Category: Uncategorized
-
The Numbers Game
My vein ripples out like a mountain thrusting itself through the earth. Bold and readied as the needle slips its way in, a secret tunnel where the secrets of my blood lie in wait. The phlebotomist, Joseph, jokes to me, “Your left arm is always a winner.” He quickly fills the six color-coded test tubes…
-
Countdown
The sidewalk glowed orange. The once blue sky had turned brown and dim. I had just made it home from a trail run and stood at the end of our driveway. Fierce wind slammed into my body and my lungs began to burn. I knew that kind of burn from living most of my life…
-
The Air Up Here
It is late September, and I’m standing in a field of knee-high prairie grass with a gaggle of representatives from different health departments. Their concerned faces twitch at the heat as they strain to hear the tall German man speaking. The man is Detlev Helmig, a renowned air pollution scientist. We crowd around his air…
-
Only the Lonely
He hid under the table, shaking, crying for us to leave. My son, five years old at the time, was having his first playdate after a year of quarantine. His tiny hands gripped the wooden legs as he buried his flushed face into the carpet. This wasn’t his first time being around a child…
Science Mama 