Why I'm Here (blogging)

Hello! My name is Teresa. I'm living in Houston, TX and I'm a 3rd year student working on my PhD. Having gone through changing labs, I've had to think hard about what I'm still doing here. 

For me, a significant part of the reason is very simple: I think biology and life science is really cool! Not just my project, but REALLY understanding how does a cell or organism work? Why would it do X? Cells and organisms seem to be so much smarter than we think they are.

Biology is also a really cool field because things change DRAMATICALLY fairly frequently. It was only in 1993 that we first discovered microRNAs and had any evidence for RNA having a regulatory role.  Now, people are looking at how to measure a single microRNA (see current Nature Nanotechnology issue).

So, recently, instead of just following those articles that Pubmed and/or Google email to me that are relevant to my thesis project, I've made a conscious effort to look at big journals and make sure that I am staying up to speed with the coolest new and weird science and techniques out there that might revolutionize my field and how we ask and answer questions. 

In addition I plan to write about policy changes that play a role in our lives as scientists and also address other relevant news.