The art and science of baking

Hi there, friends. Remember when I gave a little teaser about my two new clients? I can now share that they are….drumroll please…Mass General and the American Chemical Society. They are both historic institutions that use science to improve and extend people’s lives.

I’m thrilled that I can have a small part in helping these research institutions use content marketing to connect with a wider audience on a deeper level.

Scientists, listen up: When more people know your story, they’ll see you as an authority and they’ll value your work. This is especially important for scientific organizations because when the public understands science, they’ll support funding it and they’ll get behind policy changes based on scientific evidence.

Many folks around Boston already respect Mass General for its amazing patient care. But did you know that it’s much more than a top-rated hospital? Mass General is also home to an amazing team of researchers who are working to understand how our bodies work so that we can all stay as healthy as possible.

I’ve also started working on branded content for C&EN, (Chemical & Engineering News), which is a weekly trade magazine published by the American Chemical Society. This month I moderated a couple of webinars, which was a welcome change of pace from my usual research-write-edit mode of creating content.

Of course, I also continued my main gig—writing stories about science and technology.

I wrote about Edwin Hubble, a legendary astronomer who expanded our worldview by proving that other galaxies existed outside of our home in the Milky Way and describing the “redshift” phenomenon that helps scientists understand how our universe is expanding. This fundamental astronomy knowledge came in handy for a forthcoming article that I wrote about the “edge” of the universe. (Hint: there is no edge.)

Northrop Grumman published an article I wrote about the science of baking. This was a dream assignment that brought me right back to my teen years. In high school, my favorite class was chemistry and my after school job was baking, first at a cafe inside an antique store and later at a local bread company. I always thought baking felt like a science experiment. Thanksgiving is the perfect time for this story, and I urge you to use cold butter, work quickly (don’t let your batter sit on the counter for more than a minute unless the recipe specifies it), triple check oven temperatures, and avoid over-mixing your dough (a strong gluten network will make your desserts too tough). These tips aren’t just based on my own kitchen experiments, science backs me up!

This week I worked on a story for IDEXX about the seasons of water testing. The irony was REAL as I’m recovering from an illness that I got after spending two days at an indoor water park.

November is only halfway done, but I had so much news to share that I couldn’t wait until the end of the month. Thanks for reading. I hope you all keep acting like a scientist: skeptical, intelligent, and curious about everything around you.