Yes, I've been kinda quiet lately, but don't worry, I haven't joined a mutant race of verbal washing machines. I've been busy finishing up the first in a series of radio pieces about biotech. When did you become a science reporter, you ask? The day WFAE said they needed one.
In many ways, not having a slew of science degrees has really helped my science reporting. For instance, I'll never use the phrase DeNovo Sequencing without a pithy real-life analogy to keep science-phobes from turning off the radio. And I'm also oddly delighted to learn that enzymes are what make our laundry detergent work (hence the washing machine solo I'm recording here).
Not knowing all that much about science definitely requires lots of research and quite a bit of pondering - I've stayed up late many nights wondering how the heck a vaccine can get inside a soybean - but knowing more about how the world works is always fun, even if it does involve reaching deep into my brain for those bio notes I've long since forgotten.
* Amusing side note: our new high-efficiency washing machine doesn't make that "whooosh" sound I was hoping for. Instead, it makes a seriously pathetic trickle with a bit of a hum. I had to loop that sucker five times to make it sound like a washing machine. Damn you technology.
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