I love gmail and buzz just as much as the next guy (or probably even more so), but the frequent updates to gmail's code are breaking third party plugins that many people have come to rely on. […]
A summary of why you should be using Mint to keep track of your finances. Don't bother reading this if you're already taking advantage of all that Mint has to offer. […]
The Livescribe Pulse pen is an awesome tool for anyone who needs to take notes (students, researchers, field workers, etc.). This post gives an overview of the features, limitations, and competitors to the Pulse. […]
I spent over two years using a fat clamshell phone with glittery rainbow and penguin stickers on it. This would not be surprising if I was a 14 year old girl. But I was that girl’s older brother. Aside from the stickers and clunky interface, the phone only had space for approximately 5 text [...] […]
The most depressing class I ever took was freshman intro chemistry. Granted, it was advanced intro chemistry (oxymoronic, but that’s how the course identifications work at MIT; extra numbers = harder, extra letters = easier). So this was 5.112 (as opposed to the standard introductory 5.111). So why was it so depressing? I had learned [...] […]
As some of you are aware, I will be temporarily disconnected from the intertubes for the next couple of weeks while floating around the Peruvian Amazon teaching kids about healthcare, electronics, and the environment. The main idea is to provide some practical resources and training to children in remote settings, with the goal of inspiring [...] […]
Science is riddled with failure Really, it’s all over the place. It’s built right into the scientific method. You make a hypothesis, with a firm understanding that anything could happen to disprove your faulty notions. Sometimes it works and you see what you expected, and sometimes it doesn’t. And some of the most interesting discoveries of [...] […]
Admit it. You like science. You thrive on the unknown. You seek adventure and mystery. You enjoy being enclosed in absurd magnetic fields while grad students sit safely in the room next door. Or maybe I’m alone there. But at least you like money. Most universities with research programs have science. And that science sometimes needs [...] […]
About a year ago, my roommate started a little DNA analysis journal club here at Berkeley. It was just meant to be a group of like-minded students discussing recent advances in analytical DNA technologies. He tried creating a Google group for that club, not expecting the fairly judgmental response he received… Note that Google’s skilled text [...] […]