Phubbing

Hello World!
I hope you are well and that you are not phubbing. What is phubbing? It is essentially choosing to interact with your phone in the presence of another person, instead of that person. We have all done it. We have all had it done to us. It is not just annoying, but research (yay Science!) shows that it is harmful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phubbing

https://time.com/5216853/what-is-phubbing/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jasp.12506

It is ironic how something meant to connect us can make us feel more isolated.

It is also an example of careers in science! Love technology? Interested in Behavior? You can combine those in the study of human systems integration, human factors, or human machine interface studies. You can read a wide variety of interesting articles detailing the interaction between humans and computers- from our buying influences to our reward mechanisms to our feelings of inadequacy when we check in on social media too often.  https://www.journals.elsevier.com/computers-in-human-behavior

It isn't all bad of course, there are positive outcomes as well, from improving the physical interaction elements (making things easier and more enjoyable to use, read, comprehend, hear, etc.) to the creation of something beautiful and useful, there are plenty of things to be studied, learned, understood, and applied! https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01449290500330331

I hope you have a wonderful phub free day!

:)

the Apple of my eye

Hello World!
Today I gave a lecture on how to start STEM programs as a past mentor in the TechWomen program.  It was so much fun to reach women around the world. I am truly grateful to be apart of this group. I will share the material in future posts. Today, I will talk about apples. The other weekend I went apple picking!

It was so much fun being out in nature, connecting to the present and the past. I grew up with a tradition of going to a place called Apple Hill. Apples, ciders, pies, donuts, shakes, dumplings, you name it, Apple Hill has it all. But I never went actually apple picking. That seems to be more the thing where I live now.  I honestly wondered if my interest was due to the perfect autumn instagram pics displayed in articles all over the internet or some other reason. Was it good for the environment or was I contributing to agritourism in the worst way? And of course, what is the Science of apples??

I did a little research and found the following!

Apple Facts- such as there are 7,500 varieties of apples grown around the world (how about them apples) https://web.extension.illinois.edu/apples/facts.cfm

Apple picking is good for brain and body as you connect with others and get out in nature. 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/minding-the-body/201409/five-healthy-science-y-reasons-go-apple-picking and https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/5-science-backed-reasons-go-apple-picking-weekend-ncna803591

The importance of recognizing where our apples come from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-work-is-like-for-apple-pickers-180957056/

Robots that vacuum apples off the tree, potentially upsetting the apple cart so to speak https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-an-apple-picking-robot-means-for-the-future-of-farm-workers/

Specifics about the robotics of apple picking https://www.geekwire.com/2019/apple-picking-robots-gear-u-s-debut-washington-state/ (So much STEM in this article!)

The history of apple picking https://timeline.com/apple-picking-tradition-fc6b3879bd81

And even some art!

https://usdawatercolors.nal.usda.gov/pom/home.xhtml

If you want to study apples, you'd go into pomology. which is

"Pomology (from latin pomum (fruit) + -logy) is a branch of botany that studies and cultivates fruit. The denomination fruticulture—introduced from Romance languages (from Latin fructus and cultura)—is also used. ... One involved in the science of pomology is called a pomologist."

If you went into this field, you might work on genetics, computational science, biochemistry or more.

Apples are cross bred, so that a sweet but mushy apple and a crisp but not sweet apple become a sweet and crisp apple... how crazy is that? I really had no idea that apples could be so complicated. 

So there you have it! I greatly enjoyed both apple picking and learning more about apples in general. If you are able, I encourage you to do so too!

:)