Words

Woman with curly dark hair, glasses, and floral earrings working on a laptop outdoors in a park on a sunny day.

Why I write…

My writing and speaking engagements center on shining a light on the processes underlying science — from how knowledge is created to who gets to generate that knowledge. By inviting more people into this messy process, I hope to increase access to and a sense of belonging in science.

Writing

  • View of a neighborhood seen through a window, with protest signs, diverse people, and buildings, during sunset.

    Pandemic Diaries: My Own Private Diaspora

    Grow by Ginkgo // October 2020

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  • A woman with short curly hair wearing earrings and a grey blazer, speaking in front of a space-themed background with stars and a planet.

    Meet Lynnae Quick, NASA’s hunter of space cryomagma

    Massive Science // July 2020

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  • A woman in a yellow sweater sitting at a classroom desk with other students taking notes and listening.

    Why we need to keep talking about equality in physics

    Physics World // August 2019

    co-written with Dr. Jess Wade

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  • A black and white photograph of a woman with long hair, smiling, wearing a blazer, with a colorful galaxy or black hole image in the background.

    It matters who we champion in science

    The Washington Post // April 2019

    co-written with Dr. Jess Wade

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  • A young girl with long braided hair tied with a white ribbon writes on a black chalkboard with white chalk in a classroom.

    To Groom Better Scientists, Harness the Power of Narrative

    Undark // January 2019

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  • A woman with light-colored, shoulder-length hair wearing glasses and a colorful, abstract-patterned top, speaking into a microphone with a plain light-colored background.

    Donna Strickland's treatment on Wikipedia shows how women have long been excluded from science

    The Independent // October 2018

    co-written with Dr. Jess Wade

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  • Low-angle view of a curved information plaque against a partly cloudy sky with clouds and blue sky, and a round rust-colored structure below.

    Defending the sexist Cern lecture? You’re endorsing bad science, not freedom of speech

    The New Statesman // October 2018

    co-written with Dr. Jess Wade

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  • Book cover titled "Inferior" by Angela Saini, with an image of a woman's face with a plant covering her eyes and hair, and her finger near her lips, with the subtitle "How Science Got Women Wrong - and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story."

    A New Front in Fighting the Bias against Women in Science

    Scientific American // September 2018

    co-written with Dr. Jess Wade

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  • Four scientists in scrubs working on a mummified human body laid on a table, examining and documenting it.

    Why we’re editing women scientists onto Wikipedia

    Nature // August 2018

    co-written with Dr. Jess Wade

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  • A black-and-white photo of a woman wearing protective glasses and a mask, looking through a microscope. The background is bright pink.

    Yes, Being a Woman in Science Is Hard. That’s Why We’re Trying to Change It.

    Slate // April 2018

    Here
  • A pipette dispensing liquid into a test tube, alongside other test tubes with colorful liquids on a blue background.

    An Experiment that Didn't Work

    Scientific American // October 2017

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  • Ice skating rink with a large map of the United States painted on the ice, connected to a stage with a golden sculpture of a woman in front of a building with numerous American flags.

    Scientists, your mission is to save US democracy. Do you accept?

    Quartz // June 2017

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  • An EKG strip with a white nasal oxygen cannula and a blue and white nasal spray bottle.

    Thanks to Genetic Testing, Everyone Could Soon Have a Pre-Existing Condition

    Slate // May 2017

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  • A person with rainbow-colored pants looking through a telescope emitting a rainbow spectrum of colors towards a university building.

    The problem with ‘alternative’

    Science // November 2016

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  • A desk with a paper marked with a red 'FAIL' stamp, a rubber stamp with the same 'FAIL' on it, a tablet device, and a chair in the background.

    Failure in Science Is Frequent and Inevitable—and We Should Talk More about It

    Scientific American // June 2016

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  • Diagram of an RNA secondary structure with base pairing, showing nucleotide bases and molecular models radiating outward.

    A Reeducation: How I found creativity in science

    Method Quarterly // 2015

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Public Talks

Science storytelling in comedy clubs. Pop science talks and debates for general [and nerdy] audiences. Lectures to professionals in the open science community. See below a sampling of the public talks I’ve delivered wearing a variety of hats.

TEDx Foggy Bottom

What happens when your thesis comes to a dead end after a year's worth of work? I share my experience with failure and the resilience that makes scientists so special.

April 2019

The National Library of Medicine

NLM has nearly two centuries of experience delivering information to those who need it, when they need it. Of course, our offerings have evolved and expanded since our inception, long before the term “open science” was coined. Observing the Year of Open Science allowed us an opportunity to reflect and strengthen this foundation. This video breaks down the definition of open science to explore how.

May 2024

Infodemic Management Community Event: The Science of Storytelling

WHO in partnership with The Story Collider want to build skills for public health practitioners to promote science and health through the craft of personal storytelling. I led a webinar for the Story Collider teeing up an announcement of an upcoming training and evaluation project to build capacity among infodemic managers to tell effective stories from the field.

July 2022

ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing

The open science movement has often failed to address the needs of the general public, who are crucial stakeholders in the scientific enterprise. Open science must therefore include open communication, particularly around emerging technologies that have the capacity that carry an array of ethical and social implications. Stories are one such medium that can place science in context and build trust and understanding among the diverse audiences science seeks to serve and create opportunities for dialog that can enrich science for the benefit of the public.

October 2020