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Sci on the Fly
April 6, 2026
Surviving and Thriving during the AAAS STPF Executive Branch Finalist Week
Congratulations on making it to finalist week! Finalist week can be very busy and hectic, particularly as you request and navigate interviews with host offices you are interested in. My goal with this post is not to overwhelm you, but to offer several strategies for starting finalist week off on the...
Sci on the Fly
August 13, 2017
Finding the Right Fit: How to Survive STPF Legislative Placement Interviews
Note: This post is intended to help incoming legislative branch fellows prepare for interviews with congressional offices. Perhaps it is your first job out of grad school or maybe you are contemplating switching to a new career in science policy—a...
Sci on the Fly
August 19, 2017
Shadowing an Industry? Effects of an Eclipse on Solar Power in the U.S.
Zoologists, astrologers, and eclipse chasers are all preparing for the event on August 21st, the first of its kind in 99 years—a total eclipse of the sun, when the moon will block all direct sunlight in a swath across the United States for upward of two...
Sci on the Fly
August 31, 2017
Private Industry in the 21st Century Space Race
The work of governements has typically been associated with human led endeavors into space, to the moon, and beyond. For example, man’s first trip to the moon was headed by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the...
Sci on the Fly
November 3, 2017
What can electric bikes tell us about the future of U.S. manufacturing?
By the late 1880's there was no doubt that America's bicycle craze was in full swing. Bicycles revolutionized personal transport and introduced an unimaginable amount of freedom and mobility to Americans, especially women. New technological advances during...
Sci on the Fly
December 22, 2017
Speaking Fijan and A Guide to Talanoa at COP23
Bula! Willkommen! Welcome to the 23rd Convention of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) -- led for the first time by a small Island nation, Fiji, but held in Germany. The cold, rainy German winter days...
Sci on the Fly
March 21, 2018
The BRAIN Initiative and the Need for Animal Research
Leaders from the National Institutes of Health ( NIH) on February 26 presented exciting updates on the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies ® (BRAIN) Initiative in a congressional briefing sponsored by the American Brain Coalition, the...
Sci on the Fly
March 24, 2018
A Tune-Up for the U.S. Innovation Engine
A common mantra of economists and politicians is that “innovation is the engine of U.S. economic growth,” and one of the best fuels for that engine is investments in research and development (R&D). One study estimated that for every one percent increase in R&D...
Sci on the Fly
April 2, 2018
It’s Time for Data Ethics Conversations at Your Dinner Table
With 2.5 quintillion records of data created every day, people are being defined by how they travel, surf the Internet, eat, and live their lives. We are in the midst of a “data revolution,” where individuals and organizations can store and analyze massive...
Sci on the Fly
April 9, 2018
The Spice of Life and Death
There’s a new player on the market, and the consequences of using it could be deadly. Sometimes referred to as Spice, Fake Weed, or K2, synthetic cannabinoids bank on consumers equating their “all-natural” products with cannabis-derived products, despite...
Sci on the Fly
April 23, 2018
Is 100% Renewable the Best Way to Decarbonize?
Scientists broadly agree that humans must cut greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the effects of climate change. But they definitely do not agree on how to do that. An example of how extreme these disagreements can become is the debate between Professor Mark...
