Science Goddess

This site, born out of what I can best describe as a need to shift my attention to what I do well, is about my passion for science.  I have enjoyed nature and reading about science all of my life.  I started, as a very young girl, by wanting to be an astronomer and abruptly decided that I wanted to be a doctor in 5th grade.

When I was 15 years old modeling chose me, I didn’t choose it. I never thought I was pretty or coordinated, but I am grateful to those people who saw a little something in a scrawny, shy girl and worked with it.  Modeling brought me out of my shyness and taught me some valuable lessons and rendered me with a little more poise and grace than I would’ve had without this experience.  I never became very interested in my looks as an obsession, but learned the rules of style and began to apply them.

As I entered my junior year of college, I realized the pre-med life was not for me.  I discovered that working in research labs was fun and I was quite good at it.I also happened to take a cell biology and histology course and with an incredible knowing, deep down, that this was the material I would focus on and branch out from.  I discovered that I loved teaching, so that became my focus….the fun of lab work with mixed with the satisfaction of sharing my passion with really bright students. My research has ranged from working with sewage bacteria as a potential oil slick consumer to the effects of acid rain on pine trees in my undergraduate years to studying muscle development in the larvae of Manduca sexta (tomato horn worm) for my master’s degree. Now I work with mammalian cells in culture.  Apparently, I’ve climbed the evolutionary tree!

It’s funny how life oscillates.  I began by wanting to view the heavens with a telescope and then ended up looking into the body with microscopes.  I started my life by focusing mainly on science and preferring NOT to be seen, to experiencing a world whose main focus is image and being larger than life, to withdrawing back into a studious scientific bent and now putting myself once again out in the world, trying to integrate all that I am in my goal of sharing science.

Part of the purpose of this site is to encourage young men and women to not be afraid of pursuing science for fear of stereotyping yourself as a nerd or geek. In my experience, most every student I meet is extremely well rounded and knows quite a bit about a lot of things, not just science, and some dress quite fashionably within the budget they can afford…as long as they don’t mind the chance they could spill some hydrochloric acid on their designer jeans!