Pumpkins have historically been a sure sign of the Halloween season in the United States. Although they are most used for Halloween, there are many ways to use pumpkins after those spooky October days. Every year in America, more than 1 billion pounds of pumpkin gets tossed in the trash and wasted. Instead of leaving […]
“Back when I was in the lab…”: it seems like every former scientist has a story. Kind of like Thanksgiving Dinner among your elderly relatives, scientists are quick to one-up each other with horror stories from our days at the bench—stories that included escape artist rats, a leaky sequencing gel apparatus, and the iconic radioactively […]
My colleagues in the scientific communications group at Promega are pretty sure that I have bats in my belfry. And, they may be right. After all I have written extensively and repeatedly about bats in North America and the threat that they are facing from White Nose Syndrome, the devastating disease caused by a cold-loving […]
10. Set a daily limit. (An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.) Allow X number of pieces of candy per day, then put the bag away, under lock and key. 9. Parental help (good for the child, not so good for the parent). In my childhood, though it was not apparent […]
It’s hard to imagine a better way to celebrate the 33rd International Symposium of Human Identification than a night spent wandering through the Hall of Human Evolution at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The meeting, which took place in Washington D.C. from October 31–November 4, focused largely on using investigative genetic genealogy (IGG). When […]
Warning: This blog contains stories about phantom serial killers, frankenfoods, mysteriously phosphorylated bands and unrequited ligations that may be disturbing to some people. Children or scientists prone to anxiety over irreproducible results should read this with their eyes shut. I Clouds hung low in the sky, and the late October wind howled between the buildings, […]
It’s late October and here in Wisconsin, like many of you, we are experiencing a change of seasons, with the associated drop in temperatures, changes in leaf color and later this week, Halloween. Another thing that comes with fall is the start of cold and flu season. By “flu”, I mean influenza, caused by avian […]
As the parent of school-age children, I have learned to dread that early morning call with the cheerful recorded voice that informs me that school has been canceled or delayed. Here in Wisconsin, these calls are almost always a result of inclement weather, and if we pay attention to the weather forecast, we typically know […]
I am the mother of a six-year-old girl who loves to get magazines in the mail. For several years my daughter has received an enjoyed popular kids’ science/international culture magazine. The stories are short and simple, and this magazine usually does a good job of presenting factual information in easy-to-digest forms. Each magazine comes with […]
Your Promega Connections bloggers had a great time bringing you cool science stories, technical tips and assorted other reading material this year, and we want to say a big “Thank you!” to all of our readers for your time, your comments, and your reblogs. Here are some of the highlights from 2012. In January Kelly […]
