Here we are, and it’s almost April school vacation week. Hopefully some people have information about what they are doing with their children next week, but for those of us who are of the more ‘scrambling at the last minute’ kinds of parents, what is there to do? Well first of all, you may be wondering if it is ever going to get warm around here. I am wondering this too. My best advice as a scientist is to tell you to consult a weather app. I can tell you that because of clim

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