Los Angeles freelance science writer and editor
by Janice Nigro Stony corals fool us. We see only a big mountain of what appears to be lifeless rock before us, when in fact the mountain of rock is growing daily (in healthy reefs) due to the hard work of the macro animals and their algal symbionts, zooxanthellae, living inside. Scientists have long known... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro Summer, sommer, l’estate…It’s a poetic word in most languages in most hemispheres summoning up the best of memories from childhood. For me, my memories are of spending all day at the swimming pool, Good Humor bars, and my birthday. As an adult, summer has become the season for art festivals. I have... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro I have never written a scientific review. Admitting that is like saying I never achieved expert status in anything as a scientist. It’s partly true. Many journals solicit review articles only from so-called experts in a field. I have simply never been asked. But my training was to focus on generating data... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro Blah blah blah...more studies performed to investigate gender disparity in science. We research the issues, we write about them, we even have to answer questions in our grants about them. But is it just talk or do we act on some of our rhetoric? I have had some of my own questionable... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro A highly successful scientist friend joked recently that he still doesn’t recognize much in his original drafts of manuscripts, even after thirty years of working consistently with a certain collaborator. Together they can boast of hundreds of articles reporting cutting edge science and hundreds of thousands of citations. After so much time, experience, and... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro As scientists, we are in the business of solving puzzles. We think of the puzzle and then work sometimes over a life time to find a solution. Most puzzles we simply do not have the time to answer. Then there are those puzzles that intrigue us, but the technology to answer them simply does not exist.... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro I went to a work interview by metro rail this week. In most big cities around the world, even in the USA, no one would bother to make such a statement. Maybe you wouldn’t want anyone to know! More likely, everyone, or most everyone, uses public transportation there. In Los Angeles, not so... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro I was shocked once when my PhD advisor ran into the lab to read out loud the first sentence of my first draft of a manuscript. A nightmare moment-hearing your own words read in front of a group of extraordinarily talented and accomplished people. He read it and then said why he... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro I am not a surfer, an actress, or a musician. But here I am-a scientist-three years into making a life in southern California. Yes, in LA LA Land. LA is a great city to be in, but it is not all that easy to live here. The city is big, expansive, and cars... Continue Reading →
it's not what you think by Janice Nigro Dreams have a funny way of incorporating events in real time with subconscious ones. A scientist friend once told me she was dreaming about making vats of a sulfur-smelling chemical solution that is commonly used in biological experiments (dithiothreitol if you are a biologist). When she woke... Continue Reading →
Janice Nigro 