As a scientist, I think that science education is really important, and that science is also fun to write about. From time to time, I post about areas of science that I find interesting or that I have some expertise in. The goal of these posts is to communicate scientific and mathematic ideas to a non expert.

Below are a list of the posts and a brief description. If you would like to know about some topic I haven’t covered, feel free to ask me. I’m always looking for new ideas for posts.

Math:

• Chaos– chaos as we understand it in the mathematical community. There’s a lot more order and structure to it than you might guess.
• Synchrony– how do things synchronize? My particular expertise.
• Happy 50th birthday, Chaos– Discussing the Lorenz weather model on the 50th anniversary of its publication, launching the field of chaos.

• Fractals: intro and the Mandelbrot set
• Fractals: fractals in nature and fractal measurement– how is the fractalness of something determined?
• Fractals: some photo examples– because my camera comes along.
• An easy fractal to make at home– make math with some humble paint.

• Network theory and graphs overview– the basics on networks, or groups of things that are connected in complicated ways.
• Networks: Scale-Free Networks– A type of network that shows up in the internet and many natural networks.
• Networks: Small-world Networks– Another network model that has been applied to real-world systems. Basically the six degrees of Kevin Bacon game made mathy.
• Turing patterns in nature– the beautiful cross-pollination of math and biology

Astronomy:

• The scale of the universe– just how big is stuff in the cosmos anyways?
• Vacuums and pressure– what is the pressure in deep space and inside a neutron star, and how many particles are involved?

Chemistry:

• Crystals– Fun pictures of crystals, and some discussion of why they look the way they do.
• Crystals: Part II– More fun pictures of crystals.
• Platinum– Why is it so expensive, and what do we use it for?
• Helium– Why the stuff we put in our balloons is actually rare and special.
• Lithium– The stuff of our laptop batteries and our anti-mania drugs.

Materials science:

• The science of snowflakes– Why snowflakes are unique, and the crystal structure of water.
• How does figure skating work?– A more complicated question than it seems, the surfaces of substances are special.
• Corrosion and how to make a battery– two metals in contact through an electrolyte form an electrochemical cell, which can be destructive or cool, depending on your goals.

Social Science:

• Americans are odd statistical samples– a summary of an article about the appropriateness of sample groups used in sociology experiments.
• Art resembling science– a fun example I found of a painting that resembles a chemical reaction.

Biology:

• Enzymes– The catalysts of the body are very specific proteins that are essential to life. 
• Turing patterns in nature– the beautiful cross-pollination of math and biology

Food and science:

• Science and cooking– several good books to read about food and science
• Why I cook– the gut is a complex organ, with more bacteria than stars in the galaxy and more neurons than the spinal cord.
• When is food safe?– pasteurization, the process of reducing bacteria in food, depends upon both cooking temperature and cooking time.
• Sous vide or water bath cooking– a super simple and delicious method for cooking food safely at lower temperatures.
• Understanding and cheating lactose intolerance– which non-dairy foods contain lactose, and how to prepare dairy to be lactose free.
• Caramelization and the Maillard Reaction– two delicious reactions that occur in food with heat, with different chemistry.
• Why are peppers hot?– The chemistry of capsaicin, and why some peppers are hotter.