Note: On Oct. 7, 2020, Jennifer Doudna and her research collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering the CRISPR gene-editing technology. “This year’s prize is about rewriting the code of life,” said Goran Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, as he announced the winners. _________________________________________ Growing up in […]
Note: On Oct. 6, 2020, Andrea Ghez was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for “the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy.” She shares the prize with Reinhard Genzel of UC Berkeley and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and Roger Penrose of the University of Oxford. _________________________________________ […]
Olivia Graeve remembers exactly when she decided she wanted to be an engineer. During the 1980s, an economic crisis drove thousands of people to flee Mexico’s depressed southern region and seek jobs in the north. Slums sprang up in the hills around Tijuana, the border city where Graeve (GRAH-vay) lived. With a group from her […]
In 2001, I joined with pioneering astronaut Sally Ride, along with Karen Flammer and two other friends, to co-found a science education company. We called it Sally Ride Science. Our mission? To encourage young people—especially girls—to stick with science as they go through school.Why is this so important?Science and technology play a larger role in […]
There’s no shortage of advice out there about what makes a healthy lifestyle. Get regular exercise. Reduce stress. Eat whole foods. It all sounds good, but the advice is easy to ignore when you are tired or anxious or craving a donut. But what if you could envision exactly what your healthy habits—or unhealthy ones—are […]
Hollis Woodard sees bumblebees as the pandas of the insect world.“They are a very charismatic bee,” she said. “They are big and chunky and fuzzy. They move kind of slow, so you can watch them bumbling around. People are pretty attracted to them.”But what fascinates Woodard about bumblebees goes beyond their endearing fuzziness. As an […]
Young Ana Christina Ravelo seemed like a natural to become a scientist.Growing up in the Los Angeles suburb of Altadena, she excelled in math and science classes. She loved nature and outdoor activities. And beyond that, she had a striving, adventurous spirit inspired by her parents.“Both of my parents are immigrants,” Ravelo noted. “That’s a […]
Photo by Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego PublicationsRuth Williams really likes to solve problems. In fact, one of her favorite sayings is, “I eat problems for breakfast.”Part of the appeal of math problems, she explained, is that there are two sides to solving them. Growing up in Australia, she was especially drawn to the clarity and […]
When Asmeret Asefaw Berhe was growing up in Eritrea, a nation in Northern Africa, her dad had a pet name for her. In a large family that placed a high value on education, Berhe was the one who always had her nose in a book. Her parents expected her to go far. Her dad even […]
For a quiet girl growing up in the peaceful Los Angeles suburb of Chatsworth, reading opened up an amazing world.Jenny Yang made a trek to the library each week to check out a stack of books. Fiction was her favorite, but she also liked reading about science. “I just liked learning about the world,” she […]