What a poet taught me about sitting still
Building a mindfulness practice into a busy grad student schedule
One year ago or so, many of us found ourselves suddenly with more time that we ever knew we had. With no commute, no social engagements, and little to do outside the house, we were left alone with ourselves. Perhaps for the first time, or at least, for me, for the first time in a […]
The perfect recipe doesn’t exist
Making connections between baking and experimental materials science
In March 2020, a breadmaking epidemic struck the world. Legions of Youtube gurus, bloggers, and social media users began posting their recipes and adventures in breadmaking, especially sourdough, the type of bread which uses a live starter culture. The creators of xkcd even demystified this phenomenon, implying that coronavirus and bread yeast are symbiotic due […]
From procrastination to productivity
How I Found Motivation in a Remote Semester
A few months after receiving the exciting news that I’d been admitted to MIT, I was informed that my semester of grad school would be fully online. Little did I know that it would turn out much worse than I could’ve ever anticipated. Don’t get me wrong, remote learning has many advantages. There is no […]
The right roomie for you
How asking the right questions can help you find your people
My freshman year of college, I lived in a dorm with five other girls and one bathroom. It could have been a disaster, but by a stroke of luck we lived together incredibly well. Not everyone had such a fortunate random draw—one friend from down the hall still talks about the “mold farm” her roommate […]
Born in the USA!
A foreign American’s journey back to the US
Well, the truth is, that’s all I was: just born in the USA. I’d never set foot on US soil since moving away at the young age of 3 months, when my family’s work relocation period ended and they moved back to France. Later, I would find myself growing up in Israel for the greater […]
