Author Archives: biochembelle

Course correction: What you never thought you’d need to know

It’s that time of year again. Students are flooding back onto campuses, resuming their courses of study or embarking on a new path. Research runs similar lines – following up and taking new directions. And sometimes it leaves me wishing … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Morning musing: Decline of the doctorate?

Of late, I have noted, among a subset of scientists, a disposition that the quality of the PhD candidate and/or PhD training declined. Of course, this is based on purely subjective measures – usually centered on the degree of independence … Continue reading

Posted in attitudes, biomedical workforce | 4 Comments

Churning (fake) butter: More safety questions for food manufacturers

In case you missed it, check out this post for context. August seems to be turning into a month of popcorn toxicology. While doing a bit of house blogkeeping this morning, I ran across a release about a new study on a diacetyl … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Science, reporting, & communication

Last night, I posted about a basic research paper that has gotten some press attention. As is often the case, much of the nuance and context of the original work is missing from the press coverage or buried at the … Continue reading

Posted in communication, public outreach, science literacy | Leave a comment

Popping up trouble with butter and Alzheimer’s

Love popcorn? Been having trouble with your memory lately? Perhaps you saw the story popping on news and health websites about the link between popcorn flavoring and Alzheimer’s disease and panicked. What have I been doing to my brain all these years? But … Continue reading

Posted in science behind the story | Tagged , , | 9 Comments