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We have all experienced nervousness before a social engagement at some point. Perhaps you had anxiety before speaking in front of a crowd or butterflies in your stomach in anticipation of a first date. As social beings, it is normal human behavior to care about what others think of you. But what happens when you care too much? This is the unfortunate reality for individuals who suffer from social anxiety disorder. Remember that feeling you get before you public speak? Imagine feeling that every time you interact with somebody new.

We highlighted awe-inspiring women in STEM all month long for Women's History Month. We certainly loved learning about all these amazing women (and many more we didn’t have enough weekdays to include!). We love seeing these women push against the boundaries of gender bias in STEM and refuse to be held back.

“If skeletons are hard, how do our bodies grow skeletons?”

“What opportunities are there for high school students to get research experience?”

“What are good and bad things that can affect our brains?”

“If the sun is behind the moon, why doesn’t the moon burn up and why don’t astronauts die?”

“Do you ever find being in research frustrating? What excites you about science?”

In part three of the Emperor of all Maladies, the treatment of cancer begins to shift from the previously seen extremes to being more patient centered. There is a rift in the field of surgery as surgeons such as Dr. Crile and Dr. Keynes begin to question the radical and disfiguring surgeries relied upon by an entire generation of surgeons to treat cancer.

Black History Month is a time dedicated to celebrating the contributions of Black people to the United States. Originally beginning in 1926 as a week-long event, it extended to a full month in 1976.  All February long, we celebrated Black scientists and their significant contributions to science. Here is some more information about the scientists we shared on social media, and a few extra scientists too!

The second part of Mukherjee’s compelling biography of cancer details the early stages of a war against cancer. The section begins by introducing a new protagonist in our story, Mary Lasker, the “fairy godmother” of cancer research. With friends in high places and an insatiable motivation to pour more money into battling diseases, she was the perfect teammate for Sydney Farber, who was looking to expand his own cancer research efforts.

Science communication careers are varied and can be challenging to define. The UC Davis Graduate Student Association (GSA) in association with Science Says hosted a science communication career panel to increase awareness and offer opportunities to connect with professionals in a variety of fields.

We featured Drs. Grayson Doucette, Brittany Anderton and Alison Van Eenennaam representing scicomm careers in policy, digital media and academia, respectively.

What makes cheese, cheese? Or milk, milk? How does naming food products create such controversy that it inspires lawsuits?

Social media can be a powerful tool for good, and for bad, especially in science. It offers the opportunity to connect with those in and outside your field across the world, and lets scientists share visually appealing aspects of their work like photography from fieldwork or microscopy images.

The book begins with the story of Carla Reed, a 31-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of three who experiences headaches, strange bruising, white gums, and exhaustion. The author learns about Carla as he is heading into work at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. His beeper informs him to see a patient with leukemia when he arrives. Leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, is “breathtaking” with regard to its pace and acuity. Ten months into his two-year fellowship in oncology, the author already feels drained and inured to the death around him.