education
Today I had (most of) my pre-defense data meeting.1 My committee has declared me ready to write my thesis, and on track for graduation by or before August of next year. I'd like to be done by May, but that means t's crossed, i&
meta
Looking back at my November writing experiment, I'd call it generally a success. I didn't make it all the way through the month; Thanksgiving visits with family disrupted my schedule. I missed about a week of writing total. But I wrote nearly every day before Thanksgiving,
everydayScience
We tend to think of ourselves as individual organisms. Even though we're made up of thousands upon thousands of cells working together to send and interpret sensations, break down and rearrange nutrients, transport wastes, provide structure and mobility, and keep our selves humming along in homeostasis, we think
interactions
GoldiBlox are filling up my Facebook feed and my Twitter stream this week, despite the fact that I don't know any girls (or parents of girls) in the right age range for the toy. My thoughts on GoldiBlox haven't changed much since the Kickstarter campaign. The
matlab
I have an undergraduate working with me on some simulations, and I've been teaching him Matlab for the last year. This week I showed him a useful trick for changing the look of some line plots. He has a whole bunch of these to do, and instead of
food
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2100"] Chocolate chip cookie dough from a recent batch. [https://www.bethhaas.me/caption] I remember very clearly the first time I felt like I really was a chemist. Not just a chemistry major, but someone who thinks and
gradLife
Yesterday a dear grad school friend asked me for some feedback on some writing. I marked typos and left comments, asked questions and all of the usual editing stuff. And I wrote her a note about her composition, trying to find the right words to say that the writing was
meta
I just switched up my blogging workflow to use a new app that will allow me to post directly from my iPad, which is where I do most of my blog-writing. Unfortunately, the app's system for scheduling a post for the future is the opposite of the
numeracy
I saw this in my Facebook feed, and instead of finding it cute, I found it a frustrating and disheartening display of innumeracy. The comments were full of "Oh wow! It worked for me," and "That's crazy!" No, it's not crazy, it&
meta
My stated goal at the beginning of November was to "write something worth posting every day." My unstated goal was to put up a post every weekday. Since Nov. 1st I've written every day and posted every weekday except yesterday. That sounds like a decent start
reflection
* my husband, who laughs at me when I deserve it * walks with friends, no matter the weather * friends who know when to invite themselves over * role models of a variety of shapes and sizes * my Facebook cheerleaders * singing with my fellow GradTONES * control experiments that work out the way I
interactions
Every now and again on the Internet (or at least the slice of the Internet I keep up with), the identity question comes up: What name do you use online? Just a few days ago, I saw it pop up again. In my experience, the person bringing up the topic