Scientists and other creators tell us about the developments they’re watching for and the conversations they’ll be starting.
Women suffering from hot flashes try to find relief in a device that wasn’t designed specifically for them.
A trailblazing genetic scan could bring the tools of precision medicine to a woefully understudied field.
By Julia Sklar
For some researchers, their lab work stays in the lab — for Tyler Ford, a former graduate student at Harvard University, studying how E. coli and other bacteria convert biomass into clean fuels is the harbinger for the way he lives his life. A weekday vegetarian, bike rider, and composter, Ford practices what he preaches.
Of America’s many iconic foods, PB&J is perhaps the most divisive, for its many personal variations.
By Julia Sklar
On April 2, America celebrates its favorite sandwich: the iconic PB&J. But how did we even get into such a committed relationship with a sandwich in the first place? Some of it is happenstance, and some of it, believe it or not, is because of war. An anthropologist, a foreigner, and your average Americans weigh in.
A quest to understand Malassezia, the world’s most ubiquitous and misunderstood fungi.
By Julia Sklar
Beyond the realm of sought-after truffles, creamy mushroom soup, or a Portobello burger, few people want to think about fungi. And yet, there are seven billion of us on the planet, walking around covered in the stuff. For the most part, we co-exist peacefully with our fungal counterparts; however, a host of human skin diseases, such as dandruff, eczema, and psoriasis, are associated with a group of fungi called Malassezia, the most common fungi residing on all mammalian skin. But what have long been considered uniquely terrestrial fungi have now also been discovered in extreme underwater environments…
Even as automated technology, like a “lab on a chip,” threatens the efficacy of fully-staffed hospital labs, the medical technologists who run the labs continue their 24/7 work behind the scenes.
By Julia Sklar
Inside the clinical chemistry lab of Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, almost everything is a variation on a dully-colored theme: eggshell laminate countertops, off-white and cumulonimbus grey machinery, dirt-speckled snow ceiling tiles, and beige linoleum. Low-hanging fluorescent lights box the homogeneity into an oblong room that is altogether too small to hold its contents, like the growing child of a thrifty parent, squeezed once more into last year’s overalls. The countertops are chipped, and the floors scuffed and stained; nothing about this place is glamorous, and it stands in stark contrast to the faux minimalist luxury…
Julia Faith Sklar
Independent journalist, covering mostly women's health. Find me at @jfsklar on Twitter.
