I am a
science writer at Harvard Medical School, a freelance writer and
editor, and a fiction-writing addict. I
contribute regularly to Harvard Focus,
a biweekly
journal of research news from the Harvard medical community. My work has also appeared
in MIT Tech Talk,
the Boston Globe,
the Atlantic Monthly
Online, Innovatons
Journal, MIT Technology Insider, New
York Archives, NYU Physician,
and Research
at Boston University.
For more details,
please take a look at my resume.
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Science and Medicine (back to top)
Social Obligation Among Africans Hikes HIV Adherence (February 6, 2009)
Despite extremely high hurdles, people living with HIV/AIDS in
sub-Saharan Africa reliably take their medications. HMS researchers use
anthropological tools to explain why. |
Energy Equations Propose Patterns of Weight Gain and Loss (January 9, 2009)
Controlling body
weight is a simple matter of balancing how much you eat against how
much you burn, right? For some, maybe, but HMS researchers have devised
a mathematical model of energy balance and body weight that suggests a
more complicated equation. |
Cancer Atlas Extends Map of Glioblastoma (September 26, 2008)
Almost 50 years have
passed since scientists first connected a genetic abnormality with
cancer. Now a project called The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) aims to
systematize the discovery of these defects and catalog them. |
Weaker Drug Combos May Make Stronger Medicine (September 12, 2008)
The gospel according
to clinicians has been to attack pathogens with as much killing power
as possible. Counterintuitively, however, the better weapon in the long
run may be combinations of drugs that actually decrease one
another’s effectiveness. |
Immune
Regulator Tied to Bone Building (June 9, 2006)
Laurie
Glimcher and her father Melvin stumble upon a connection between
an immune system signaling protein and bone growth. |
Cytokine
may alter T Cell Populations, Modulate Inflammation (June 9, 2006)
Vijay
Kuchroo discovers an immune system yin and yang. |
New
Vessels Take Direction from Vascular Cell Signals (May 19, 2006)
Researchers
from the Schepens Eye Research Institute uncover cellular
signaling mechanisms that guide angiogenesis. |
Seeing
Guides Multiple Paths of Brain Shaping Growth (May 5, 2006)
Carla
Shatz shows how the simple act of seeing enables neural
plasticity by altering gene expression levels. |
Natural
Mineral Fibers in Turkey Cause Extreme Cancer Risk (April 7, 2006)
A study
of three villages in Cappadocia, Turkey, found an extremely high risk
of mortality from pleural mesothelioma in erionite-exposed areas. |
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MIT
creates gecko-inspired bandage (February 18, 2008)
MIT
researchers have
created a waterproof adhesive bandage inspired by gecko-lizards that
may soon join sutures and staples as a basic operating room tool for
patching up surgical wounds or internal injuries. |
Inclusivness,
optimism among strengths of HST's Gray (February 13, 2008)
Martha
Gray,
director of the Harvard-MIT Department of Health Sciences and
Technology, displays an optimism that explains why, on an exceptionally
snowy night in March, dozens of people flocked to her home to read
poetry and to enjoy chance meetings.
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Remote-control nanoparticles deliver
drugs directly into tumors
(November 20, 2007)
MIT
scientists have devised remotely controlled nanoparticles that, when
pulsed with an electromagnetic field, release drugs to attack tumors.
The innovation could lead to the improved diagnosis and targeted
treatment of cancer. |
'Micro' livers could aid drug screening
(November 19, 2007)
MIT
researchers have
devised a novel way to create tiny colonies of living human liver cells
that model the full-sized organ. The work could reduce costs and allow
better screening of new drugs that are potentially harmful to the liver. |
MIT works toward novel therapeutic
device (October 22, 2007)
MIT and
University
of Rochester researchers report important advances toward a therapeutic
device that could capture cells flowing through blood and treat them in
various ways, such as zapping cancer cells or signaling stem cells to
differentiate. |
MIT uncovers key protein in iron
metabolism (October 11, 2007)
The
protein plays a key role in regulating iron recycling in blood, and
could lead to therapeutic drugs for certain blood diseases. |
MIT student turns hearing loss into
knowledge gain (October 3, 2007)
Brad
Buran lost his hearing to pneumococcal meningitis when he
was 14 months old. Today, the fifth-year doctoral candidate is becoming
an expert in the neuroscience of speech and hearing. |
Leveraging learning for artificial
respiration (September 11, 2007)
MIT
researchers have found that the body's innate ability to adapt to
recurring stimuli could be leveraged to design more effective and less
costly artificial respirators. |
Team builds viruses to combat harmful
biofilms (July 6, 2007)
Researchers from MIT and Boston University are engineering viruses to
attack and destroy the surface "biofilms" that harbor harmful bacteria
in the body and on industrial and medical devices. |
Model helps researchers "see" brain
development (April 10, 2007)
Understanding
the significance of folds in the outer layer of the brain is one of the
big open questions in neuroscience. Now a team led by MIT, MGH and
Harvard Medical School has developed a tool that could help researchers
"see" the growth of those folds. |
HST device draws cells close -- but not
too close -- together (April 4, 2007)
On a
microscopic level, coaxing cells to be very, very close without
actually touching one another has been among the most frustrating
challenges for cell biologists. MIT researchers have solved the problem
with a novel device. |
Team develops nanoparticles to battle
cancer (February 1, 2007)
On a
quest to modernize cancer treatment and diagnosis, an MIT professor and
her colleagues have created new nanoparticles that mimic blood
platelets. The team wants to use these new multifunctional particles to
carry out different medical missions inside the body, from imaging to
drug delivery. |
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Defending
Darwin (August 10, 2005)
Perspectives
from Atlantic Monthly articles from 1860 to the present on the conflict
between evolution theory and religious fundamentalism. |
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Food and Culture (back to top)
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The
World In Which We Live
An
interview with William Langewiesche about his series of Atlantic
articles about A. Q. Khan, the father of the Pakistani atomic bomb. |
Warriors
for Good
An
interview with Robert Kaplan about his book, Imperial
Grunts. |
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Editorial Services (back
to top)

As an associate
editor, I help authors
build concrete narratives about global change for this
academic public policy journal.
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