely do naysayers or skeptics speak up. Young women who are leading the charge oft…

    Authored by on October 1, 2012

  • Women know something you don’t

    Make no mistake about it. by Emily Willingham Three of my four grandparents were only children. Born early in the 20th century, in the period betwixt the great wars, coming of age in the Great Depression. Only children, in spite of having parents married for decades. Three of them. In all likelihood, their own parents, my great-grandparents–and I knew all of my great-grandmothers–consciously chose not to have more children because,…

    Authored by on March 26, 2013

  • Childbirth and C-sections in pre-modern times

    …ure, there are direct maternal deaths (complications of pregnancy, delivery, or recovery) and indirect maternal deaths (pregnancy-related death of a woman with preexisting or newly arisen health problems) recorded up to about 42 days postpartum.  An infection related to delivery or severe postpartum hemorraging could easily have killed a woman in antiquity, leaving a viable newborn.  Similarly, newborns can develop infections and other conditions…

    Authored by on July 2, 2012

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

    …u how it impacted your kid. As my nana always said, “It’s always the mother’s fault.”  I just hope that as the time passes I get more credit than blame for how my kids turn out. Helen Jonsen, Mom of 4, @Helen_Jonsen  Motherhood is how you stretch your heart in ways you never thought possible. It’s how you love through the ups & down, the challenges that life brings. And, it lasts a lifetime from that first…

    Authored by on May 11, 2012

  • Double Xpression: Debbie Berebichez, PhD Physicist

    …m.  My femininity allows me to be a voice in a field that has tended to isolate themselves from the public, which is bad. Some of my colleagues have become a little snobbish.  The fact that I have serious credentials (PhD and 2 postdocs) shows that I had to work like crazy – looks and personality can only go so far.  It s hard work that gets you there! Serious science communication has a lot of math and problem solving in order to explain things…

    Authored by on June 2, 2012

  • Mirror Mirror On the Wall, Mirrors Don’t Switch Hands at All

    …don’t have to make a telescope out of a single flawless piece of glass: you can make a huge metal dish, or make one big mirror out of a bunch of smaller mirrors in a tile pattern. The Keck telescopes in Hawaii are about 30 feet in diameter (actually 10 meters, to be precise): the width of a large classroom or a substantial house! These mirrors focus light onto a detector, creating the wonderful and often beautiful images astronomers use in…

    Authored by on December 12, 2011

  • Not knowing

    There will be a next time, another severe and major depression.  by Nobody [May is Mental Health Month. Every Friday at DXS is I Am Mental Illness day, and today's essay comes with trigger warnings about suicidal ideation and suicide. Read on with caution.] I have major depression, severe, recurrent. This diagnosis came 4 months after the best 18 months of my life where I had no depression. And it only came about 6 months ago when I was in the…

    Authored by on May 24, 2013

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