Previously: Scientists are casually ruining mice's brains. "Researchers have found a way to make see-through mice, but you won't find these critters scampering in your kitchen. The transparent rodents aren't alive and they're for research only, to help scientists study fine details of anatomy. Before they are treated with chemicals, the animals are euthanized and their skin removed. Researchers made their inner organs transparent, but not their bones." "What's wrong, Carol?" "What?" "I…
My friend M is a virologist who works for a biotech firm where it's their job to tend the robots. Last fall they completed FemSexNYC, “a sexuality workshop rooted in an anti-oppression framework for all gender identities.” Needless to say, we talk a lot about the boundaries between technology and humans and about sensuality and sexuality. Recently, we spoke by phone about robotics and erotics.
The 2013 Showtime television show Masters of Sex introduced viewers to William H. Masters (1915–2001) and Virginia E. Johnson (1925–2013), two of the best-known American sex researchers of the twentieth century. Current posters for the second season depict the actors playing the couple, Lizzie Caplan and Michael Sheen, staring intensely at the camera while curled around each other on rumpled sheets. The fictional Johnson is portrayed as a proto-feminist, sexually liberated heroine, while the
Lynne Elkins' previous work for The Toast can be found here.
Today, I am not here to talk to you about science*. Instead, I would like to share a truth that you may not have fully realized, which is that the ocean is a horrifying place full of monsters.
You might be thinking, “But I always wanted to be a marine biologist! I love dolphins!” And to be fair, dolphins
Thanks to the ever-so-convenient Internet, it was fairly simple to prove to my friends that, yes, a rectal thermometer was indeed a real thing, and no, my mom didn't accidentally misuse a thermometer. My mother, though, in all her un-technological glory, decided to send me (through real mail) a rectal thermometer to show my friends. So there I was in college, with a rectal thermometer.
Cooking is my haven from research science. It’s funny, because cooking isn’t really all that different from bench work. I mix things together with precision while following written instructions and wait given periods of times.
Stage I - Initiation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeNaK3sOKqI "I remembered my friend's birthday, which is good." Friend, are you troubled by persistent waking blackouts? Do you tremble and shudder and flicker out of consciousness when asked to recall basic facts about your acquaintances? Does your right eye fill with blood whenever you have to try to remember your PIN? Let Lumosity patch over those mysterious missing blank spots in your sick and addled mind.
Anathema didn't only believe in leylines, but in seals, whales, bicycles, rain forests, whole grain in loaves, recycled paper, white South Africans out of South Africa, and Americans out of practically everywhere down to and including Long Island. She didn't compartmentalize her beliefs. They were welded into one enormous, seamless belief, compared with which that held by Joan of Arc seemed a mere idle notion. On any scale of mountain moving it shifted at least…
It’s been widely accepted for some time now that the earth is getting warmer, that we humans have quite a lot to do with this, and that this is very bad news for us as a species. Headlines like “NASA predicts the end of Western civilization” don’t exactly reassure anyone on that front, either, since apocalyptic futures are much more fun in fiction than in real life. And so for a lot of people, this…
As The Toast searches for its one true Gal Scientist, we will be running a ton of wonderful one-off pieces by female scientists of all shapes and sizes and fields and education levels, which we are sure you will enjoy. They’ll live here, so you can always find them. Most recently: Stop Being Terrified of Chemicals.
Some people consider losing one’s V-card to be a huge life-changing deal, while others find
In women, tears flow from the eyes and excess tears flow through the tear duct into the nasal cavity. The female's ample and visible tear flow makes it obvious to surrounding males when she is menstruating, unable to engage in fruitful intercourse, and thus may be avoided. The Male Tear Duct
In the male, tears are redirected to the salivary glands so…
I know that I am not the only Toast reader who was regularly scolded for sitting on the sidelines and reading a book during recess. It is when we enter a lively discussion about the dubious science/historical accuracy/ psychological validity of a beloved book series that I feel most connected to you all. So when Mallory brought up the topic—first through Twitter, and then on this very site—of the scientific basis of Animorphs, I…
As The Toast searches for its one true Gal Scientist, we will be running a ton of wonderful one-off pieces by female scientists of all shapes and sizes and fields and education levels, which we are sure you will enjoy. They’ll live here, so you can always find them. Most recently: Why Are There So Few Female Scientists? There's soap in your mayonnaise! As a scientist with a degree in chemistry, the surge…
Stephanie Lai last wrote for The Toast about the pitfalls of voluntourism. The majority of Australia has just suffered through an unprecedented heatwave; at the same time, North America experienced a Polar Vortex. These extreme weather events are no coincidence: I'm here to explain to you Our Oncoming Dystopic Future!
This is not an argument about whether climate change exists, or been caused by humans. This is an explanation of…
