One more March weekend, and what should we do? 1. Did you know that the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston has a free kids playdate the last Friday of every month? This weekend is the time to take advantage of this! Art and Science are so intertwined, use many of the same neuronal pathways, and develop many of the same core competencies. Check it out today: https://www.icaboston.org/calendar/kids-families 2. There is a really cool exhibit at the Museum of Science open n

Is sugar addictive? I have avoided (mostly) talking about dieting on this blog, although I am well into my journey to lose 30 pounds courtesy of Weight Watchers. As part of that, I have spent lots of time thinking about, reading about, and discussing the science of weight loss, and really, of diet in general. It turns out that there are lots of study that support the notion that sugar is harmful, and that excess consumption of sugar is what leads to lots and lots of negative

Alright readers, what are you doing this weekend? Looks like it would be a great time to head to Drumlin Farms to learn about how sheep get shorn to make wool, and how that wool can be turned into yarn and then sweaters. Drumlin Farms has a “Woolapalooza” event to do exactly this: https://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlife-sanctuaries/drumlin-farm/news-events/woolapalooza. Apparently sheep only get their “haircuts” once a year, so there is lots and lots of wool to be s

In one of my other roles in life, I sell skin care products to people, and I am particularly interested in the science behind many of these products and how they work. In that vein, I started looking into self-tanning products. People have been using these products as an alternative to sitting out in the sun, tanning, which we know to be highly harmful to your skin and highly correlated with the risk of developing skin cancer. Sun exposure increases skin care risks by promoti

Maple Sugar Day Festivals are on! This is the brief window of time during which real maple sap is collected from maple trees, and then turned into delicious, sweet maple syrup and maple candies. Lots of areas around New England offer the opportunity to visit and observe this phenomenon with your own eyes, including the Blue Hills Trailside Museum and Moose Hill in Sharon, MA Also, this is the official Maple Weekend in Massachusetts (did you know there was such a thing?) Lots

Daylight savings time (DST) is here, as of this weekend, so what are you doing to celebrate? If you don’t feel much like celebrating, turns out you are not alone. There are lots of negative health effects that come along with time changes like this, including more heart attacks on the Monday after DST starts, lower rates of in vitro fertilization (IVF) success, and higher rates of stroke, depression, and fatigue. For those people who are also parents of young children (who ma

This is quite the weekend for STEM-focused activities in the greater Boston area. Brief run-down of the things to do below: 1. OK, if you are a parent or a scientist or both, you should check out the new STEAM making space, the Tech Kitchen, at the Boston Children’s Museum. Local inventors and entrepeneurs can share their information and inventions with visitors, and the space is open every Saturday. I can’t believe I didn’t know about this until now! The Party Elements is lo

What the *#$@# was that storm? Hi readers! I hope most of you have weathered the recent winter storm Riley reasonably well, and that for most people, power is now back on to your homes and businesses. If you are like most of us, you could be wondering, what WAS that? How did it create so much damage? And if you are a scientist living in an affected area, you may also be wondering, What does science say about this? This was a bomb cyclone, the second for our region this season