by Caroline Crocker | Jun 3, 2025 | Science
A simple sugar. Several of these attached make a polysaccharide, like starch. The little balls represent amino acids. Those attach, the chain curls up, and the final result is a functional machine. The four railroad cars of DNA are guanine, cytosine, thymine, and...
by Caroline Crocker | May 27, 2025 | Science, Teaching
Kitchen sponges. Those who use them love them. Those of us who are scientists trained in microbiology don’t. Why not? Wet Places are often Germy The simple answer is: because they remain wet. Bacteria love to grow in damp places. During COVID, I had my students...
by Caroline Crocker | May 20, 2025 | Mybooks, Science
Are scientists made or born? Obviously, career scientists do need training, but why do they even bother? It certainly isn’t for the money! I can’t guess why anyone else did it, but I can explore why I became a scientist. Fashion? It was not as a fashion...
by Caroline Crocker | May 14, 2025 | Science
Science by a Scientist: On Molecules I recently wrote about atoms, the fundamental unit of matter. You can find that here. The article may have caused you to wonder how fewer than 100 types of naturally occurring atoms form the basis of all we see. The answer is...
by Caroline Crocker | May 13, 2025 | Faith, Science, Teaching
My eldest granddaughter recently told me she has chemistry homework. Although she understands my quirks, I opted not to geek out on her by enthusing about how cool atoms are. I am, after all, a scientist. But, I’m telling you: they’re seriously amazing....
by Caroline Crocker | May 6, 2025 | Science, Teaching
My mother, who is 90, pricked herself while sewing. not a disaster, but, as a result, the finger became infected…and we went to the doctor. He prescribed antibiotics and gave her a tetanus booster. According to a recent study, that may be unnecessary for people...