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Bike Lane Warriors in New York

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on December 6, 2015| 2 Comments »

It seems to take a long time to make streets safer for bicyclists. Nicole Freedman made a great start in Boston in 2011, but riders are still being hit in 2015. At the Atlantic magazine’s “City Lab” blog, Sarah Goodyear writes about the latest techniques of vigilantes working to make New York City’s streets safer.

“They showed up on the street on the morning of October 7 — 25 orange traffic cones marking the bike lane that runs northbound on Chrystie Street in lower Manhattan. Several had sunflowers poking up out of their necks.

“The cones were the work of an anonymous group that announced its intentions on Twitter, calling itself the ‘Transformation Department.’ …

“The Chrystie Street bike lanes — one on the northbound side of the street and one on the southbound — are one of the city’s main commuter routes, providing key access to and from the Manhattan Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Manhattan. Thousands of people ride the route everyday …

“But the infrastructure remains painfully inadequate in the eyes of many advocates for safer streets. …

“Installing flexible bollards to keep cars out of the bike lane would be one example of an improvement that would not require a street redesign and that could be implemented relatively quickly, says [activist David ‘Paco’] Abraham. Instead, even maintaining the status quo has proven difficult.

“An NYC DOT spokesperson said in an email that a proposal for a two-way bike lane [is] under review. …

“The makeshift safety cone installations are the most visible manifestation of the frustration that advocates and bike commuters like Abraham feel over the disconnect between the city’s stated policies and its actions on the street. ‘We’re tired of seeing people injured,’ says Abraham. …

“The Department of Transformation has clearly captured the imagination of some New Yorkers with its efforts. This week they set up a GoFundMe page to pay for more cones and raised $1,000 in a single day. Abraham says the ever-growing community of people who ride bikes — and more broadly, of New Yorkers who want the streets to be safe for all users — no longer will be satisfied with a minimalist approach to bike infrastructure.”

More here.

Photo: Streetfilms
A cyclist uses the Chrystie Street bike lane in lower Manhattan. 

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Painted Rock Gets a Blog

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 5, 2015| 2 Comments »

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Feeling the cold setting in?  Well here’s a summery scene on New Shoreham’s famed Painted Rock, one of my favorite pictures of the island’s constantly changing bulletin board. Wish I knew who the artist was.

John is behind the new tumblr blog featuring the Painted Rock in as many iterations as folks can dig out of the albums and send along.

Here’s what John had to say about it on the island e-board:

“Thanks for the kind comments and great pics submitted to paintedrockbi.tumblr.com The ‘mini cooper rock’ and the ‘hamburger rock’ are especially cool.

“There was also a question about me and the reason for the blog, so here goes.

“About 20 years ago my mother painted the rock early one morning to celebrate my sister turning 16 and my turning 21. Our summer home is a only short walk down Mohegan Trail from the rock, but if you took careful note of our ages, you might guess that my sister and I were not really morning people.

“So by the time we had rolled out of bed and made it down the street to look, it was already painted over. No photos were taken, but I know it’s there buried under all the layers. Now I am a parent, and it kind of reminds me of the many things we do for our children that no one ever really sees, but we keep doing anyhow.

“For many years I’ve been thinking about how best to document the many cool rock paintings. And last week I finally got around to doing something about it; hopefully the page will continue to get submissions and we can save the many small memories behind each coat of paint.”

Check it out: http://paintedrockbi.tumblr.com/

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Run a Marathon While Knitting

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 4, 2015| 4 Comments »

I liked a recent story by Steve Annear at the Boston Globe. It was about a student who was planning to run the New York Marathon — while knitting — to raise money for medical research.

“At first,” writes Annear, “the idea of knitting a scarf while running the length of the New York City Marathon was merely a joke shared between Meredith Parmalee and her former employer, We Are Knitters.

“But as the Northeastern University senior continued to ponder the concept, she realized she could use the attention-grabbing feat to bring awareness to, and raise funds for, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. …

“ ‘It helps distract me from thinking about running . . . and my legs hurting and my arms hurting. It helps me keep my mind off of it.’

“Parmalee, 22, is being sponsored by We Are Knitters, where she did a co-op job for school, to run with the charity group Team in Training. … As she jaunts through New York Sunday, Parmalee will use a technique called ‘finger knitting,’ rather than two long needles, to weave a long scarf.

“To finger knit, Parmalee starts by making a slipknot around her index finger, and then loops the yarn around each of her three other fingers, skipping the thumb. She then brings the ‘yarn tail’ back around each finger, so there are two loops on each, and slips the second loop off each finger, starting with the index finger.

“She repeats the process, slowly binding the yarn together in tight knots. Making sure she threads the yarn correctly between each appendage requires a certain level of hand-eye coordination, but it also helps Parmalee keep a steady rhythm while she runs. …

“Parmalee said the plan is to have supporters at designated mile markers along the race route so that she can replenish her yarn supply.”

More about Parmalee at the Boston Globe, here. More about about We Are Knitters, here.

Photo: We Are Knitters
Meredith Parmalee plans to use a finger-knitting technique while making a scarf during the New York City Marathon.

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Story Time at the Laundromat

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 3, 2015| 4 Comments »

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Suzanne and Erik’s 3-year-old is an expert on washing machines. He checks them out wherever he goes. Did you know, they have washing machines in hotels in Miami?

When in doubt about a way to entertain a grownup, he suggests doing a wash. And sometimes, when my husband is babysitting, the two of them go to the laundromat and investigate what cycle each machine is in. With the top-loaders (no windows) it can be tricky to get a sense of what is going on inside, so my grandson puts his ear to the tub and tells my husband what he concludes.

I’m not sure what he would make of story time at the laundromat, as reported by National Public Radio (NPR), but I suspect he would find the stories intrusive for serious work.

For other children, it could be the gateway to heaven.

Andrew Boryga reports at NPR that a group of friends at Oxford University is “developing a combination childhood education and laundry services center, a concept they’ve dubbed a ‘Libromat.’

“The five team members have extensive backgrounds in childhood education, and they pooled their talents to apply for the 2015 Hult Prize, a $1 million award for young social entrepreneurs tackling some of the world’s biggest problems. This year’s challenge: provide self-sustainable education to impoverished urban areas. …

“According to the team’s research, mothers and caregivers in South Africa can spend a whopping nine hours per week hand-washing dirty clothes. ‘That’s one whole working day,’ team member David Jeffery, 23, says. So they aimed to solve two problems at once and teach mothers effective ways to read books to their infants in the amount of time it takes to complete a wash and spin cycle. And with the money collected from the laundry, they could keep this up for load after load. …

“In interviews conducted after the pilot, [Team member Nicholas] Dowdall was thrilled to learn that many of the mothers believed their relationships with their children had improved. Some even said their children were asking for story time every evening before bed.

“One participant, Ntomboxolo, 34, a mother who attended the sessions with her infant daughter, says, ‘I am a working mother, so more often than not I am tired. But now, I make time to share something in a book with my daughter every night.’ Ntomboxolo also says she saw changes in her daughter’s behavior: ‘There was not much communication before. I see her drawing closer to me.’ ”

More at NPR, here.

Photo: Justin Woods/Libromat
Parents do laundry and get advice on books to their kids.

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Food Truck Benefits Folks Who Could Use a Nice Meal

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

In October, Tim Faulkner of ecoRI wrote that for the local celebration of National Food Day, “there was plenty to celebrate about Rhode Island’s food industry. During a downtown food festival, leaders and pioneers in the local food movement explained how they are connecting Rhode Island’s restaurants and culinary arts sector with farming, education, environmentalism, entrepreneurism and social justice.

“This effort was best demonstrated by Julius Searight, founder of a new food truck and mobile soup kitchen. Searight’s Food4Good held its grand opening during the Oct. 24 Providence Food Day Festival, selling chicken waffle sandwiches and baked potatoes. Proceeds from food sales are expected to fund about 400 meals a week for the needy.

“Searight, 26, grew up as a foster child in Providence and graduated from Johnson & Wales University in 2013. He got the idea for the hybrid food operation after volunteering at local nonprofits and wondering what it was like for his biological mother to get fed.

“ ‘I really just saw the need to give back to those in need,’ he said.

More here.

Photo: Tim Faulkner/ecoRI News
Julius Searight is the founder of Food4Good food truck and mobile soup kitchen. Every $5 dollars earned buys two meals for people who need them.

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Saving Third World Babies with Blue Light

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 1, 2015| 2 Comments »

In the Boston Globe‘s new “Stat” offering, Melissa Bailey has a story about a Boston doctor’s cost-effective bed for treating jaundiced African babies with blue-light.

“The invention looks like a space-age bassinet: A basket of reflective material, covered with canvas dotted with blue LED lights. It aims to treat an ancient problem. Jaundice — an excess of bilirubin that turns the skin yellow — kills 100,000 babies per year, many in developing countries. But exposure to plain blue light can cure it.

“The device, called the Bili-Hut, was inspired by inventor Donna Brezinski’s experience as a neonatal doctor at Boston Children’s Hospital. One day, about ten years ago, she was caring for a pair of jaundiced newborn twins at a community hospital that partnered with Children’s — but found only one available phototherapy lamp, the standard treatment for severe cases. When she looked into buying another lamp, she was shocked by the $4,000 price tag.

“Sewing together simple materials at her kitchen table in Winchester, she set about creating a cheaper and more portable alternative that could be used in the developing world. She came up with a bassinet that reflects blue light around the baby’s body. She started a company, Little Sparrows Technologies, to produce and distribute the device. It weighs less than three pounds, can be rolled up to fit inside a FedEx tube, and costs only $250 to make.

“While the device awaits clearance from the Federal Drug Administration for use in the United States, a rural hospital in Burundi has been testing out a prototype and has reported promising results.

“Dr. Alyssa Pfister, a pediatrician at Kibuye Hope Hospital in east central Burundi, found the Bili-Hut on the Internet and e-mailed Brezinski. The inventor sent a free prototype to the hospital, which started using it in September. …

“Brezinski said the device provides the same intensity and quality of light recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and used by other blankets and lamps approved by the FDA. She has tested it on synthetic skin samples and expects to hear back from the FDA within 18 months.” More here.

Interestingly, John’s company, Optics for Hire, was involved in a successful device for treating babies in the developing world called Firefly. See it here.

Photo: Alissa Ambrose/Stat

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A Community Where Women Rule

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 30, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This story from the NY Times is about a matrilineal society near Lugu Lake in Yunnan Province, China.  Amy Qin writes that the area’s beauty and the colorful female-centric traditions are a tourist draw, but once again, a culture and a language are threatened.

“A young man clad in a white shirt, black pants and red belt suddenly scrambled up the side of a log house and slid feet first into a second-story latticed window.

” ‘This is how Mosuo men would climb into the “flower room” of the women,’ Ke Mu explained to visitors as the triumphant swain stuck his head out the window of the flower room, or private bedroom, and waved his hat.

“It was morning in the lakeside village of Luoshui here in southwestern China. On a narrow side street, dusty from hotel construction nearby, a group of young workers, including Ms. Ke, 18, was preparing for another day of cultural pageantry at the Mosuo Folk Museum. …

“A fascination with such traditions has led to a booming tourism industry in this once-isolated region. …

“Visitors can watch residents perform traditional dances in colorful costumes and can take boat rides on the lake as young Mosuo men serenade them with love songs in Naru, the Mosuo language.

“All around the village are signs that read, ‘Welcome to the Kingdom of Daughters.’

“Lively as its traditions seem, however, the Mosuo community is facing a crisis. As its interaction with the wider society increases, residents and outside experts fear that the group’s unique cultural practices are facing a grave threat.

“Experts say that the population of Mosuo in the Lugu Lake region, estimated to be about 40,000, is decreasing as more young people marry outside the group or move to larger cities for work. And without a written language, Mosuo culture is particularly vulnerable to disappearing.” Read about some curious customs here.

Photo: Adam Dean for The New York Times
Mosuo women in traditional outfits danced for Han Chinese tourists at a show in Luoshui. 

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New Pictures from New England

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 29, 2015| 2 Comments »

A few photos.

The Barrow Bookstore featured a Thoreau quote on its kale-decorated book barrow at Thanksgiving: “My Thanksgiving is perpetual … for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.” This shop off Main Street is the place to go for gently used and out-of-print books.

A yellow rose was blooming on Beacon Hill as late as November 19.

Fort Point Arts has a new show by six contemporary mosaic artists using a variety of techniques and materials. One favorite example: Aesop’s wisdom about the fox, the grapes, and the crow, rendered as a mirror.

Finally, no matter how many times I have walked up and down School Street in Boston, I have failed until now to zero in on the reason it is called School Street. A Latin school was established there in 1635, before the founding of Harvard even, and many notables attended over the years. You should be able to read these names on the plaque in the sidewalk: Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Charles Bullfinch, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Boston Latin is still going strong, but in a new location.

I love that the original Boston Lain was teaching Latin and Greek, languages I once knew a bit. I am also reminded that those languages were taught at outdoor hedge schools in 18th Century Ireland, when the English were blocking education by Catholics.

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Mega Skate Park Opens

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 28, 2015| 2 Comments »

Photo: Jesse Costa/WBUR
Workers lay cement for the Lynch Family Skate Park in Cambridge, Mass.

Other than Asakiyume, I didn’t know any daredevil types who skateboard. But at Thanksgiving, David was telling a young parkour artist at my house about his early years doing skateboarding — before getting into tamer events like double marathons.

Whew. I do appreciate being exposed to worlds I am never likely to explore on my own.

Here is with a WBUR story on the new Lynch Family Skate Park in Cambridge, Mass.

“The $3 million, 40,000-square-foot facility, located in East Cambridge underneath ramps to the Zakim Bridge, is the first skate park of its size in the Boston area.

“Organizers say the skate park is designed for skaters of all skills levels as well as athletes in wheelchairs. It features three bowls reminiscent of empty swimming pools (the largest is 11 and a half feet deep) and a street skating area designed to mimic public locations like sidewalks and plazas — complete with stairs, ledges and other common street furniture.

“ ‘Skaters that like street are going to find enough street-type elements to satisfy their wants and needs, and then the same thing goes for the folks that like to ride transition in the bowl area,’ said Doug Russell, the skate park’s project manager. …

“[Renata] von Tscharner, of the Charles River Conservancy, said the skate park will not only be ‘a home for the skaters’ but also an attraction for the city.

“ ‘It’s wonderful to watch skaters,’ von Tscharner said. ‘It’s like watching fire, constantly changing [and] flowing. So, it will be a great destination also for tourists to come here and see what the skaters are up to.’

“In addition to skateboarders, the skate park will accommodate BMX riders, rollerbladers and scooter riders. The park also has viewing areas for spectators, and organizers say the facility will be used to host community events and professional skating competitions. The public outdoor park will be open year-round. Organizers say skaters will likely still get use out of the skate park even in the winter months since a large portion of the park is covered by the highway.”

More here.

PS: A parkour athlete and videographer of my recent acquaintance  …

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Shop Local on Saturday

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 27, 2015| 2 Comments »

If you are a consumer these days, after Black Friday comes Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday. I do love Giving Tuesday as there are so many worthy causes to choose from, and you don’t have to go farther than your computer to donate. This year I am torn between a food bank I admire and my favorite refugee nonprofit, although I do love the Granola Project. Maybe I will do something for all three.

But tomorrow is Saturday, and I am headed down to Providence to help Erik with the kids while Suzanne has a Luna & Stella birthstone-jewelry trunk show at Talulah Cooper Boutique on Traverse St, just off Wickenden (12 pm to 5 pm).

While we are on the subject of Luna & Stella (the parent of this blog) you should know that now through Cyber Monday (November 30, 2015) only, you can get 40% off all earrings, plus $20 off orders over $100 anywhere on the website — with code SHOPSMALL.

This season, Suzanne is into mixing her jewelry with some vintage lockets she has found. The ones in the picture are all from the Greater Providence area, long known for jewelry making.

Photo below: Rhode Island Foundation
A Luna & Stella trunk show pictured in a profile at “Our Backyard,” which features Rhode Island people and businesses, here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wishing You a Good Thanksgiving

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 26, 2015| 4 Comments »

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Dear Readers,

I’m wishing you a good Thanksgiving, with lots of laughter and no stresses inherited from past generations or bygone holidays — just relaxing,  enjoying the people around you. and eating well.

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Making Time to Dance

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on November 25, 2015| 4 Comments »

Cosmopolitan‘s Heather Wood Rudulph recently presented an interview with Lisa Mara about the path that led to Mara starting a dance company.

“Mara, 29, founded DanceWorks Boston as a creative outlet for people just like her: skilled dancers who also have full-time jobs and never pursued dance as a career. A handful of friends dancing together turned into hundreds of dancers, a second DanceWorks location in New York, and a new career that marries her love of business and her passion for the art form.

Mara: “Since I could walk, I was really active — I played soccer, tennis, I swam, I skied. I kind of went kicking and screaming to my first dance class. I didn’t like to join things when I was younger unless a friend was doing it. But I was dancing around the house 24/7 in my older sisters’ dance costumes. …

“In seventh grade, I was hugely influenced by Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and *NSYNC. I learned all the dances and sent in an audition tape to MTV’s TRL. I was asked to dance on this Britney Spears show. I think in a dream world I thought I wanted to be her backup dancer, but it was also my first taste of what these glamorous Hollywood red-carpet events are like. It’s like hurry up and wait. You never see the celebrities. And everyone hates it. I was like, This is kinda not fun.

“I went to the Newhouse School at Syracuse University and studied PR. … I fell into PR because I thought that’s what I would be the best at.

“Syracuse has several options for trained dancers. I chose the student-run organization, DanceWorks. After a fairly competitive, strenuous audition, I joined the company my freshman year. By sophomore year, I was on the executive board, and by junior year, I was the co-director. Everything was run like a business. I choreographed dances, organized workshops for up to 300 dancers, led auditions, ordered costumes, managed budgets. I wanted a hand in everything.”

After several years in PR, Mara moved back to Boston and thought about what she wanted to do next.

“I had a network of about five Syracuse alumni in Boston. I said, ‘Hey, I’m thinking of starting a DanceWorks Boston. Would you join if I did?’ They said, ‘Yeah, where do I sign?’  …

“The target audience I was reaching was high-caliber dancers who wanted to continue dancing and choreographing into their adult lives. Many of our dancers have full-time jobs. Many of our dancers are dance teachers, but this is their opportunity to dance for themselves.”

Read more at Cosmopolitan, here.

Funny thing: I myself went to the Newhouse School, not in PR but television and radio. One assignment was to interview a classmate in the TV studio. I asked a classmate who had always been a ballet dancer but had stopped dancing to come to grad school. I interviewed her about dance.

After we were finished and were walking away she said to me, “Wow, this interview really makes me want to find a dance company in Syracuse and keep dancing.”

Photo: Joyelle West

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His Dream: An Urban Farm in This Rundown House

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »

At ecoRI, Frank Carini has a story about an unusual ambition.

“Julian Forgue’s life, at least his professional one, revolves around food,” writes Carini. “He owns the popular restaurant Julians on Broadway [in Providence], just opened Pizza J a street over on Westminster, operates a catering business and has a food bus. The foodie would like to add a vertical garden/indoor farming operation to his food pyramid. …

“The longtime restaurateur even has a piece of property in mind: the former Head Start school on Almy Street, at the corner of Meader Street.

“The derelict three-story building has been wasting away for years, but thanks to the vision of city officials and ambitious urban farmers the pavement surrounding the 90,000-square foot property has been growing food for the past three years. Forgue would like to do the same inside. …

“Forgue said he has been intrigued by the idea of vertical farming for about a decade. … [He] has had very preliminary discussions with a city official who didn’t shoot down the idea. That’s a start.

“ ‘It’s not necessarily about making money, but drawing action around growing more local food in inner-city neighborhoods,’ Forgue said. ‘It’s about the action of proof and showing projects like this can be done. There’s energy out there for this. We can’t just keep opening up restaurants and bars.’ ” More here.

The article was made possible with support from the Horsley Witten Group. Did want the same piece of information that I felt was missing? What happened to the Head Start school?

Photo:  Joanna Detz/ecoRI News
A Providence restaurant owner would like to see this vacant building at the corner of Almy and Meader streets turned into a vertical farm. An urban farmer is already growing food outside the former Head Start school.

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Wealthy Mexicans in New York Helping Countrymen

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on November 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I learn some really cool things from the Christian Science Monitor. (I’m on their listserv for stories about people helping people, the CMS Change Agent newsletter.)

A recent newsletter highlighted an initiative by successful Mexicans living in New York who have decided to offer practical support to poor immigrants from their homeland.

Tyler J. Kelly writes, “The view from Carlos Valverde’s 38th-floor office tells a story by itself – New York stretching below, the mighty skyscrapers of the World Trade Center rising all around.

“Mr. Valverde is the construction manager of the World Trade Center’s Tower Three, responsible for 2 million square feet of real estate, and the vista from his office is, in many ways, the realized vision of many immigrants’ dreams.

“From Brooklyn’s workaday Sunset Park, however, the view is quite different. There, at classes put on by a nonprofit, the Mixteca Organization, six to eight immigrants sit in folding chairs around plastic tables struggling to spell tarea, Spanish for ‘homework,’ or trying to understand the concept of the hundreds’ place in math. …

“In Mexican culture – both in Mexico and here in New York – there’s little tradition of people bridging these two worlds. But that is changing. Valverde is part of a slowly growing effort to bring the resources of New York’s Mexican-American 1 percent to bear on the problems of the 99 percent.

“The benefits for the immigrant community here are plain. Edgar Morales, for one, has gone from being a construction worker to getting a college education paid for by a Mexican philanthropist. He’s now a computer science major with dreams of interning at Google or Microsoft.

“But it has also changed Valverde, who volunteers at Mixteca in Sunset Park, and others like him. In Mexico, the wealthy travel with bodyguards and live in houses surrounded by electrified wire; in the US, some are reaching and gaining a new perspective.

“After spending hours talking with clients about every conceivable detail of an elevator’s interior, Valverde says, ‘I go to Sunset Park and talk to a graduate [at Mixteca] who just finished English 3 and is a baker.’

“Compared with the baker’s reality, he says, the elevator issues seem ‘minute, minuscule.’ ”

More here.

Photo: Ann Hermes/Christian Science Monitor
Carlos Valverde (standing outside 3 World Trade Center in New York) helps new, less affluent Mexican immigrants go to school and find work.

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Cushioning Worn-out Joints with Silk Cocoons

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 22, 2015| 2 Comments »

Andrew Joseph writes at the Globe’s new national health publication, Stat,  about the potential of silk worms to solve people’s joint problems.

“When Dr. Ailis Tweed-Kent was an internal medicine resident at Massachusetts General Hospital,” he writes, “she saw arthritis patients who were sometimes unable to work because of the pain. She could prescribe pain relievers, but she felt frustrated that there wasn’t more she could do. …

“In 2013, she founded Cocoon Biotech Inc. to come up with a way to treat the actual cause of arthritis, the loss of cartilage in joints. For the therapy, she turned to a biomaterial that has been used for thousands of years: silk. …

“What makes silk so special, researchers and entrepreneurs say, is its versatility, something that a synthetic material has not yet replicated. Silk has the added benefit of being naturally biocompatible, meaning it’s safe to use in the body.

” ‘It’s a simple protein, basically, and yet it’s all in the way it’s processed and used,’ said David Kaplan, chair of biomedical engineering at Tufts University, who has studied silk for more than two decades.

“Cocoon is one of a number of biotech companies that have licensed silk technology from Tufts. The microscopic spheres it has developed are meant to be injected into joints where they can lubricate the bones’ surfaces as a stand-in for lost cartilage.”

More here.

Photo: Aram Boghosian / Boston Globe
Silk worm cocoons at professor David Kaplan’s lab at Tufts in Medford.

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