Content related to world events and other things happening outside my daily life
The human race has used cannabis for 5,000 years. But for the last (almost) 100, it has been vilified in the United States as a “gateway drug” that will “fry your brain.” Federal prohibitions have limited opportunities for the scientific community to study the benefits (not just the harms) of this plant, particularly when it comes to stress reduction and a healthier Endocannabinoid System.
You can get more done with efficiency – to a point. Unfortunately, many of us believe multitasking is efficient, even though it usually makes us even less productive in the end. Multitasking can reduce our effectiveness as well as our capacity for critical thought, meaning that the real key to success is identifying critical tasks and prioritizing them, rather than trying to do it all.
Physics, cooking, energy efficiency, and public health: so many of my passions are the ingredients of this blog post about our new induction cooktop. Magnetic induction cooking equipment has recently been getting cheaper, more accessible, and more popular, but it has long been safer, cleaner, and more energy efficient than the conventional alternatives, such as gas flames and electric coils.
Today we are surrounded by more information than we can process, and we are drawn to stories that align with what we want to be true. That has dire consequences during pandemics, when we rely on scientific data to save lives. Unfortunately, most humans don’t change their minds when confronted with facts, which is the primary education tactic for people in the sciences.
I had hoped my first bout with COVID-19 (during 2024’s “FLiRT” variants) would be my last. Unfortunately, 2025’s “Nimbus” caught up with me, landing me on the couch for many hours with nothing to do but research my adversary. It is more important than ever that we understand these increasingly transmissible COVID-19 variants, especially in an age of decreasingly reliable information online.
As we enter July, it is once again time to examine our relationship with plastic (which permeates so much of our daily lives and this blog already). While it can be difficult to find alternatives to plastic, especially in food packaging, it is important to understand how some so-called alternatives can be harmful (or not really be alternatives at all).
Rituals can bring comfort in times of grief, but they can also be counterproductive when arbitrary standards override personal needs. While grieving a loss myself, it was interesting to explore rigid societal expectations around mourning in a time of massive technological and cultural upheaval. (And we’re not talking about the twenty-first century: this post focuses on the birth of fast fashion during the Victorian Era.)
It’s not the end, but it is an end. The final debrief of our year together in the Climate Lab was bittersweet and carried with it intentions to pay our lessons forward into the world – collaborating with each other, if possible. For my part, I want to continue bridging gaps in knowledge and perspectives to co-create more equitable solutions to the climate crisis.
Rights are like muscles: use them or lose them. There are many reasons to feel apathetic about voting, but that’s no reason to sit it out. With that said, if you feel like voting isn’t making a difference, there are other ways to get involved too: that includes reaching out to your local, state, and federal representatives to let them know your concerns.
We’re taught that recycling is a good thing, and doing it makes us feel responsible. In reality, there are serious limitations to recycling’s benefits when it comes to certain materials, especially plastics – even begging the question if new processes, such as “chemical recycling” are even possible. Unfortunately the plastic industry is banking on our trust, including when it comes to “recycling” fabrics.