Category Archives: Science!

Five Fascinating Links

Food: Whole Foods, Expensive Cheese, and the Dilemma of Cheap Prison Labor.

I had no idea public-private enterprises for prison labor use existed (again). It seems like a sticky situation, in that I can understand the arguments that this is a good thing and a bad thing. It’s definitely something for me to further mull over. And I’d love to know your thoughts on the matter, please.

A cheese board with built in cutlery. Alas, it won't help me cut through the ethical problems with so many cheeses.

Beer: The Defining Reason to Talk About Sam Adams Not Being ‘Craft’

“Craft” is a tricky word in the beer industry and in the beer community. You may have heard about (or participated in!) the debates around “craft vs ‘crafty’,” but the conversation seems to have died down some in the years since that press release was put out.… Continue reading →

Five Years. Holy Cow, Five Years.

I have been blogging for five years now. It’s kinda overwhelming to consider, honestly. I’ve published (as of this post) 508 posts, so theoretically a rate of 100 posts/year. Not too shabby.

Of course, there’ve been ups and downs. I basically took 2011 off, which wasn’t hot. But Steve from Drinking and Writing Theater once called my blog “the best beer blog in Chicago.” He was talking to someone else, even! He was sober at the time! So that gave me some serious ups.

I love this online space, and I plan to inhabit it a long time. That said, I also want to stretch my wings, so two things will be changing, a little. I’m going to start looking for more places to guest post at and I am launching a new blog, Getting Ready to Go.… Continue reading →

A Chat with the Program Director of SVF

As I was pondering how to write my recent post about food animal biobanking, my fantastic friends Araina and Kate urged me to call SVF Foundation1. And in 15 minutes I learned a lot.

The “SVF” in SVF Foundation stands for Swiss Village Farm, and the foundation is specifically rooted in farming. That root, it turns out, is the quick explanation for the difference in SVF’s biodiversity focus and a zoo’s biodiversity focus (and thus my feelings of disappointment I mention in the previous post, as I am rooted in the zoo side of things).

SVF Foundation was founded about 13 years ago as a non-profit tasked with conserving the biodiversity of agriculturally important ruminates–so, cows, sheep, and goats. They are almost exclusively privately funded, though they do have some fun merch for sale.… Continue reading →

Looking Back for the Future

When I was in DC this past January, I began to wonder how far we have not come in 10 years.

I took this photo because it kind of bummed me out. I imagine most will actually find it exciting, and for good reason. The ability to revive extinct species or prevent extinctions in a variety of ways, including using biobanking, is pretty fantastic.

But 10 years ago, I was hip deep in research to make this even better. And while I knew what I was working on was not going to be the coming of a new age in cryogenic preservation, I also knew it would help.

See, a frozen embryo is fantastic for potentially raising up an individual at some point in the future, but you’re stuck with the genetics you have access to right then.… Continue reading →

Some Interesting Reading

One of the things that has been kind of perpetually on my mind is reading. How much I should be doing, what I should be reading, etc.

I never come to an answer. It makes me kinda batty, honestly. I feel like there’s GOT to be some sort of rough guidelines for how much one needs to take in to stay on top of things, and also just to be a better writer, but I’ve never figured that out.

I keep reading, though. Sometimes a lot. Sometimes a little. And much of it is interesting.

So, with that in mind, I decided I’d share a short reading list of links I’ve encountered recently that I think are interesting. While I’ve encountered them recently, they may not all be very recently written.… Continue reading →