A Handbook of Chemistry and Fiction

I’ve never needed mifepristone, but I might need it someday and you might, too. This drug has been approved for use for the past 25 years and is regarded as safe, yet it’s coming under fire because it regulates the female hormone progesterone. It can act on men as well, by dampening cortisol, the stress hormone, so men, this is for you, too, although you aren’t why this drug is in…

I’m not a great sleeper. If there is a hint of light, I wake up. If I take B vitamins, eat cod, have too much salt, don’t exercise enough during the day, or have alcohol close to bedtime…the list is nearly endless…I can’t sleep. We won’t even talk about caffeine. Pity my parents—I didn’t even nap as a toddler. To top it off, I’m a morning person. A Twist on the Everyday is a reader-supported…

Saturday, I felt really draggy.  The temperature hovered a little below 40 degrees and the skies were grey. I needed to do some housecleaning but current events plus not wanting to bow to my role in the patriarchy kept me unmotivated. Then it dawned on me, I needed to freshen my house air. This idea is nothing new: open windows and sometimes doors (if your dog won’t run out) every day to release…

“I am deeply disturbed about the state of our society. But it is not so much about an impending public health disaster. It is about the crisis of truth in in my country…” Dr. Fauci. Recently, a friend loaned me Doctor Fauci’s book, On Call. I was surprised to learn that Doctor Fauci, who was belittled by members of the Trump administration and conservatives in general, was not a flaming liberal.…

This week, I signed a contract for the second book in the Monster College Chronicles series, Monsters Play the Field. It incorporates friendly reader feedback from Book 1, Snakes in the Class. Readers wanted a monster homecoming and football game, swamp creatures, and trouble at the nearby fertilizer plant. I’m going to give it to them.  How did I come up with this series? When an editor at City…

I heard an interesting lecture at Central College on MLK Day. Jaime Schultz, professor of kinesiology at Penn State, talked about the perils and triumphs of black football players in Iowa during the time of segregation. Since I’m from a family of football and rugby players and fans, this story caught my attention. Although school segregation ended in 1954, it wasn’t until the Civil Rights Act of…

1. Weather related heat shortens lives and accelerates aging. Being outside in the heat for an extended period of time is as bad for your health as smoking and drinking. Hot weather will also disturb the sex ratios of reptiles, which depend on temperature instead of x and y chromosomes to determine if they will be male or female. Sadly (unless you want to be a female turtle) , experts predict…

A well-publicized recall of frozen foods due to bacterial contamination lead a friend to ask a question: why didn’t the freezing kill the bacteria? My first thought was the somewhat well-known idea (among science types) that freezing doesn’t kill the bacteria, only slows it down. The answer, however, is more complex. Taking a step back, frozen foods were introduced to Western society by…

HPV —human papillomavirus—has been around a long time. Modern humans possibly even gave it to the Neanderthals. HPV is a category of viruses, some of which cause genital and throat cancers. It’s responsible for most cervical, mouth, and throat cancers. It spreads most easily through sexual contact but can theoretically be spread simply by contact with surfaces. Around 80% of sexually active…

I’m writing a novel series about a college for monsters from the perspective of the faculty and this gives me a reason to reflect on what college is about and what creates stress for faculty. If you look up what colleges do, you’ll read that they are intended to give broad training in arts, humanities, and sciences with an emphasis on intellectual development. Intellectual development…

Remember when I went to the US Virgin Islands? It was a beautiful slice of paradise. You can read about it here and see lovely photos of a little bay where I attempted snorkeling. This bay is home to turtles, octopi, barracuda, spotted eagle rays, and tropical fish. Now it’s home to something else.  Here’s that bay recently. Are those battleships? Yes, they are.  Will the USVI be able to return…

I went to see the redwoods and if you haven’t been there, you must go. Breath in their magnificence —the air around them is so fresh. In the redwoods, my harvest weary sinuses cleared and my jumbled mind unraveled. These trees don’t live near a major city—the coast of California with the coastal redwoods is punctuated with small towns and harbors. A feeling of peace and majesty descends on you…

At the beginning of the semester, I asked students what aspect of writing they thought they needed to work on. Many said VOCABULARY, which was somewhat of a surprise. Or maybe not. We read writing tips from well-known authors and to quote Madeline L’Engle :  “As our vocabulary expands, so does our power to think.” Vague language conceals. Rich language illuminates. In order to be able to…