Choosing a Lab: Mentor First, Science Second

September 12, 2016 crparks3@gmail.com Leave a comment

Sometimes the best way to teach is by example. Personal stories can sometimes be more impactful than lecturing on best practices alone.

After negative lab experiences while pursuing research careers, Dina Myers Stroud, Research Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physics and Medicine at Vanderbilt University and Executive Director of the Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters to PhD Bridge Program, and Marcela Hernandez, Graduate/STEM Diversity Director at The Ohio State University, both adopted a seemingly counter-intuitive solution: choose the mentor over the science. Now in their administrative roles they’re preaching this gospel to would-be scientists.

Seawater as a Solar Fuel Cell Source

June 6, 2016 crparks3@gmail.com Leave a comment

A team of Japanese and South Korean researchers has pioneered a way to use seawater to obtain hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) instead of using pure water as a solar fuel. Their paper, “Seawater usable for production and consumption of hydrogen peroxide as a solar fuel,” was published in the May 4 edition of Nature Communications. “It is highly desired to utilize the most earth-abundant seawater instead of precious pure water for the practical use of H₂O₂ as a solar fuel,” the researchers said in the paper.

The Challenge of Hardware Startups

May 10, 2016 crparks3@gmail.com Leave a comment

Founding any new business is extremely difficult and more hard work than most people can imagine. Founding a new technology-based business is arguably tougher than that, and founding a tech hardware (rather than software) venture even tougher than that. But perhaps the toughest of all is developing and scaling a technology-based hardware venture in remote areas with scarce resources for the benefit people living in extreme poverty.

Balancing STEM Work and Life

April 27, 2016 crparks3@gmail.com Leave a comment

In the process of deciding what career path she would pursue, Karen Thickman, a full-time lecturer in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, participated in many informational interviews as a postdoc at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. During one such interview a staffer at a scientific journal told her that people don’t get doctorates to work nine to five jobs. Despite that flexibility it’s not always easy to find that ballyhooed work/life balance.

Navigating NIH Grant Applications

April 27, 2016 crparks3@gmail.com Leave a comment

While it’s not news that underrepresented minorities struggle to reach parity in STEM fields, it was a 2011 Science paper, first authored by Donna Ginther, professor of Economics at Kansas University, that exposed a disparity between underrepresented minorities and whites seeking National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Research Project Grants, or R01s.

Updated Neural Model for Working Memory

March 28, 2016 crparks3@gmail.com Leave a comment

Neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have provided evidence opposing the current model for how working memory operates at the cellular level. The current model says the cellular basis for working memory lies in consistent, sustained activity by brain cells, or neurons. Results from the MIT study, published in the March 17 issue of the scientific journal Neuron, shows the story is more complex, that brain cells involved in working-memory tasks are activated discretely and sporadically.

A neuroscientist’s journey from cancer patient to company founder

March 14, 2016 crparks3@gmail.com Leave a comment

In the spring of 2004, Antonio Ulloa was visiting San Francisco, California, for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting when he was beset with nausea and a feeling of intoxication. A postdoc at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders at the time, he was at the conference to present his neuroimaging studies about short-term memory and to network and scout possible employers. He remembers presenting and participating at the conference but not much else from the trip other than lying in bed. Upon returning home to Washington, D.C., he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Hail Hydra! Mysterious Sea Creature Revealed to Have Mouth That Functions Like a Pupil

March 10, 2016 crparks3@gmail.com Leave a comment

Named after the mythological beast slain by the Greek demigod Heracles, the Hydra is a genus of freshwater animal related to jellyfish and sea anemones, best known for its ability to regenerate whole individuals from parts of another. And until recently, the way it opened its mouth—the animal’s only orifice—was a mystery.

The Beauty of the Sea Butterfly’s “Flight”

March 1, 2016 crparks3@gmail.com Leave a comment

Flight has evolved independently at least three times, by three different animal groups: birds, bats, and insects. Now, a team of researchers at Georgia Tech has confirmed that a species of aquatic snail, the “sea butterfly” Limacina helicina, flaps its wing-like appendages the same way that some small insects use their wings to fly.

Big Data, Quantum Solutions

February 3, 2016 crparks3@gmail.com Leave a comment

My write-up of how quantum computing can help solve complex, multivariate questions. It’s on APS’ Physics Central, Physics Buzz Blog: Big Data, Quantum Solutions

Clint Parks